Diarrhea

Just like with us, our dogs get diarrhea for the same reasons. You don’t want to allow diarrhea to continue, as it can debilitate a dog. They’ll get dehydrated and Irritable Bowel Disease/Syndrome. Nasty stuff to deal with.

– Stress
– Food – which can cause allergies – and allergies result in diarrhea and other issues
– Worms

Diarrhea Remedies

Stress

Yelling, unwanted car rides, children, visitors, fireworks, other dogs – find the stressor and contain it when possible. Use aromatherapy and homeopathic medicines to help alleviate stressful situations. There are many calming, release, balance, rescue etc. combinations to help. Greyhound Gang offers aromatherapy — calming, release, joy, love oils and spritzers. We also offer Azmira homeopathic remedies for fear, abandonment, thunder, inflammation and more.

Food

Not all foods are created equal. Every dog can have different reactions to different foods. You want to give as natural and pure a food as possible to your hound – just like for you. Hounds can have food allergies. I believe this is the number one reason for diarrhea in greyhounds. It manifests in diarrhea initially. You can see red and loss of hair around the eyes when the allergies are advanced. Itching, scratching for no reason. Most of the time it’s because of all the grains and crap which are in kibble. Feeding a grain-free, or fish and potato kibble can help. A raw diet is the BEST WAY to deal with diarrhea. Catch it sooner than later or your hound will get Irritable Bowel Syndrome from continual diarrhea, and then you have a much more serious problem. Read about good food and nutrition here. 

Worms

I use Diatemaceous Earth – Food Grade. One tablespoon daily for a month. Panacur & Droncil Plus is a wormer from your vet. But there are many other wormers out there. Bringing a stool sample to your vet is a good idea to find out exactly what you are dealing with.

Fixes

If diarrhea continues, it puts stress on a dog’s systems and you’ll end up with IBD – Irritable Bowel Disease – and this can kill a dog if not treated.

I find holistic methods to be the best for helping hounds. Traditional vets most likely will put hounds on medicines that can compound the problem. I find food to usually be the culprit. Feed Raw, or choose a high quality, all meat or fish kibble. Slippery Elm Bark and Acidolphilus are staples in my house, and have fixed all tummy issues.  I also give Probiotics and Digestive Enzymes when needed, particularly in older, or health-compromised hounds.

To make a Slippery Elm Bark gel/paste:

I don’t do it scientifically. I boil some water, between one and two cups. I open some capsules between 6 – 10. I pull water off the stove and keep stirring and stirring and stirring until everything is dissolved and it is a little thicker. I use a syringe – usually about 3cc – 6cc  or so – and squirt down the throat. I will do this up to 3 – 5 times a day depending on the severity of the diarrhea. I will also put in food. I keep in the fridge.

These instructions came from someone else:

To give internally, mix about 1/4 teaspoon of Slippery Elm bark powder with cold water for every 10 pounds of body weight. The bulk powder may be very fluffy, so pack it down as much as possible to measure it. Alternatively, use 1/2 capsule (per 10 pounds), opened and the contents mixed with water. I boil my water, and put the powder in there, stirring for a bit. Lower heat, or turn off, but keep stirring until it gets gel-like. Slippery Elm powder will absorb many times its own weight in water, so be sure to add enough to make a moderately thick gruel. This gruel can be given before meals by syringe or eyedropper, or added to baby food, canned food, or a homemade diet. It has a slightly sweet taste and is usually well-tolerated by cats and dogs when mixed with food. Give a dose 5 minutes before meals for sore throat, and before or with meals for digestive tract problems, such as inflammatory bowel disease, until symptoms resolve.

Here are suggestions from others. Used with their permission.

First, fast for 24 hours, water only. May set out a bowl of raw honey & water for calories. Use Pedialyte for excessive GI fluid loss and excessive electrolyte loss.

