When a dog poops hard and then soft it can indicate that he is suffering from a case of small intestine diarrhoea. This type of diarrhea can be caused by various pathologies or infections in dogs and can seriously affect their nutritional status and he alth, by interfering with the proper absorption of nutrients of your food diet.
Because of this, if the triggering cause is not controlled and treated, our dog will feel progressively worse. The diagnosis must include various types of tests to find the cause and put the specific and general therapy in each case. Keep reading this article on our site to learn more about small bowel diarrhea in dogs and find out why your dog poops hard and then soft
What can indicate that my dog poops hard and soft?
When a dog poops first hard and then soft it may indicate that he has small bowel diarrhea. Because the first part of the stool is firm and hard, followed by soft stools, which can be confusing for the caregiver.
A dog's normal stool should be moist, firm, and have a slight odor. If the dog follows a diet with a high amount of fiber, the stools will be more voluminous, as if he has a disease known as exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
The consistency of stool depends on the absorption of water in the intestine, which in turn depends on how you feel. Certain pathologies alter the osmolarity and the capacity of retention of water appearing the diarrhoea; or on the contrary, there is a high absorption of water and the feces become dry and hard, being difficult to expel, appearing constipation or constipation.
If the dog has diarrhea it can explain the question of why my dog defecates many times, since in this case the feces pass by intestinal transit containing excessive water, which increases its fluidity, volume or frequency of defecation. Diarrhea in dogs can be classified as small intestine and large intestine diarrhea.
Characteristics of small bowel diarrhea
Small bowel diarrhea is characterized by:
- Rare tenesmus (difficulty) and urgency to defecate.
- Daily defecation frequency 2-3 times higher than normal.
- Volume increased.
- There is usually no mucus.
- There is usually no fresh blood, but there is digested blood (melena).
- Sometimes vomiting occurs.
- Weightloss.
Characteristics of large intestine diarrhea
In large intestine diarrhea appears:
- Tenesmus.
- Daily defecation frequency greater than 3 times normal.
- Urgency to defecate.
- Mucus.
- Fresh blood.
- Rare vomiting and weight loss.
Causes why my dog poops hard and then soft
Among the causes that can cause small bowel diarrhea in a dog that first has a hard stool and then diarrhea, are the following:
- Infectious enteritis (Salmonella, Campylobacter, Giardia, other internal parasites, Histoplasma, Phycomycosis).
- Bacterial overgrowth.
- Renal disease.
- Liver disease.
- Hypoadrenocorticism (Addison's disease).
- Food hypersensitivity.
- Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
- Protein-losing enteropathy.
- Intestinal obstruction.
- Intestinal intussusception.
- Foreign bodies in the intestine.
- Intestinal tumors (lymphosarcoma, adenocarcinoma, fibrosarcoma, leiomyoma).
- Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis.
- Lymphangiectasia.
- Rectal polyps.
- Power change.
La Large intestine diarrhea occurs when there is alteration or disease from the large intestine, such as:
- Infections by parasites or bacteria.
- Inflammatory bowel disease.
- Perineal disease.
- Irritable bowel syndrome.
- Neoplasms (lymphosarcoma).
- Colonic histoplasmosis.
Symptoms of small intestine diarrhea in dogs
When diarrhea occurs in the small intestine, in addition to loose stools, the following clinical signs: usually appear in the dog
- Growth failure in puppies.
- Weightloss.
- Anorexy.
- Borrogmos.
- Flatulence.
- Abdominal discomfort.
- Ascites.
- Edema.
- Melena (digested blood).
- Dehydration.
- Malabsorption.
- Bad digestion.
- Nutritional deficiencies.
- Hair bad appearance, dull, dull.
- Vomiting.
- Increased defecation frequency.
- Fever.
- Lethargy.
