Treating Acute Diarrhea And Chronic Diarrhea in Dogs by David McCluggage, D.V.M., C.V.A.

Questions to consider:

• Has your dog recently been vaccinated?

• Has he been dipped for fleas?  If so, what was the solution used to dip him?

• Be aware of any and all chemicals in and around your home. These include: plug-in air fresheners, carpet fresheners, ant and roach killer (indoors or out) and lawn fertilizers.

• Has his food recently been switched to another brand?

• Have you checked the list of contaminated foods to make sure he is not being fed any of these:

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

• Is he taking any medication or taking a new medication that does not agree with him?  

 Diarrhea: My Dachshund has diarrhea, what can we do for her? Pepto Bismol may be given to your dog if she has diarrhea or an upset stomach. Read first the information below before administering any over the counter medications.

Dogs with healthy digestive systems should be able to eat a large variety of foods, including raw foods, without developing diarrhea. Dogs that need to eat special foods to keep from having diarrhea are not healthy. Don't ignore the symptoms by feeding hypoallergenic or bland diets. Find out what the problem is and fix it.

Also, do not allow your vet to give any vaccinations while your dog has any kind of issues with loose stools or is taking antibiotics. This can lead to long term health problems.

Dogs commonly develop acute diarrhea. Because we are all concerned about our dog's welfare, we often run them in to see the veterinarian at the first signs of diarrhea. This is usually not necessary, and often will end up being detrimental to the dog if antibiotics are needlessly prescribed. Chronic diarrhea is less common, but is more serious and will require more effort to correct. First, lets look at acute diarrhea.

Acute Diarrhea

Acute diarrhea is a process the body uses to heal itself, not a disease. Don't be alarmed if your dog is acting reasonably well. This healing reaction should be supported, using our suggestions, not inhibited by the use of antibiotics or over the counter drugs designed to stop diarrhea.

Acute diarrhea starts suddenly and lasts for a few days to a week or two. Most cases of acute diarrhea can be handled at home.

When do you need to take your dog to see the veterinarian? Look at how they are acting. Dogs that can be watched at home will act reasonably fine the whole time. They eat, drink, play, and have fairly normal energy. Of course, everyone with diarrhea will not feel 100% normal, so expect your dog to be a bit "off" until the diarrhea resolves.

Let's begin by defining what we mean when we say that a dog has diarrhea. Diarrhea, in the minds of many people, means a watery stool. Actually, the definition is much broader, and includes any abnormal stool that is softer than normal. This includes watery stools, straining and trying to defecate and only passing gas, soft-formed stools, soft stools with abnormal color or odor, and "cow pie" type stools.

In our canine friends, consumption of items found around their "world" is common. It is in the nature of a dog to eat many things we would never eat. Dogs are omnivores that are primarily carnivorous... with a touch of scavenger thrown in! This makes them prone to eat some things, both digestible and indigestible (for example, sticks and stones) that do not agree with them. The result: diarrhea.

They will commonly vomit a few times as well as have diarrhea, again, to clear their body of the unwanted toxins. Diarrhea purges the body of harmful or unwanted toxins, not a true "disease".

Dogs will naturally develop diarrhea as a means to return themselves to health. Acute diarrhea is usually a healthy, healing process, not a disease. So, now that we know that this is not a problem, and in fact it is a healthy reaction to help them heal themselves, what should we do?

Most cases are easy to treat at home and don't require a visit to the veterinarian. After all, we don't run to the doctor every time we have a touch of diarrhea.

Diarrhea may be of particular concern with small breeds such as the Schnauzer, Pekingese, Dachshund and Chihuahua where there is little body fluid reserves. When vomiting is also present, this may result in dehydration. An electrolyte imbalance (losing minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, etc.) or blood sugar depletion and increased density of the blood can create circulatory collapse and death.  Infectious agents - bacterial, viral, fungal, protozoal, parasitic infections and drugs and toxins all can be culprits in the creation of diarrhea in dogs and cats.

Signs of Dehydration

• The skin loses elasticity as it loses moisture. 
  This can be somewhat misleading since younger and fatter dogs will have more elasticity than older, thinner dogs.  It is important to have an idea of what your dog's skin looks and feels like on a normal basis.  Pinch a little skin between your thumb and forefinger on your dog's back.  When you release it, it should pop back into place immediately.  (You can try this on the back of your own hand as an example) As the tissue under the skin loses moisture, the skin moves back more slowly.  In extreme cases, the skin doesn't pop back.

• The eyes appear sunken and lack moisture. 

• The mouth appears dry. ... gums and nose are dry. 

• Darker, less frequent urination

• Delayed capillary refill time
  Pull up your dog's lip and look at his gums. Place your index finger firmly against the gums so that they appear white.  Remove your finger and see how quickly the blood returns to the gums (they will become pink in that area again). This is called Capillary Refill Time. If you do this when everything is normal, you will have a basis upon which to compare. The gums of a normal dog refill immediately,  the gums of a dehydrated dog could take 3 seconds or so to return to their pink state.

• Grayish skin

You never want your pet to get dehydrated so keep a close eye on him and if dehydration starts to occur, use the following formula to replenish their fluid level.

Re-hydrate Your Dog:

http://www.k911.biz/Petsafety/Dehydration.htm

Sudden Changes of Food

One of the most common causes of diarrhea and (and even mild GI upsets) is the ingestion of a food or substance not ordinarily consumed in the diet.  Sudden changes in the dog diet, such as switching to a different (and even better) brand of food can trigger diarrhea.  The usual reason for this sudden shift to watery, frequent stool passage relates to the imbalance within the GI flora that is triggered by new substrates on which the GI flora grow and reproduce. Change the "food source" for the intestinal flora and the numbers and combinations of bacteria that were previously living in harmony with one another are now shifted in all sorts of ways. Gas producing bacteria are called fermentative organisms and these are promoted by grain based (carbohydrate) substances such as corn and barley and wheat.  Putrefactive bacteria do not produce gas as readily as fermentative bacteria and these organisms are promoted by the feeding of meat based products such as chicken, beef, and lamb.

