When a dog has soft stools it should be cause for alert. The normal thing is consistent stools, which are not hard, but soft and moist that allow them to be collected without practically staining. When this consistency becomes soft, and even almost liquid, the reason must be thoroughly investigated. It will not always indicate a diarrheal process due to some organic disease, since simple changes in the diet, frequency, amount or level of daily exercise can alter the correct intestinal transit and the absorption of moisture from the feces in the intestine.
In this article on our site we will address the issue of loose stools in dogs, their causes and what to do to make them hard. So read on to find out how to harden your dog's stool.
Causes of loose stools in dogs
A dog's normal feces are neither hard nor soft, but must be of sufficient consistency to be collected without costing or staining. When a dog produces softer stools than normal, it can indicate various processes, from digestive or systemic diseases to poisoning, behavioral or eating disorders. Thus, the causes of loose stools in dogs are:
- Stress and Anxiety: When a dog is more nervous and restless than normal, as well as when under stressful stimuli, the stools may become softer, as many people do too.
- Sudden changes in feeding: when you want or need to change the dog's feed, it should be done gradually, mixing it little by little. little to avoid sudden digestive changes that lead to soft stools.
- Eating spoiled food or foreign bodies.
- Poisonings: Many plant or chemical poisonings cause intestinal inflammation and diarrhea, as well as other associated signs depending on the process in question.
- Internal parasites (Ancylostoma, Uncinaria, Toxocara, Giardia, Toxascaris, Dipylidium, Echinococcus, Trichuris).
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
- Adverse food reaction.
- Pancreatitis.
- Intestinal volvulus.
- Intestinal tumor.
- Parvovirus and other intestinal viruses.
- Canine Distemper.
- Bacterial enteritis (Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Yersinia).
- Renal disease.
- Liver disease.
- Addison's disease (hypoadrenocorticism).
How to pick up my dog's soft stool?
When a dog begins to produce soft stools, the softer the stool, the more difficult it will be to pick up. It is difficult to collect all the amount of feces with the bag, and it is necessary to use something absorbent, such as kitchen paper, to finish collecting the remains that remain in the ground and do not leave anything on public roads. That a dog has soft stools is not an excuse to leave the excrement in the street.
What to do to harden my dog's stool?
To harden the feces of dogs, a series of measures must be taken so that they return to a normal and he althy consistency. We have already seen that loose stools can be explained by various processes in addition to infectious, endocrine and systemic diseases that cause diarrhea, so the treatment will not always be pharmacological in order to control these processes.
Next, we will describe the things we can do to harden our dog's stool.
Use a suitable feed
It is likely that the food you are giving your dog is making him feel bad, especially if it is not of good quality and is not as balanced as it should be. If you're wondering "how to know if my dog doesn't like the food", look at its composition label and observe if it has a lot of starch from corn and other grains or a lot of fat that softens the stool.
It is important to feed our dog a complete and balanced feed for the canine species. If the change has been sudden, it is possible that this is the cause of the loose stools. It is also possible that the dog liked this new feed better and ate it more eagerly or in greater quantity, which causes an overexertion in its intestine that results in soft stools. If this is the case, try giving it a smaller amount per feeding so that it produces fewer stools and "gives a break" to the intestine.
On other occasions, you may be giving milk in the form of dairy products (yogurt, cheese, butter) and the lactose it contains may be causing diarrhea and abdominal swelling in the dog. Eliminate these foods from your diet or give them some from time to time, but without lactose. In the article on "Can Dogs Drink Milk?" we talked about it in depth.
Use probiotics
When a dog has loose stools, there has often been an imbalance in the flora of the intestine, necessary for digestion and for the formation of feces with its natural consistency by "useless" bacteria that do not help in digestion.
There are certain probiotic sachets that contain the bacteria Enterococcus faecium to mix with the dog's food for about 5 days to support intestinal recovery.
Reduce stress
A dog can become stressed for a variety of reasons, from changes in its routine or household, introducing new people or animals into the home, to exercising more than usual. This nervousness can result in poor bowel function with loss of water absorption and consequent loose stools.
In this case, the solution to harden your dog's stool will be to reduce stress by identifying the stressful cause and, if necessary, visit an ethologist and establish guidelines and treatment.
Deworm our dog
An important cause of loose stools in dogs is internal infestation by various species of parasites from the group of protozoa, flatworms and roundworms that causes enteritis and lesions in the mucosa of the intestine.
In a hookworm or hookworm infection, bloody stools may be seen due to the hematophagous action of these parasites on the mucosa of the small intestine. Most of the internal parasites that cause loose stools are located in the small intestine, except in the case of Trichuris vulpis, which affects the large intestine causing colitis with large intestine diarrhea that increases the frequency of daily defecation, exceeding 5 times. up to date. For this reason, the quick and effective solution is the routine internal deworming of our dogs. It is also important in public he alth, since the Echinococcus granulosus worm that parasitizes our dogs is the cause of hydatid cysts in people.
Treat disease
Numerous diseases can cause loose stools in dogs, so if the dog is not stressed, with a higher level of activity, the food or its quantity has not been changed and it has not been intoxicated, It is conceivable that something is going wrong internally and you should go to a veterinary center to find the precise diagnosis and establish treatment.
Foods to harden my dog's stool
If you are wondering if there is any food that can help form stools with a good consistency, the answer is yes. There are foods like pumpkin that can help harden your dog's stool. You can try adding no more than two spoons per feed to the feed and assess its effect. You can also use cooked rice or sweet potato
Food for dogs with soft stools
There are also veterinary diet feeds categorized as digestive by creating smaller and more compact stools due to their composition. They are indicated to support medical treatment until the disease or disorder that causes loose stools is controlled. Again, it will be the veterinarian who will indicate if this type of food is necessary or not.
