When your dog has diarrhea, it can be fairly worrying for any dog owner. However, you shouldn’t immediately get overly upset when your dog is affected, because it could be caused by a number of things.
The causes vary from a simple poor diet to something requiring surgical removal. As gross as it may be, inspecting your dog’s stool is highly recommended because it can tell you a number of things about your dog’s health.
Causes for diarrhea are about the same for dogs of all ages, puppy through senior, so you don’t have to take that into consideration. The most common cause of diarrhea in dogs is something having to do with their diet.
Your dog may have been eating too much grass, eating garbage, or had a change in their diet. Grass helps dogs accelerate their digestive process, so it’s great for dogs that are constipated, but if your dog eats too much, they’ll develop diarrhea.
Rotted foods from the garbage can cause discomfort in the stomach, and provoke your dog’s digestive system as it would a human’s. Dogs can also experience diarrhea when you change their diet suddenly, as their digestive system won’t be used to it yet, but that will subside after a few days.
The cause of the diarrhea could also be something more serious. For example, in puppies and dogs with weak immune systems, worms and other parasites will cause diarrhea.
It could also be something extremely serious such as a lodged foreign object. If your dog swallows something that they really shouldn’t, such as a rock, small toy, large bits of bone, or any other non-digestible items, they will experience diarrhea.
Items like this have to be removed surgically by a veterinarian, or else they can be fatal. The diarrhea could also be from a disease, such as parvo. Inspecting your dog’s feces could lead to further information on the cause of the diarrhea.
The color of your dog’s feces is supposed to be chocolate brown. If your dog’s feces is green, that most likely means that they’re eating too much grass, which isn’t something to worry about.
Streaks of red in the feces are most likely blood, which would mean cuts around your dog’s anus. Black is very bad because it means bleeding on the inside, which could be from a foreign object lodged inside your dog.
Take your dog to the vet immediately if you see this kind of stool. White rice looking grains in the poop are signs of worms, which is another case in which you should see your vet.