*****
From a friend:
Diarrhea in newly adopted greyhound
Please, please, please. Internal parasites must ALWAYS be eliminated as a cause of diarrhea in the NEWLY ADOPTED GREYHOUND.
No matter if he has been dewormed before, no matter if he has 10 negative fecals, deworm AGAIN with Panacur and Droncit before spending another dime on a diarrhea workup. Insist if you have to – can’t hurt, might just be the solution to all his woes. If successful, repeat in 3 weeks and 3 months.
Unfortunately, greyhounds commonly bring parasites from all corners of the country to an unsuspecting vet who doesn’t even own a bottle of Panacur because he never sees, say, whips, in his neck of the woods. And he’s not going to spend $100 to buy a bottle for your greyhound, so he gets a lesser wormer, if he decides to deworm it at all (the thought may never cross his mind, especially if “the fecal was negative,” which commonly happens, especially with whips). So, greyhound goes through a diagnostic nightmare.
Sadly, I’ve been the 2nd opinion on more than one greyhound where over $1,000 has been spent and the poor greyhound is slated for exploratory surgery in the quest for the cause of the Big D. Only to be cured by $10 worth of Panacur. A shame.
******
From another friend:
Diarrhea:
From The Nature of Animal Healing – “The key to understanding and treating diarrhea is to realize that it’s not really an illness. It’s a symptom: the outward sign of any number of problems that interrupt the large intestine’s regular work of resorbing water from the wastes passing through it. Basically, the intestines recognize that some very unwanted toxins are passing through them, and react by hurrying them out as quickly as possible, while the wastes are still soft or liquid. Bad food (or something else eaten by your undiscerning pet) is the most common provocation, but diarrhea may also result from bacteria or parasites absorbed by licking one source or another (including other dog’s behinds). Separately, it may be the result of various internal organ malfunctions, especially of the kidney and liver, which can get overwhelmed by toxins they’re supposed to process. These will back up through the liver and then get jettisoned to the intestines. Toxicity, in short, is what leads to diarrhea, though that’s not always a bad thing. With cancer or other degenerative diseases, the purging of toxicity as diarrhea may signal a healing crisis.” (This is what happens when our dogs detox after a change to raw foods).
“Different root causes may require different treatments. Intestinal worms, for example, must be dealt with on their own. If diarrhea results from a failure of the pancreas to produce enzymes property, or of the liver to metabolize, those organs must be addressed. The essential step with all diarrhea, however, is to put the pet on a liquid fast. This may seem contraindicated, after all a diarrhetic pet has been depleted of nutrients, is likely very hungry, and ought, by logic, to be fed so he can rebuild his strength. No so. The digestive system has what’s called a gastrocolic reflex. Its own logic is to empty the colon as the stomach fills. To stop the colon from emptying and thus to break the diarrhea cycle, there’s a simple strategy; don’t eat. Or at least, eat as little as possible.
I’ve seen great success (with people and pets) with an old remedy called the potato diet: 50% white potatoes, 50% sweet potatoes, a slice of turnip, and a slice of leek, all boiled and then mixed with boiled chicken or lamb for flavor. I’ve seen the potato diet stop chronic diarrhea almost overnight. I also put the pet on homeopathic remedies: BHI’s “Diarrhea” and Dr. Goodpet’s “Diar-Relief” are both good. Instead of killing the bacteria, they enhance enzymatic function, which helps end the diarrhea naturally. And for chronic diarrhea, I’m a big advocate of a supplement called Acetylator (Vetri-Science), which contains lactobacillus, enzymes, and glucosamine sulfates, all of which help natural intestinal function. I’ve had pets with severe diarrhea on the potato diet, along with these supplements and homeopathic remedies for months, gradually easing them back onto a regular diet. Chronic diarrhea takes time to treat. Eventually though, it does succumb to holistic measures – without antibiotics.
One final note on chronic diarrhea. In recent years I’ve seen an increasing incidence of it, both in cats and dogs, as a symptom of inflammatory bowel disease. Dr. Deva Khalso, one of my holistic colleagues, feels strongly that the condition is caused by vaccines, more specifically, by the meat extracts in which certain vaccines are grown. In absorbing these vaccines, puppies and kittens become sensitized to meat protein – which is to say, too sensitive to it. Later on, after ingesting meats with similar proteins, the proteins may trigger an immunomediated allergic reaction. When this cause and reaction become chronic, the result is inflammatory bowel disease.”
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From another friend:
Loose Stools

Lots of good information has been posted on the list lately about dealing with loose stools. This is not an un-common thing in ex-racers. Most of the time two wormings and a few months on a good kibble can clear it up. For some dogs it takes longer than that.

