According to surveys by the national Veterinary group, canine diarrhea is the third most common problem they treat in their offices. If this has ever hit your dog, you know how much this can disrupt your daily life. Stomach problems in dogs can come from too much bacteria in their intestinal system tract, or just from you giving them too much food or snacks. The more serious cases can include bloating or even stomach cancer.
If your dog’s problems are mild and he is not vomiting or showing lack of appetite, you might be able to handle everything yourself. And here’s some tips you might be able to use if your dog has diarrhea. But if your little dog is vomiting or showing blood in his feces, you need to put him in the car and drive directly to the vet’s office.
Loose bowels, diarrhea, and other stomach ailments can sometimes simply be the result of changes in dog food, allergies, chomping up table scraps, or eating from the trash outside. Other causes might involve parasites such as worms that cause a bacterial overgrowth or imbalance in the stomach.
If you see worms in your dog’s feces, either spaghetti looking or rice like in appearance, you can get an OTC de-wormer medicine and this might just do the trick. However, certain parasites like Giardia and other non-visible worms are not easily treated by dewormers. This will result in continuous stomach problems and further loose bowel movements. In cases like these, you must bring samples of your dog’s excrement to the vet’s office so he or she can run the right tests.
You could even handle (if you feel up to it) your dog’s mild stomach problems simply by not feeding your dog for 24 hours. This with the assumption that all else is normal with your dog’s health, with the exception of the loose stool.
After a day of no food at all for your dog, give him or her a meal made of boiled hamburger, chicken and white rice with all the fat drained off of the meat. Feed your dog 5 or 6 small portions a day until the bowel movements normalize and the stool turns back to normal consistency. Sometimes, the vet would recommend small bits of yogurt so that beneficial bacteria can grow safely in the dog’s stomach.
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