Doggy Diarrhea: What to Do!

One of the most dreaded, common, canine maladies that hits with no warning in our house is doggy diarrhea. If your dog hasn't been attacked with it yet, don't celebrate because it will almost certainly happen at some point. Here are some ways to help prevent it and some tips to make it go away more quickly.

WHAT ARE SOME MAIN CAUSES FOR DIARRHEA IN DOGS?

• Stress of moving: When puppies move from their breeders to their new homes, they will often have diarrhea as a stress reaction as might older dogs when they are moved.

• Newborn puppies often get diarrhea when their mother's rich milk first comes in and they overeat.

  
  

• Fireworks: Often fireworks, thunderstorms, and other loud noises or loud places can cause anxiety and fear leading to diarrhea.

  
  

• Injury: An injury can cause the body to react with stress resulting in diarrhea.

  A mother dog will also frequently have diarrhea after whelping her puppies, often caused by the ingestion of the placentas.

  
  

• Antibiotics: While killing the bad bacteria, antibiotics can also kill off the good

bacteria causing diarrhea in the host.

• Switching too quickly to new food: When you switch foods, do so gradually with at least an old/new food ratio regimen of 2-3 days 75/25, 2-3 days of 50-50, and 2-3 days of 25/75 before you completely switch 100% to the new food.

  
  

• Table scraps: Most table scraps are not suitable for dogs because of the sodium, seasoning, and fat contents, upsetting the GI tract and causing gastritis and possible pancreatitis.

  
  

• Scavenging in the back yard: Dogs are typically scavengers and will go for any squirrel, lizard, rabbit, or injured bird that they can catch. Add that to the sticks, acorns, and pinecones they ingest and you're looking at a case of diarrhea.

  
  

• Raiding the kitchen trash: Much easier to find than the backyard treats are the leftovers, dirty cans, and discarded food tossed into the trash. Result: diarrhea plus a big trashy mess on the kitchen floor.

  
  

• Food sensitivities and allergies: Some dogs will react with diarrhea to food allergies and/or sensitivities. Others will scratch, lick, and chew on themselves.

  
  

• Ingesting foreign bodies: This list includes socks, rawhide chews, underwear, panty hose, and an inhaler all ingested just by the dogs of my former students. Oddly enough, ingesting these strange objects can cause blockage or diarrhea. If the items cannot be passed, surgery is necessary.

  
  

• Parasites and pathogens: Giardia, roundworms, hook worms, tapeworms, salmonella, E coli, parvo, colitis, and coccidia are just a few of the little monsters that would love to cause your fury friend to become ill. Stay current with shots and worming; plus make sure you know what your friend is putting into his mouth. It takes a vet to be able to diagnose these problems.

  
  

There are other more serious diseases that manifest themselves with diarrhea, but the majority of day-to-day cases can be summed up in the above list.

WHAT CAN I DO AT HOME TO HELP MY PET RECOVER MORE QUICKLY?

• Do not use any over the counter medications without vet's knowledge and approval. We use Kaolin Pectin (not the same thing as Kaopectate) for our mama dogs who almost always get diarrhea after whelping puppies. You can find this at Tractor Supply.

• We use Purina Fortiflora probiotics for our adult dogs when they have diarrhea. Our vet says that a healthy gut is a healthy pup, so we use Doc Roy's Synbiotics daily with all our adult dogs. Once, when an entire litter reacted with diarrhea to a worming, our vet told us to mix a slurry of Fortiflora and divide it among the litter. It did the trick within a day or two.

• Withhold food from your dog for 12-24 hours to give her stomach a rest. You cannot do this with a nursing mama or with puppies. The nursing mama can go 6-12 hours tops, but the pups are just too small, and their blood sugar will drop too low.

• When you start them back on food, give them a bland diet and slowly transition back to their normal food.

WHAT KIND OF BLAND DIET DO I GIVE?

• They need lean protein and starchy, easy to digest carbohydrates.

  Good lean protein includes boiled boneless, skinless chicken or turkey breast (chopped after boiling); lean ground beef (sirloin), ground turkey, ground chicken, drained well and rinsed with very hot water to get rid of grease; scrambled eggs or finely chopped hard-boiled eggs. You can also give them pureed meat baby food because it has no seasonings and is easy on the tummy.

Easy to digest carbohydrates are white rice, baby food rice cereal, plain cooked oatmeal, and boiled potato without skin or seasoning. Amazon carries a product called Diggin' Your Dog: Firm Up Pumpkin that is a dried pumpkin supplement that we give our dogs also. Although brown rice is more nutritious than white, the brown still has the bran and germ, making it more difficult to digest, so vets do not recommend it for a bland diet.

Be sure to add no seasoning to the boiling chicken water or to any of these products on the bland diet. If you wish to add chicken broth to the meal, make sure it is homemade without any seasoning because most store products have too much sodium and other seasonings (onion and garlic powder) that dogs should not have.

When do I call the vet?

With a puppy, do not wait longer than 24 hours because they can become dehydrated so quickly. (I usually call within 6 hours!) Also, their immune system is so immature that they are susceptible to more pathogens than an adult dog.

A healthy adult dog will probably be okay if you wait 24-48 hours before calling the vet. If there is vomiting, lethargy, blood or worms in the feces, or if the dog/puppy has a decreased appetite, contact your vet immediately.

When you do take your dog/puppy into the vet, bring in a fecal sample to help the vet determine more quickly what is and what isn't wrong with your pet. Do not place the fecal sample in the refrigerator. (Found that out after we had put it in the refrigerator, thinking we were preserving it!)

If the diarrhea is persistent, your vet will probably prescribe metronidazole, probiotics, anti-parasite treatments, or antibiotics, depending on what he finds.

Although it's distressing, messy, and sometimes scary, diarrhea is almost always from some simple cause and will clear up in a matter of days. For those more serious cases, have confidence in your vet to diagnose and treat your furry friend so she'll be back to her energetic best in no time!

by Nancy Miller

December 7, 2025