Ok, so you just got home after a fabulous time out on the town, and your house smells like a kennel. Soft to liquid, brown to yellow, stinky diarrhea is everywhere, especially on your new, expensive white carpet!
Your sweet little dog is crouched in a corner looking very guilty. He’s sure he’s in trouble, and is trying to look very “small”.
You wonder, was it that trip yesterday to the dog park lake where he was swimming and drinking the water, or was it the pork roast he stole off your counter when you went to answer the phone? Or is it because you switched from his old familiar kibble to a new, much more expensive dog food that had krill oil in it and sounded really good?
What are the steps you should take?
- First, collect a sample of the poo (as best you can) that you can take to the vets for analysis. If your pet got into some “bad” water, as it might have at the dog park, then it might have picked up giardia or another infection that may need to be treated with an antibiotic. Different infections need different antibiotics, so it’s a good idea to test to find out what the infection is and what the appropriate antibiotic is to use to treat it.
- How to take the sample? Use a plastic baggie and invert it over your hand and then using the bag, collect some of the poo, as much as you can, up to about 2 tablespoons, then invert the bag back over your hand and seal it. Put it inside another cleaner bag, and put in your refrigerator until you can take to the vets. If the diarrhea is liquid, you can take a kitchen spoon and try to collect some of the liquid diarrhea and place that inside the plastic baggie, which you will then put inside a cleaner plastic baggie and store in the refrigerator until you can get it to the vets.
- Comfort your dog, tell it that its OK. If you don’t catch your pet in the act of “going” it will have no idea what you are so upset about if an hour later you suddenly reprimand them. Our pets really live in the moment, so if its not in front of their nose at that moment, they can’t relate.
- Clean up the mess. Remove the “big pieces” with a kitchen spatula that you can use to separate the poo from the floor or flooring. I find that a warm washcloth in a bowl of warm soapy water works the best when it comes to getting the poo out of the carpet or other absorbent material. Certainly if you can wash it that is the best.
- The first thing to do for your dog is not to feed it any more. Its digestive system is saying that it has had enough. A little rest for the GI tract can be a good thing. This is where the 24 hour liquid fast begins.
- This link to my post on the best food for pets with diarrhea contains the information about fasting your pet and about staring it back on certain foods to begin with that will help to firm up the stool.
- Once you are feeding the white rice balls with baby food, you can mix into them supplements to help your dog’s riled up bowel to heal. These are the supplements I recommend for your pet’s diarrhea:
- RxClay™ by RxVitamin’s for Pets is a formula I was responsible for creating. It contains a type of clay called: Montmorillonite that has been tested to be free of heavy metal contamination without free sodium. This clay was used in a study of dogs with cancer and on chemotherapy who had diarrhea, some for as long as a month, and all of the conventional antibiotics and therapeutics didn’t work. RxClay worked with in 72 hours in 65% of these dogs that hadn’t responded to any therapy at all before.
- RxBiotic™ by RxVitamins for Pets is another formula I designed. It contains 4 different strains of probiotic bacteria and provides 2 billion organisms in each 1/8 teaspoon scoop of hypoallergenic material.
- Once you hear back from your vet, they may recommend an antibiotic such as metronidazole or cephalexin or amoxicillin or Tylan. You should give this to your pet as directed by your veterinarian, but continue to give the probiotics and clay at the same time. You should give the probiotics in-between antibiotic administrations.
- Chinese herbal formulas are great for firming up the stool, and restoring your pet’s digestive system to normal. The formula I’ve found the most success with is called Pogostomom and Perilla formula, also known as Huo Xiang Zheng Qi San. Stops diarrhea, improves nausea, improves appetite, dispels gas.
- Usually the RxClay and the RxBiotic combined are enough to firm up your pet’s stool, especially when combined with the appropriate antibiotic. In some cases there may be an allergic reaction to the food, and by using a digestive enzyme formula like RxZyme™, by, you guessed it, RxVitamin’s for Pets, and designed by me will help to digest the food better so your pet’s diarrhea can resolve.
