Puppy Diarrhea

Puppy diarrhea is quite common. Always a cause of concern to you being the owner. Do you know when to call your vet?

Here, I will give you some advice for you to use in real life.

Common causes of puppy diarrhea:

• Stress and Change of diet
• Virus
• Worms

New Home Stress And New Food

This is very typical cause of stress in puppies. Stress affects the whole body and affects the immune system as well. Can be very beneficial to give same food as given by the breeder. Later you can change the food to the one you prefer

Most puppies like to be very close. Cuddle your new friend and this will surely reduce the "left alone" stress experienced by your pup.

If you have children talk to them before the pup is arriving. Let them know it is a living animal. So teach them to be careful.

Virus

Parvo and Corona virus infections are probably the most common and well known.

Parvo virus is a killer. It destroys the normal structure of the intestinal lining. The intestines will bleed and bloody diarrhea is seen. The normal fluid balance is totally gone and the pup can die within hours.

As a young vet I worked in the UK for two years. I saw a lot of parvo patients. Sometime during 2-3 days somewhere between 30-50 dogs caught the disease and came to the animal hospital. A lot of them died despite intensive treatment.

Corona virus is kind of the same but affects the intestines less. The lining can repair and good chances of recovery if treatment started in time

Worms

Quite well known problem. Probably roundworms infections are the most usual. Easy to cure if this cause puppy diarrhea. Talk to your vet what kind of worms are usual in your country. It can vary a lot.

Use medicine against worms shortly after arriving is very important. Sometimes you will get quite surprised to see the result.

Symptoms And What Should You Look After

Diarrhea can vary a lot. It would help your vet a lot if you could be helpful and give the following information:

• Are your pup tired or is he behaving normal
• The diarrhea is it yellow or very dark?
• How frequent is it coming?
• Any vomiting?
• Any mucus in it?
• Is there any blood?

If blood can enter the intestinal lumen, then bacteria can enter the blood. If you see any blood in the diarrhea you have to call your vet. Antibiotic is needed to prevent sepsis (bacteria in the blood).

What Can You Do?

If happy and play full, no blood seen in the stools. Well, test to give some soft food for some days. Boiled chicken, fish perhaps some pasta is my favorite. Feed small portions and more often than normal. This should become better within a day or two. If not - call your vet.

Many different probiotics can be used in puppy diarrhea. Other "anti diarrhea" remedies can be very use full. Talk to your vet about this before you need it

In my practice I use lot of probioticts and find them very well working. Lot of them protect the inside of the intestines and does help to stop diarrhea very well.