Oh no. Your best friend has another bout of dog diarrhea, and you feel awful for them. Do you go to the nearest emergency animal hospital? Offer them human medications to treat diarrhea? Find specially formulated dog foods to keep chronic diarrhea away? We have answers for your pup’s diarrhea, and the good news is that diarrhea in dogs doesn’t have to be life.
Diarrhea is basically watery, loose stools that are difficult to clean up. It’s also a sign your dog is having digestive issues and needs help to feel better. If you’re dealing with diarrhea in dogs, you need to get to the cause of it pretty quickly.
Finding the cause of your diarrhea in dogs
Diarrhea can happen suddenly (or worse, explosively!) and your dog’s bowel movements can go from nice and firm to watery diarrhea in no time. Sometimes treating diarrhea in dogs is as easy as going back to your dog’s regular food (if you recently changed it). Sometimes a dog’s upset tummy means the dog’s poop is not going to be what a healthy dog’s gut would produce, and you may even consider giving the dog human medications to prevent any more cases of dog diarrhea. (Giving a dog human medications without your vet advising you to do so is never a great idea, so dog owners need to be sure they’ve consulted with a vet before doing so, especially when it comes to small dogs. A dog’s stomach is sensitive, and you may make the dog’s upset tummy even worse as you’re trying to treat diarrhea, so check with your vet always.)
Common reasons your dog has diarrhea (mild diarrhea or acute diarrhea)
- Change in dog food or eating specially formulated dog foods or going back to regular food
- Low-quality dog food ingredients
- Food allergies
- Bacterial or viral infections
- Parasites
- Anxiety and stress
- Eating garbage
- Eating human foods
- Drinking dirty water that’s contaminated
- Toxins
- Medication
- Metabolic issues like kidney disease
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
The Best Ways to help stop diarrhea in your dog:
- Consult with a veterinarian. Frequent diarrhea may be a sign your dog is coming into contact or consuming something on a regular basis that causes diarrhea. Consulting with a veterinarian will help pinpoint the cause and offer advice regarding treatment. Sometimes they’ll just recommend watching the dog’s bowel movements and seeing if the diarrhea resolves on its own. When it comes to treating diarrhea in dogs, a lot depends on whether it’s sudden diarrhea or mild diarrhea that goes away once your dog’s gut has cleared out whatever was upsetting it in the first place. If you deal with dog diarrhea for more than 24 hours, you should let the vet know so they can be sure there’s nothing more serious going on.
- Consider withholding food or giving smaller, bland portions after a fasting period. If your dog had a mild dietary indiscretion, you may see the diarrhea resolve rather quickly. However, it isn’t a bad idea to give your dog small portions or even hold off on food for a bit to let their digestive tract have a break. Hydration is key when your dog has diarrhea, so make sure they have access to as much fresh water as they’ll drink.After a little bit of fasting, introduce a bland diet. This often includes plain cooked white rice and chicken, or sometimes even some pumpkin to battle the mild intestinal distress. It’s not advised to offer pumpkin pie filling, as there’s often additional things dogs don’t need for their digestive tract, but sometimes the vet will recommend canned plain pumpkin. With your vet’s advice, gradually reintroduce normal food over a few days.
- Probiotics. Probiotics can help to restore the balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut, which is often what’s going on if your dog has two or more bouts of dog diarrhea. Sometimes pet owners will plain, unsweetened natural yogurt the food, but it’s really best to be sure the probiotics are spore hardy and able to withstand the harsh stomach acids your dog produces.
- Improve your dog’s diet. Take a good look at your dog’s diet and remove any unhealthy foods and treats. Avoid feeding your dog table scraps or human food that is considered unhealthy for your dog. Also, make sure you don’t leave chocolate and other toxic foods in places where your dog can reach them without you knowing. Keep in mind a sudden change of food can also cause nighttime diarrhea in dogs too, and that’s never fun!
Bernie’s Perfect Poop Can Help Diarrhea In Dogs
The great news is you can help your dog’s diarrhea with a high-fiber supplement like Bernie’s Perfect Poop. It’s our all-natural supplement for dogs that contains pumpkin, flax seed, and Miscanthus grass. These combined ingredients support a healthy digestive system that helps prevent diarrhea. It also includes healthy, spore-hardy and gram-negative pre- and probiotics, and digestive enzymes that may help heal the gut conditions that led to your dog’s diarrhea. Bernie’s Perfect Poop supplement is created not only to help stop diarrhea but prevent it in the future, because it focuses on overall health and immunity.
Not to mention, dogs find the taste delicious, so it’s easy to help stop chronic diarrhea in dogs with every meal!
