What Causes Diarrhea in Dogs?
Diarrhea is one of the most common presenting complaints of pet parents bringing their sick dog to our Indianapolis veterinary clinic. While many times we can’t diagnose the cause, there are a few times we can, and those are important.
WHAT CAUSES DIARRHEA IN PUPPIES
PARVO
Parvo is a very contagious viral diarrhea of young, unvaccinated puppies. Parvovirus attacks rapidly dividing cells like those that line the intestines and those that fight infections. So not only does parvo cause severe bloody dog diarrhea it also makes puppies susceptible to bacterial infection. Dog diarrhea caused by parvo is often profound and debilitating, requiring intensive care hospitalization.
Untreated, survival from parvo is less than 25%. With intensive veterinary care, including several days (and hundreds of dollars worth) of intensive care, including a parvo antibody treatment, antibiotics and fluids, survival can approach 90%.
Parvo is easily prevented with a series of cheap, VERY effective vaccines. As long as a puppy drinks their mother’s milk within the first 12 to 24 hours after birth, most puppies receive a dose of antibodies from the mother that protects the puppy against parvo for the first 2 to 3 months of life. Starting at between 6 to 8 weeks then, we give parvo vaccine, boostering the vaccine every 3 weeks until the dog is at least 16 weeks old, and ideally 18 to 20 weeks.
WORMS
Common veterinary intestinal parasites in Indiana include roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, tapeworms, Giardia and coccidia. All of these can be detected through routine screening of a stool sample, so it’s often critically important that you bring a stool sample with you to every dog diarrhea appointment.
SEPARATING FACT AND FICTION ABOUT DIARRHEA IN PUPPIES
FICTION: “Parvo has a distinctive smell”
FACT: Oh, if only life were that simple. The scent generally associated with parvo is caused by blood in the stool. Dogs with bloody stool because of hookworms have exactly the same smell. MORE IMPORTANTLY, if a puppy is diagnosed with Parvo BEFORE there is blood in the stool, the chance of treatment being effective is MUCH GREATER. Did you know there’s now an antibody treatment for Parvo that works best if we catch it soon enough?
FICTION: “I don’t see any worms in her poop”
FACT: Adult worms want to stay inside the body. The only time you see part of a worm outside the body is either if a) the worm excreted part of its body on purpose – like the crawling egg sacs of the dog tapeworm, which are not really the worm itself, only bags of eggs, or b) if the entire worm is dead and passes in the stool because of deworming!
Roundworm, hookworm and whipworm adults stay in the body, and release only MICROSCOPIC EGGS in the stool, that can only be found by sending the poop to the lab. Giardia and coccidia aren’t even really worms, they themselves are microscopic organisms.
Just because you don’t see anything in the poop doesn’t mean your dog doesn’t have worms.
FICTION: “My breeder dewormed my puppy”
FACT: Most worms take about 3 weeks to develop from an egg into an adult, and all dewormers kill only the adults. So first of all, puppies require a SERIES of dewormings to make sure we get any worm that was still an egg on the day of presentation. More importantly though, the yellow stuff breeders give puppies, that they got from the feed store, is effective against only roundworms and hookworms, and only if given in series, but doesn’t treat whipworms, giardia, tapeworms or coccidia, any of which can make a puppy sick.
There are MANY other types of worms besides the ones most breeders deworm for.
FICTION: “Parvo is the only potentially deadly diarrhea disease of puppies. If it’s not parvo, your dog will be fine”
FACT: I have seen dogs bleed out from hookworm infestation. I have seen them starve because of overwhelming roundworms. I have seen them develop debilitating, dehydration inducing illness and death from coccidia.
FICTION: “Blood in a dog’s stool is really bad, isn’t it?! He must be REALLY sick!”
FACT: This one is a little counter intuitive. I want to make it clear that BLOOD IN THE STOOL DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN PARVO. Obviously, I don’t want to belittle bloody stool as a veterinary symptom because sometimes it’s really, REALLY bad news. However, dogs and cats have a peculiar habit of dripping little bits of blood from their rectum after prolonged episodes of diarrhea. Stress on the colon, straining, inflammation present within the diarrhea laden intestines contribute to this, but in general, I’m much less worried about the three drops of blood, and much more worried about what caused the diarrhea in the first place and how to make it stop.
Blood in the stool of an adult, vaccinated dog typically does not cause me to panic.
WHAT CAUSES DIARRHEA IN DOGS
STRESS
(including ‘garbage guts’, food poisoning, and emotional stress) Stress in dogs, be it from anxiety, or too much excitement – either good stress or bad stress – causes a change in the normal intestinal bacteria, or “normal flora” in the gut. The diarrhea from those flora changes can look just like food poisoning from bacteria like Salmonella and E. coli.
A dog’s normal intestinal bacterial flora is used to digesting one type of food. Any change in what you feed those bacteria can cause diarrhea and a change in the bacterial population. When the population of bacteria changes, then, a dog might no longer be able to properly digest the same diet she used to. Diarrhea from an intestinal bacterial shift can last days or even weeks.
Veterinarians “reset” the normal intestinal flora in dogs with two steps: Probiotics – that repopulate the gut with friendly bacteria Prescription intestinal food – that the above probiotic bacteria can easily digest.
Antibiotics used to be part of this. Current guidelines recommend against them for most diarrhea, because they can disrupt the gut bacteria for months, so we save them for dogs that are seriously ill.
NATURAL HOME REMEDIES FOR DIARRHEA IN DOGS
Antibiotics? Nope, these are prescription drugs, and most diarrhea doesn’t need them anyway. Please do not try to order antibiotics online. Sorry!
Probiotics? These can sometimes be purchased from pet stores, but are often less effective than veterinary supplements that use proprietary strains of bacteria.
Yogurt? Nope. Dogs aren’t little humans in fur coats. The typical bacterial strains in yogurt that are good for human digestion are not the best bacteria for dog digestion. They’re better than nothing, mind you, but they’re not the best.
Imodium? Pepto Bismol? Nope. Do not give your dog any human medications without direct veterinary discussion.
Bland diet? YES – this is where you can really help at home! Most veterinarians will recommend a very common bland diet, consisting of cooked rice, and a fat free protein like fat free cottage cheese, or cooked skinless boneless chicken breast, or boiled 95% fat free ground beef.
DO NOT FEED BLAND DIET FOR MORE THAN 48 hours without a veterinary consultation, since ongoing diarrhea can lead to dehydration.
When should you take a dog with diarrhea to the vet?
Great question! Ideally, you should at least phone your veterinarian to notify them of your dog’s problem immediately, even if you don’t intend to rush your pet in. Reason being, we can document the problem, keep track of frequency of the problem, and guide you with personalized advice.
Take your diarrhea dog to the vet immediately if… Your dog is a puppy, or isn’t fully vaccinated. Your dog is otherwise happy and tail wagging, but diarrhea continues more than 48 hours. Your dog acts sick along with the diarrhea – lethargy, decreased appetite, vomiting There is more than a few spots of blood (some dogs will pass a few drops of blood from straining that aren’t a big deal – use common sense and your best judgement here) Your dog has a fever (normal body temperature is up to 102.5F)
If you are concerned about dog diarrhea in your beloved pet, please call your friends at Leo’s Pet Care immediately at (317) 721-7387 and we will guide you!