There are several factors that can cause a dog to have diarrhea, although it is generally due to a poor diet or a sudden change in it.
If your dog is defecating softer than normal, even having liquid or pasty feces, you will surely be experiencing intestinal irritation. Let’s see how to treat it and some tips to avoid it in the future.
Index of contents
- 1 When is a dog considered to have diarrhea?
- 2 Why does diarrhea occur in a dog?
- 3 Reasons why a dog has diarrhea
- 3.1 Diarrhea from eating
- 3.2 Diarrhea due to poisoning
- 3.3 Diarrhea due to parasites
- 3.4 Diarrhea caused by illness
- 4 How to cure diarrhea in a dog?
- 5 Symptoms that should alert us
When is a dog considered to have diarrhea?
Quite contrary to what many people think, loose stools not synonymous with a problem in our dog. It is totally normal for a dog to make loose stools.
It is the manufacturers of dog food that generally add too many astringent ingredients that cause our dog to make hard or very hard stools. Something that is obviously unnatural.
- Normal color and texture of a dog’s feces
We must consider that our dog has diarrhea, when its feces are pasty or liquid continuously. If it occurs only once, it should not be given much importance if other symptoms such as loss of appetite, apathy, fever or general discomfort are not appreciated.
Why does diarrhea occur in a dog?
Diarrhea itself is a symptom, that is, something that is indicating that our dog has a digestive problem, caused by food, disease or intestinal or external parasites.
A change in microbiota (intestinal flora) can produce an irritation in the intestines leading to diarrhea. Generally, in addition to this, the small intestine reduces the absorption of water from digested food, leading to liquid or pasty diarrhea.
Reasons why a dog has diarrhea
Although there are countless causes capable of causing diarrhea or excessively soft stools, we will review which are the most frequent causes.
Diarrhea from eating
Dogs have a very sensitive intestinal flora (microbiota) and a sudden change in diet can cause intestinal irritation.
Low-quality food tcan also cause digestive problems that lead to more or less frequent diarrhea.
Eating foods that you are not used to can also cause spoilage.
Diarrhea due to poisoning
We refer to food poisoning that occurs when our dog eats a food not suitable for him, such as dairy products with lactose, chocolate, toxic food for dogs how grapes, etc …
Also licking the floor that we have previously scrubbed with water and some cleaning product (floor scrub), can cause our dog to become intoxicated.
Diarrhea due to parasites
Intestinal parasites develop very quickly in our dog’s intestine, causing severe irritation that results in the decomposition of feces.
That is why it is super important to avoid that our dog smells, licks or eats the feces of other animals and also, keep it well dewormed with the guidelines and medication that our vet prescribes.
- Intestinal parasites in dogs
Diarrhea caused by illness
There are many diseases that as a symptom have episodes of diarrhea in our dogs. Some of them are easy to treat like depression, while others are really serious, like depression. canine parvovirus, ulcers or IBD.
How to cure diarrhea in a dog?
As long as it is due to nutritional causes and our dog does not present any other symptom that makes us suspect that it could be something more serious, we can follow these steps :
- I fast for twenty-four hours, always leaving fresh and clean water available to our dog.
- After the twenty-four-hour fast, start with a soft, highly digestible, low-fat diet, in small portions, every five to six hours.
- If everything evolves favorably, incorporate the regular diet of our dog gradually after four or five days with a soft diet.
- How to make a soft dog diet
IMPORTANT: If your dog is still a puppy, you should go to the vet to be examined. Puppies are extremely sensitive.
Symptoms that should alert us
An episode of diarrhea is something common in dogs, something that will generate abdominal discomfort in our dog but that we can treat if it is not serious.
Although if we appreciate some more symptoms, apart from loose stools, or diarrhea does not subside after 24 hours, we should immediately go to a vet.
These are some of the symptoms that should concern us:
- Diarrhea accompanied by vomiting
- Blood in the stool or vomiting
- Fever
- Apathy
- Not drink water
- Mucus stools
However, from Dogsis always we recommend that you go to your vet to make sure that it is not serious or that it requires specific treatment. The guidelines indicated in this article are exclusively informative for mild cases of diarrhea.