How to Treat Diarrhea in Dogs Naturally

Diarrhea is a common disease in dogs. Many cases of diarrhea are not serious and can be resolved with proper care at home. With the right treatment, diarrhea will easily be resolved and without complications, so you won’t have to take your dog to the vet clinic. However, the dog should be taken to the doctor if the diarrhea is too severe.

Table of Contents

Treating Dog Diarrhea Through Diet

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Do not feed your dog for 12-24 hours. Food in the intestines causes contractions of the intestinal wall to push food through the intestinal tract. If the dog has diarrhea, the contractions will occur stronger, so the food will be pushed out more quickly in the form of liquid stool. Abstaining from food for 12-24 hours will help soothe and normalize the activity of the intestinal tract in a sensitive state.

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Give your dog clean water to drink. ^{[1] X Research Resources <i>Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Ettinger. Publisher: Saunders</i>} During the fasting period, you need to give your dog clean and cool water to drink. You should look at the water bowl to see if the dog is drinking or not. Drinking enough water helps your dog reduce the risk of dehydration.

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Give your dog a light meal after the fasting period is over. After the fasting period, you MUST NOT return the dog to its normal diet immediately. Instead, give your dog foods that are easy to digest.

The ideal paleo diet is one that is free of fat and red meat.
Feed your dog chicken, but it must be unseasoned chicken. Only the meat should be given to the dog, and the chicken skin should be avoided.
Combine chicken with steamed rice, pasta, or mashed potatoes.
Avoid milk and dairy products as many dogs are lactose intolerant and lead to diarrhea. Mashed potatoes for dogs also must not contain butter.
Bland foods only help with diarrhea (and make the stools a greenish-gray color) and your dog’s poop won’t be completely normal right away. You should wait for the poop condition to improve and show your dog’s recovery.

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Apply the diet recommended by your veterinarian. If your dog can’t eat bland foods prepared at home, you can ask your veterinarian to prescribe a diet that will help heal the stomach. Certain diets such as Hills ID and Purina EN have been shown to promote recovery from diarrhea in dogs.

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Resize servings. ^{[2] X Research Resources <i>Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Ettinger. Publisher: Saunders</i>} Smaller meals are less likely to cause intestinal irritation and spasms. After the fasting period, the amount of food the dog eats a day should be equivalent to the normal diet. However, you should divide it into four smaller portions and feed your dog throughout the day. Smaller portions help prevent recurrent diarrhea.

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Slowly feed your dog back to normal. Once the diarrhea has subsided, you can start feeding your dog back to normal. However, a normal dog diet should not be immediately introduced because the intestines need time to recover. It is recommended to give the dog a bland food for 2 days to ensure the end of the diarrhea. The next 2 days will be the time to gradually transition to a normal diet through the following methods:

Mix ⅔ bland food with ⅓ regular food.
Switch to mixing ⅓ bland food with ⅔ regular food for the next day.
Dogs can eat normally again on day 3.

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Use probiotics. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria for digestion, helping dogs recover from diarrhea. Probiotics can be lost when dogs have diarrhea. After that it takes a while for the production of probiotics to return and improve digestive performance. Probiotic supplements help increase the number of beneficial bacteria. In general, you can mix probiotics with food and feed your dog 1 time per day, for 5 days in a row.

The natural bacteria in the dog’s gut are different from the good bacteria in the human gut. Therefore, you should not give your dog human probiotics.
Many probiotics for dogs are available without a prescription from a veterinarian, pharmacist, or major pet store.

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Do not give your dog anti-diarrheal medicine intended for humans. The steps above will help treat mild diarrhea in dogs. On the other hand, giving your dog medication that reduces bowel movements can lead to a potentially serious problem, and by the time it’s discovered it’s too late. If the initial symptoms do not improve after 2-3 days of applying the above methods, you should take your dog to the veterinary clinic. ^{[3] X Research Resources <i>Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Ettinger. Publisher: Saunders</i>}

Deciding whether or not to take your dog to the vet

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Determine if your dog has ingested dangerous foods. Diarrhea is usually caused by a dog ingesting something that should not be eaten. In most cases, dogs can be healthy again after excreting the food.

