If you’re a dog owner, you’ve most likely dealt with doggy runs. Whether they keep you up all night going out every hour, or they leave you a little something extra special on the rug when you come home, you might be interested in this home-remedy to help speed up your dog’s recovery to firm stools that make for easier clean-ups.
What causes diarrhea?
When something irritates your pup’s gut, their body is attempting to expel the irritant or toxin, so regulated bowel movements - peristalsis - increase dramatically. Contents of the intestines move at a much faster rate, which doesn’t allow for normal removal of fluid from the bowel, leaving a wet, watery mess.
Causes of diarrhea include:
- eating indigestible substances such as garbage and decayed food;
- eating dead animals, too much grass, certain plants, and pieces of plastic, wood, paper, or other foreign materials;
- switching your dog’s food suddenly;
- feeding your dog something they’re allergic to, like certain proteins, animal fat, by-products, corn, dairy, and wheat;
- eating too much protein or fat-rich food;
- stress, a sudden move, or anxiety;
- Antibiotics
- parasites (giardia is common in dogs). If your dog seems to get diarrhea on a regular basis (say, every 3 weeks), bring a stool sample into your vet’s office to check for parasites.
- IBS or IBD causes chronic diarrhea.
Try our home remedy
As soon as you notice that your dog’s digestive system is in distress, pull them off of any foods altogether and make sure that they don’t have access to kibble (even their usual diet). Instead, make them a mix of pumpkin and browned ground turkey or lower fat (lean or extra lean) ground beef - higher fat content is irritating to sensitive guts. You can use mashed sweet potato too! Pumpkin is very soothing to the GI tract and feeds the good bacteria. It’s a great source of fibre to help bulk up stool. How much you feed depends on the size of your dog.
IMPORTANT: too much pumpkin can actually cause diarrhea (because of the fiber), so don’t overdo it! 1-2 tbsp per feeding for large dogs and 1-2 tsp per feeding for small dogs.
Give them the pumpkin/ground meat mixture twice a day after your dog. The diarrhea should be resolved on this day. Sometimes he will be constipated for a day or 2 after a diarrhea bout, so continue with the mixture and slowly add kibble back into their meals. Pumpkin works great for constipation too!