Some basic ideas and comments:

– Ensure that the dog is wormed at *least* twice coming off the track. I recommend putting a dog with a chronic loose stool problem on Interceptor as a way to catch chronic (or re-occurring) worm problems.

– Sometimes the intestinal flora/fauna are disrupted and the use of plain yogurt with **Live Cultures** can help. Switching to a higher fat, raw diet can work in some cases and can wreak havoc in other cases.

– Food or treats with Soy or red dye can cause problems. Heck, for some dogs any treat beyond plain old kibble will set them off. Dogs with stool problems should avoid pigs ears, rawhide and other too-rich, hard to digest treats.

– Food allergies have been covered on the list. Wheat is the typical
culprit.

– Some dogs respond better to one food over another. My dogs responded to Eukanuba adult formula and we’ve stuck with that. Flint River usually has a good reputation. Also, give your kibble a sniff…..moldy or spoiled food can cause stool problems.

– Vets have a typical regimen of medications they run through when dealing with loose stools. Remind them of Tylan powder…. it is an off-label use of the medication but most Vets have used it a time or two on dogs. It is an antibiotic that works against Chlostridia. It is cheap and works when other meds don’t.

– Stress itself can cause loose stools.

– Expect that when on a walk, your dog will have one firm stool and the rest will be loose.

f you live anywhere near a Chinese herbal store, Huang Lian Su (which is coptis root) is extremely cheap and very good at getting rid of all but really bad diarrhea.  It’s used for humans who get Montezuma’s Revenge when they travel in foreign countries.  <g>  Worked really well
for my dogs back when they needed it.

*****

Subject: HELP: MEDICAL: Treatment of Diarhea

Christine wrote:

– I know I can give him Imodium or some Pepto, but I prefer a natural treatment if possible.  I’ve read about  giving him some canned pumpkin.  Has anybody on the list done this?  Has it helped?  What do y’all do when faced with this problem?

I always use a mixture of slippery elm bark and its never not worked.  Slippery Elm Bark is available in most health food stores; is usually comes in powder like form.  Mix 2 tablespoons of the powdered SEB with one cup of water and heat until the mixture becomes thick and smooths out some.   A wisk usually works best for getting the SEB and water to mix together. When sufficiently cool give a greyhound size dog 2 tablespoons (I usually use an oral suringe) every 4-6 hours until stools are formed.  I’ve never had to go more than 3 doses of SEB, and best of all its very,
very safe and has none of the hard chemical effects of Imodiom/Pepto, etc.

Also, canned (plain) pumpkin cannot hurt.

Here are some homeopathic choices:
Arsenicum Alb. — diarrhea from eating spoiled meat, when diarrhea is seen with frequent vomiting
Belis Per. — yellow, painless, smelly diarrhea
Carbo Veg. — moist flatulence or painful diarrhea in old dogs
Chamomilla — for young dogs, watery and greenish
China (cinchona officinalis) — when dog is debilitated from vomiting and diarrhea and has lost a lot of vital fluids
Colchicum — ineffectual urging, jelly like stools
Colocynthis — diarrhea with colic and pain, irritable or angry, arched back
Croton tig — for frequent watery diarrhea, gurgling and stool is watery and forceful
Ipecac — bloody diarrhea with abdominal pain and fever with vomiting
Merc cor. — frequent diarrhea with straining and blood, forceful spurts
Natrum Sulph. — diarrhea with gas, large quantities, yellow and liquid or soft and loose
Phosphorus — copious ongoing, debilitating diarrhea, difficulty in producing a small quantity of foul smelling hard or partly formed with liquid feces and followed by weakness
Veratrum Alb. — dysentery, helps control dehydration

Slippery elm bark might help as will pumpkin. Once the diarrhea slows down, I’d start her on a bland diet like boiled chicken and overcooked, watery rice for a day or two.