However, you should bring your dog to the veterinarian immediately if you find that your dog has ingested toxic items such as rat poison or household cleaning products.

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Take the dog’s temperature. Simple diarrhea is rarely accompanied by fever. Fever indicates that the dog is suffering from some kind of infection/infection. To take your dog’s temperature, you need to ask someone to keep the dog still by inserting the push arm under the dog’s belly and pulling the dog’s hind legs towards the chest. Next, the person must use the other hand to fix the dog’s chin. Gently restrain and coo to the dog if it wiggles. Put a muzzle on your dog if you are afraid the dog will bite you during the temperature measurement.

Lubricate the thermometer, then lift the tail and gently insert the thermometer into the dog’s anus. For female dogs, you should avoid mistakenly inserting the thermometer into the vulva just below the anus.
The thermometer should not be pushed hard to avoid injury to the dog.
After the thermometer signal is completed, you can pull out the thermometer to read the result.
Normal temperature is around 38-39 degrees Celsius.
A temperature of 39.7 degrees Celsius or higher means that your dog has a fever. ^{[4] X Research Resources <i>Small Animal Internal Medicine. Nelson & Couto. Publisher: Mosby</i>}

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Note when the dog has diarrhea accompanied by vomiting. ^{[5] X Research Resources <i>Small Animal Internal Medicine. Nelson & Couto. Publisher: Mosby</i>} Vomiting combined with diarrhea is often dangerous because dogs will be twice as dehydrated. This puts the dog in a position of severe dehydration and is even more worrisome if the dog is unable to drink and tolerate water. If this is the case, you should take your dog to the doctor right away.

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Check for dehydration. ^{[6] X Research Resources <i>Small Animal Internal Medicine. Nelson & Couto. Publisher: Mosby</i>} The essence of diarrhea is that stools contain large amounts of liquid. If diarrhea is excessive and cannot be rehydrated in time, the dog will become dehydrated. Dehydration reduces blood supply to organs like the liver or kidneys and causes potential damage.

To check for dehydration, you can lift the skin of your dog’s nape off the shoulder blades, then release.
If the nape of the neck returns to the correct position relative to the shoulder blades, the dog’s skin is sufficiently hydrated.
If the dog is dehydrated, the skin will be less elastic and it will take a few seconds or longer to return to its proper state.

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Check for diarrhea with blood. ^{[7] X Research Source <i>Small Animal Internal Medicine. Nelson & Couto. Publisher: Mosby</i>} Diarrhea with blood indicates inflammation or bleeding. Inflammation is only uncomfortable, but bleeding can be life-threatening. You can’t tell the difference between inflammation and bleeding at home, so get your dog checked out immediately if there’s blood in the dog’s stool.

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Observe if the dog is lethargic, lethargic, or depressed. ^{[8] X Research Resources <i>Small Animal Internal Medicine. Nelson & Couto. Publisher: Mosby</i>} Dogs with mild diarrhea can still stay awake. If your dog has diarrhea but his eyes are clear and alert, you should watch him carefully to prevent the development of the above symptoms. You can manage the problem on your own and don’t need to see a doctor.

However, if your dog appears lifeless, lethargic, unstable, or worse, depressed, you should take him to the vet.

Advice

When you go to the vet, it’s a good idea to bring a fresh stool sample with you so that the vet can conduct a fecal floater and smear test.
Some dogs do not respond positively to canned food. Therefore, you should consider feeding your dog a premium dry food or mixing canned food with dry food.

Warning

Diarrhea with mucus indicates an irritable bowel. Worms, live pig hearts and certain diseases can cause mucus in the stool.
During the treatment of diarrhea, you should not give your dog foods that they have never eaten.
The transition to dog food should be done slowly to avoid worsening illness and diarrhea.
Green diarrhea with green stools in puppies can be caused by coccidiosis. You should take your dog to the doctor immediately if your dog has this condition.
Diarrhea with very loose stools in puppies can be life-threatening if not taken to a veterinary clinic right away.

Steps

Treating Dog Diarrhea Through Diet

Deciding whether or not to take your dog to the vet

Advice

Warning

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