Dogs & Cats with Diarrhea, Caring for the Bottom

We’ve covered lots of information about diarrhea including a special diet and medications. We’ve also covered signs of dehydration, which is a common problem when pets lose water in the stool. Now, let’s consider how to treat the pet’s bottom.

Pets with diarrhea can have a painful bottom because liquid stool burns the skin. Help your pet by washing the anus and skin below the anus to remove any stool. A sprayer hose in the bathtub or sink works well for washing. A drop of shampoo applied to the skin & hair helps kill bacteria. When the bottom is clean, blot it dry. Moist skin, especially moist skin that is under a tail and “in the dark” is an ideal environment for bacteria to flourish.

If the skin appears red or irritated after it is dried, apply one of the following:
• dilute lavender oil in water (about 15 drops of oil in an ounce of water)
• Burt’s Bees cuticle cream
• aloe vera fresh from the plant.

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Dogs & Cats with Diarrhea, What to Feed

In a previous Caring for Pets post we discussed diarrhea and using probiotics and medications to treat it. In addition dogs and cats with diarrhea need a special diet.

Special Diet for Dogs & Cats with Diarrhea
When pets have diarrhea, the gastrointestinal tract (gut) should be rested. That’s right, rested--the same as we would do for a sprained ankle. Just as we don’t take sore ankles on long hikes, or up and down stairs, or even for short jogs, we don’t ask a gut with diarrhea to work. Instead, we give it easily digested foods. For most pets, this 4-day diet allows the gut to heal:

Day 1: Broth only
Day 2: Broth with mashed vegetable or mashed potatoes
Day 3: Broth with mashed vegetable or mashed potatoes, and the meat used to make the broth
Day 4: Broth with mashed vegetable or mashed potatoes, the meat used to make the broth, and pet’s normal diet.

Broth
Broth is made by cooking any meat or fish in water, for example, chicken or pork. Homemade broth is superior to store-bought because the odor of cooking stimulates the pet’s appetite.

Meal frequency
Serve small frequent feedings rather than two large feedings. For example, offer broth every hour or half hour.

Meal amounts
If your pet weighs 5 to 10 pounds (2-5 kg), offer ¼ cup of broth every half hour. If your pet weighs 50 lb offer it ½ to ¾ cup of broth every half hour. Offering too much too quickly may cause vomiting.

Meal temperature
Serve broth and all meals at 100 F or 40 C. This is about prey temperature and is the temperature the pet’s enzymes and digestive system work best.

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Diarrhea in Dogs & Cats

What is diarrhea?
Diarrhea is soft-to-runny stool.

Why is diarrhea harmful?
Diarrhea is harmful because it causes dehydration and can cause infection throughout a pet’s body. Diarrhea is also harmful because often the organisms that are making the pet sick can infect humans, spreading the illness to the pet’s family.

How does diarrhea cause dehydration?
With diarrhea, water that is normally reabsorbed by the intestines is lost in runny stool. The pet becomes dehydrated and doesn’t have enough fluid in its body to clear out toxins and rid itself of the infection. As diarrhea progresses, the amount of fluid in the blood declines and the blood pressure falls. As the pet’s body senses changes in the blood and blood pressure, its heart beats faster to maintain circulation. The pet’s body attempts to bring in fluid from the cells to maintain blood flow, and the cells and spaces between cells become dry. We can see how dry and dehydrated the pet is by pinching its skin. When dehydrated, skin remains tented up, failing to fall back into place quickly as it does when normally hydrated.

Measuring dehydration caused by diarrhea
How can we tell if a pet is dehydrated? Check the mouth, skin, and eyes. First, put your finger in the mouth and feel the gums. In dehydrated pets, gums are dry or tacky rather than moist. Then, check the skin by pinching skin into a fold along the back. Watch how quickly the skin springs back against the body. In well hydrated pets, the skin springs back instantly. In dehydrated pets, a “tent” of skin forms; the tent slowly returns to its original position. When dehydration is severe, eyes appear sunken and dull.

How does diarrhea cause widespread, or systemic, infection?
Diarrhea can cause widespread infection if the infection erodes through the gut wall and into capillaries. Capillaries are located just outside the gut; as the gut wall erodes, blood flows into the intestine, and infectious organisms flow into the blood. In the gut, blood combines with feces and produces a dark, foul-smelling stool. In the blood, infectious organisms are transported throughout the body. Pets with boss of the gut-blood barrier can develop fevers, headaches, and widespread skin and organ infection. For example, the kidneys can become infected and lose the ability to clear the body of wastes.

How to treat diarrhea
We treat diarrhea with

1. Probiotics
2. Prescription medications

1. Probiotics
Probiotics are living organisms that nourish gut cells and keep them healthy. The normal gut has hundreds of different types of bacteria & yeast organisms that surround and nourish the cells. For this reason, probiotics that supplement only a single type of organism are not as beneficial as probiotics that provide a variety of organisms. Fast Balance GI is an example of an excellent probiotic because it has a variety of probiotic organisms, and it does not contain corn (maltodextran) or animal byproducts that aggravate allergic pets.

2. Prescription Medications
Some pets with diarrhea need prescription medications to rid the gut of invading germs. Commonly used medications include antibiotics that kill giardia (Metronidazole and Fenbendazole), and coccidian (Sulfa). In addition, clay-based products (Diarsanyl) are prescribed to absorb toxins in the gut. In order to prescribe the best medication, your vet needs a fresh stool sample that can be sent to the lab. The lab identifies bacteria, yeast, microorganisms, and worms present in the sample.

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