Your pet’s poop as an indicator of pet health

When dog’s have diarrhea or constipation, here are some quick tips for stopping dog diarrhea or cat diarrhea.

For our complete diarrhea guide, check out Dog Troubleshitting: Ultimate Dog Diarrhea Guide (for cats too). 

Quickly stopping dog diarrhea or cat diarrhea

Before we provide recommendations on stopping dog or cat diarrhea, we’d like to provide you with some tools to troubleshoot your pet’s poop.

1. Does your pet’s diarrhea look normal or have fresh blood /mucus? How much?
   • Typically, if it is minimal fresh blood/ mucus, it is less of a concern unless it is a lot! Read below for our recommendations on sorting out this scenario.
2. Does your pet’s diarrhea look black? Does it look like digested blood which is tarry?
   • If this is the case, we suggest you stop reading and head straight with your pet to a VET EMERGENCY!

Now if you are operating under scenario 1 above, then the tips below may help if your dog or cat has diarrhea. Remember that diarrhea can occur for a vast number of reasons in pets. The most common issue we hear from customers for dogs is due to eating something that does not sit well or giardia.

Dog diarrhea home remedies

Other than diarrhea, if your dog or cat is acting normally and is healthy, here’s what we suggest:

1. Give your pet’s stomach a rest from the normal food it eats for a few hours.
2. You could give either bone broth, kefir, pureed whole pumpkin preferably organic (including skin and seeds) to help ease upset stomach while keeping your pet hydrated. These are bland diets without fat to ensure that your pet’s diarrhea does not get worse. (often people use rice and ground beef as a combination but it can lead to gasiness and a farty dog as the rice ferments)
3. Alternatively, you could use slippery elm to stop diarrhea. About ¼ tsp of powder for every 10 lbs mixed in bland food or water. It is fine to withhold food for up to 12 hrs for a dog with diarrhea but always ensure your dog has water. Honest Kitchen has a slippery elm mix known as Perfect Form, which helps your pet move from diarrhea to a solid formed poop.
4. When your dog’s stool is back to normal, go back to your normal feeding. (If diarrhea persists for more than 3 days consult your vet!)

What to do when there is dog or cat constipation

This depends on the type of pet food your dog or cat is eating. Does it not have enough fiber or too much bone content?

Here’s what we suggest you can add to your pet food:

1. Add more sources of fiber such as pumpkin or veggies.
2. Alternatively, you could use slippery elm to help with the constipation.
3. Lastly, coconut oil or fish oil can sometimes be used to grease the tubes.

Here’s to a healthy happy dog and cat poop!