When should you panic if your dog has diarrhea?

You do not want your dog to go more than two days with diarrhea without having him checked out by the vet. Take a sample of his stool with you.

You mention that he’s nine months old, but you haven’t told us anything about his vaccination or dewormer history. While the symptoms that you describe are quite mild, one of the first things we think of here at the emergency clinic when we hear “puppy” and “diarrhea” is parvo virus. Puppies are also quite prone to intestinal parasites, so he should have had several fecal exams by this age, or preemptive dewormings.

Hopefully, it’s just a case of dietary indiscretion. If you want, you can try a bland diet of boiled rice with just a tiny bit of chicken for flavoring (no salt, no pepper, etc). That should help firm up the stool. If he seems to be improving, gradually move him back to his regular diet (¼ regular food, then ½ regular food, then back onto normal feeding schedule).

If the loose stools don’t resolve over the next day or so, if he continues to not eat, if he begins vomiting, or if the diarrhea worsens or has blood in it, take him to the vet.

cant say it much better than @syz GA

@syz actually, it says that the dogs are up to date on their shots and that they have been dewormed.

I agree, however, that a bland diet including rice is a good place to start. If your dog seems to get worse, or hasn’t improved in the next day or so, then it is time to see a vet.

@syz – we have had him since he was eight weeks old, so he has had all his shots, including parvo. He was dewormed along with his litter when he was quite young, and we dewormed him about a month or two ago when we spotted worms in his stool/butt dragging. Since you say “preemptive dewormings,” it sounds like the deworming meds are not bad for dogs. We picked up some extra last time – would it hurt to give him another dose?

If you have a regular veterinarian who’s seen your pup, you should be able to run in a stool sample without bringing the dog. They’ll do a fecal float/cytology and find out what’s going on. Just give them a call and ask, but you don’t need to be giving any medications without a diagnosis.

Ah, I skimmed too quickly. The main point still applies, however – if he doesn’t improve or worsens, get him in to the vet.

Welcome to Fluther.

After I had taken her from Animal Rescue and started feeding her at home for a few months, I took my little dorg to the vet for a checkup. The vet’s assistant asked me the usual questions about her diet, habits, any problems with stool or training, etc. I told him that everything was pretty much fine. I also happened to mention that, “Oh, yeah, she loves onions.” She did, too. If I dropped a piece of chopped onion on the floor, Willow was on it and it was in her in a flash.

He laughed, “And she’s still alive!” That’s when I found out that dorgs (nor dogs) are not supposed to eat onions. I started to learn (I’m still learning) about things that dogs should not eat.

PS: There’s never a good time or a good enough reason to panic. It won’t help.

^Love the name Willow for a dog or even a dorg.