How do you treat dog diarrhea and when should you go see a veterinarian?

Original Question: How many days of loose stool movements should you wait before bringing a dog to the vet? - Anonymous

Mar 1, 2018

TRANSCRIPT:

With your pet, what you can do is maybe you can go to your local food supply store or pet store and get a probiotic. That’s basically not an antibiotic, it’s not a drug that kills bacteria, it’s a probiotic so its seeds the gut with good bacteria, it’s natural and it’s very helpful and it will resolve diarrhea in a lot of cases so you could try that first. The other thing that’s good about diarrhea and treating it is, remember the more you feed them, the more diarrhea you’re going to have so you want to give them a break from food because when they have diarrhea our intestine is made up of all these little villi and it’s really the tips that are most absorptive and when there’s a problem going on, a lot of these villi are blunted, so any food that’s coming through is going to shoot right through and it doesn’t get absorbed. So sometimes when you have diarrhea, you want to stop food for about one to two meals and let these things kind of grow back. Then when you give them food, give them a small amount a little bit more frequently. If you give them a large amount of food, some of it might get absorbed but the rest is going to be diarrhea. So you want to implement refeeding very, very slowly, small meals more often and using things like three parts rice to one part boiled skinless chicken or you can switch the rice for a boiled potato, you can switch the chicken for low fat or no fat cottage cheese. These are diets that are easier on the gut to digest and you could try that.

So you can try things at home but the second your pet starts to become more lethargic, just not the dog or cat you know, then that’s when you really want to go into the veterinarian and seek advice. And just like these answers, they’re to be used in conjunction with a physical exam and consultation with your vet because they know your pet the best from a medical standpoint. The only person who knows it more is yourself. But I really appreciate the question coming in, keep them coming and thanks for visiting healthcareforpets.com where we’re dedicated to your pet’s health.