According to surveys made by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the third most common problem that veterinarians treat among dogs that are brought to them is canine diarrhea. 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 doggy’s tummy problems are not showing up with vomiting and/or lack of appetite, the problem might be mild and you can handle it yourself. We’ve got some tips you might find helpful if your dog has loose bowel movements. 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.
Stomach problems and loose bowel movements in dogs may just be a side effect of simple causes like a change in dog food, an allergy to a certain food, indiscriminate gobbling of table scraps, and uncontrolled raiding of the trash bin where your always hungry friend might eat something that is not acceptable to his stomach. Other reasons for this might involve worms that can make bacteria grow in your dog’s intestinal tract.
If worms are present in your dog’s tool (its gross to think about, but you have to look for these) like spaghetti-like roundworms or rice-like tapeworms, an over-the-counter dewormer can be purchased and these meds usually would be enough to do the trick. But, some parasites like Giardia are not easily treated by pet owners. 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.