Generally, when a dog is affected by diarrhea of the small intestine it is worse than if it is of the large intestine, since it does not It will affect both your appetite and nutrient absorption, so you won't lose as much weight. Sometimes they can have diarrhea of the small intestine and large intestine if both are affected, as can be the case of bacterial or parasitic infections, inflammatory bowel disease, lymphosarcoma or intestinal histoplasmosis. In addition, the clinical signs will give us a clue to other problems:
- Weight loss: the lack of nutrients and weight loss indicates intestinal malabsorption due to different pathologies that we have named.
- Vomiting and pain: Vomiting and abdominal pain indicate inflammation or intestinal obstruction.
- Blood in the stool: Blood in the stool indicates inflammatory, erosive, or ulcerative bowel disease.
- Infectious enteritis: When diarrhea is due to infectious enteritis, fresh blood and abdominal pain are added to vomiting and small bowel diarrhea.
- Pica and coprophagia: in cases of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and chronic intestinal diseases, pica and coprophagia can be observed (they eat things that are not are food and feces). Polyphagia is also common in exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
- Anorexia and loss of appetite: Anorexia and loss of appetite usually occur with tumors, inflammations or obstructive processes of the intestine.
- Edema and ascites: The edema and ascites are due to enteropathy (protein loss).
Diagnosis of Small Intestinal Diarrhea in Dogs
The diagnosis should include numerous tests to make a good differential diagnosis with the diseases that can cause a dog to have a hard and soft bowel movement. You should start with a blood count and a blood biochemistry, to assess whether there are:
- Anemia due to blood loss.
- Low leukocytes as an indication of an infectious process.
- Low lymphocytes as a possible indication of lymphangiectasia.
- Azotemia, if kidney disease is present.
- Altered liver enzymes, if there is liver disease.
- Eosinophilia (increased eosinophils) in parasitosis, hypoadrenocorticism or eosinophilic enteritis.
- TLI (Trypsinogen-like Immunoreactivity) less than 2.5 µg/L indicates exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
- If there is vitamin B12 deficiency (alteration in the jejunum) or folate (alteration in the ileum).
In addition, the following tests will be performed in these cases:
- Stool Culture: If a bacterial infection is suspected, the dog's stool should be cultured and seen for growth.
- Parasitological techniques: to search for parasites, parasitological techniques are carried out, such as faeces flotation, to look for the eggs of parasites.
- Abdominal ultrasound: If tumors, obstructions, foreign bodies or inflammatory bowel disease are suspected, an abdominal ultrasound should be performed to look for characteristic changes.
- Biopsia: if after performing the ultrasound there is suspicion between inflammatory bowel disease and intestinal tumor, a biopsy sample should be taken and sent to the laboratory so that by histopathology they can indicate what it is.
- Hypoallergenic diet: In cases indicative of an adverse reaction to the food, a hypoallergenic or novel protein diet should be given and then return to the previous diet and see if the symptoms return, confirming the diagnosis.
Canine Small Intestinal Diarrhea Treatment
Once the diagnosis has been established as to why the dog defecates hard and then soft, symptomatic and specific therapy should be applied.
Symptomatic treatment
Symptomatic therapy is based on correcting nutritional and electrolyte imbalances with fluid therapy, especially important is potassium.
Antidiarrheal drugs will be used to stop the diarrhea, but they should not be used in cases of infectious diarrhea, as these microorganisms need to be expelled. In these cases, the necessary a antibiotics, antiparasitic or antifungal will be used depending on the case.
Specific treatment
Depending on what disease causes this symptomatology in dogs, a different specific or medical treatment will be used:
- Chemotherapy: in case of intestinal tumors, chemotherapy and/or surgical resection should be used.
- Diet and medications: In inflammatory bowel disease, a combination of diet, metronidazole, and immunosuppressants such as prednisone, azathioprine, or cyclosporine according to severity.
- Vitamins: if there are deficiencies of vitamin B12 or folate, they should be supplemented.
- Surgery: Obstructions, intussusceptions or foreign bodies should be operated on.
- Treat the disease: if there is kidney, liver or hypoadrenocorticism disease, the specific treatment for the disease in question should be carried out.
- Enzymes: If exocrine pancreatic insufficiency is demonstrated, pancreatic enzymes and a digestible diet should be administered.