If your dog has diarrhea and seems to be reasonably strong, happy and active, simply follow these guidelines:

• Cut the amount of food you are feeding in half

• Feed home cooked bland diets; they are vastly superior to the commercial bland diets promoted by many veterinarians

When your dog should see the vet:

• Act very sick

• Is lethargic

• Shows bloating or abdominal pain

• Be feverish (Rectal temperatures above 103.5 degrees F)

• Be dehydrated (one way to try to decide if a dog is dehydrated is to feel his or her gums... if they feel dry or tacky, there may be dehydration present)

• Have persistent vomiting

• Be passing large amounts of blood in the stool

Chronic Diarrhea

Chronic diarrhea means:

• Diarrhea, with one or more of these symptoms:

  • Watery stools

  • Soft-Formed Stools

  • Mucus coated stools

  • Blood coated stools

  • A normal stool followed by a soft stool

• The diarrhea could be continual

• The diarrhea can also be off and on, with some good days followed by some bad days

• Your dog might act sick during the worst bouts of diarrhea, while other dogs might act normal the whole time

• As the problem continues, dogs can loose weight, develop a rough coat, become lethargic, or lack the zest for life they used to have

Long-standing diarrhea can become a severely debilitating disorder. Over time, the body loses valuable nutrients (maldigestion), becomes depleted of immune system functions, and becomes toxic (25% of the body's detoxification mechanism resides in the intestinal lining). This cycle of events damages the body's ability to repair itself. Secondary disorders often develop which worsen the prognosis. Because of the chronic damage to the rest of the body, there are not enough immune function and metabolic products to heal the intestines. Thus we have a cycle of deterioration that can be very hard to reverse.

Conventional medicine often fails to heal chronic diarrhea. Its approach tends to follow along a couple lines. First, the dog is fed foods that are extremely bland and easy to digest, often called "hypoallergenic diets".

This may help for a short time, but the body needs complex nutrients for optimal health - nutrients that are destroyed by the extreme processing employed in making commercial diets.

Secondly, conventional veterinary medicine relies on multiple courses of antibiotics, often combined with immune suppressive drugs (corticosteroids, for example). Unfortunately, many cases are only palliated, not cured, and over time the dog will worsen. This is an excellent example where holistic therapies can help cure your dog.

• The causes of chronic diarrhea include:

• Leaky Gut Syndrome

• Intestinal parasites, especially whipworms (tapeworms are usually harmless) and more rarely roundworms and coccidia.

• Giardia, Clostridium, bacteria (these are usually secondary infections, see also Paraguard for treatment of Giardia)

• Food Allergies (this is usually secondary to the Leaky Gut Syndrome)

• Inflammatory Bowel Disease

• Irritable Bowel Syndrome

• Chronic digestion of foods and indigestible objects such as rocks and sticks

• Organic diseases such as liver disease, thyroid disease and kidney disease

• Dysbiosis (a relatively permanent alteration from a normal intestinal microbial flora to an abnormal bacterial, fungal or protozoal population)

GIARDIA  is a tiny parasite which can cause true diarrhea and flatulence. To read more about this parasite, click here.

Vomiting Dog - Common Causes both Chronic & Acute

If your dog displays any of the following symptoms, do NOT attempt to treat him at home but have him examined by a veterinarian immediately.

• Vomits more than a few times and the vomit is ejected extremely forcefully.

• If there is blood in the vomit or obvious abdominal pain.

• If your dog seems particularly depressed or weak, has a fever, or retches unproductively.

• If he has been vomiting for more than 24 hours.

A few things that might cause a dog to vomit are listed below:

Diet

•  Eating scraps, garbage or dead animals.

•  Food reaction (Sensitive system, eating something they are not used to.)

•  True food allergy

Parasites

•  Intestinal (including Giardia)

•  Gastric (Physaloptera)

Drug related problems

•  Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS) must always be considered.

•  Other drugs (e.g., cardiac glycosides, antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents)

Metabolic disorders

•  Renal disease

•  Liver disease

•  Electrolyte abnormalities

It seems to be caused most often by irritation of the stomach, called simple gastritis. The OTC medications listed below should help relieve your dog's vomiting provided it is not something serious. Choose ONE medication and dose according to the label for a CHILD.

Pepto-Bismol can be given. Give one teaspoon per 20 pounds of weight every four to six hours.

Kaopectate is helpful for digestive troubles. Give one teaspoon of Kaopectate for each ten pounds of weight every four hours.

Di Gel Liquid can be given up to 4 tbs. every 8 hours.

Maalox can be given up to 4 tbs. every 8 hours.

Antacid liquids for humans containing aluminum and/or magnesium hydroxide may help soothe the irritated stomach lining; however, the most important part of treatment is fasting! (Dose aluminum hydroxide antacids to provide 10mg per pound [22 mg/kg] of body weight every six hours.) If vomiting is present with diarrhea, drugs containing bismuth subsalicylate are best.

Water should be offered only in small amounts but frequently in order to combat the tendency to dehydrate that accompanies vomiting. Large amount of food or water distend the already irritated stomach and usually cause vomiting to recur. An easy way to have water available in small portions is to place ice cubes in the water bowl and allow the dog to drink the liquid that accumulates as the cubes melt.