What’s the Best Diet for Dogs with Chronic Diarrhea? – Clinical Nutrition Service at Cummings School

Diarrhea is a typical drawback in canines.  It may be acute, the place it happens instantly and is (normally) short-lived, typically because of consuming one thing they shouldn’t have or secondary to different medical points.  Diarrhea may also be power, occurring always or on-and-off for weeks to months.  Continual diarrhea is without doubt one of the most irritating medical situations for each canine homeowners and veterinarians (and particularly for us veterinary nutritionists!)

The problem with power diarrhea is that it might probably have many, many alternative causes reminiscent of parasites, inflammatory bowel illness (IBD), infections, metabolic illnesses, intolerance of excessive fats diets, or, in uncommon instances, a food allergy.  When attempting to establish the reason for power diarrhea, veterinarians attempt to get extra particulars concerning the diarrhea to slim down which a part of the gut it’s coming from, get a whole diet history, and do some laboratory assessments.  Relying on the person scenario, a prognosis might have extra blood or fecal assessments (keep away from blood and saliva tests for food allergy) or extra particular testing, reminiscent of belly ultrasound and even wanting on the insides of the gastrointestinal tract and getting biopsies with an extended, skinny digital camera (endoscopy).  Figuring out and treating any underlying points is important to a profitable consequence.

If no underlying trigger is recognized or if testing suggests a prognosis of IBD, dietary modification can typically be helpful to assist handle power diarrhea.  Some canines reply properly to weight-reduction plan alone, whereas others have solely a partial response to weight-reduction plan and require a mix of remedy and weight-reduction plan (and different canines don’t have any response to weight-reduction plan in any respect), so it’s essential to have reasonable expectations.  Along with the challenges of diagnosing the reason for power diarrhea, discovering the optimum weight-reduction plan for a canine with power diarrhea is irritating as a result of there is no such thing as a one dietary method that helps all canines with power diarrhea.  On the whole, there are three main dietary approaches to canines with power diarrhea:

1. Elimination diet trial for food allergy: Whereas meals allergy is the very first thing most homeowners consider because the trigger for power diarrhea, it’s truly the least probably trigger.  Prognosis of a meals allergy requires an elimination weight-reduction plan trial which is a strict, unique trial with a veterinary novel ingredient, hydrolyzed, or elemental weight-reduction plan for 8-12 weeks.  Even when the diarrhea improves on an elimination weight-reduction plan, the advance could also be attributable to different properties of that weight-reduction plan (e.g., extra constant, decrease fats, extremely digestible), slightly than to meals allergy.  It’s cheap to strive an elimination weight-reduction plan trial in canines with power diarrhea, however homeowners ought to be conscious that the probability of a meals allergy is low in most sufferers.

The 2 dietary approaches which are extra probably to achieve success for power diarrhea are:

2. Diminished fats, extremely digestible weight-reduction plan: Some canines with power diarrhea reply finest to this dietary method.  Canine meals range extensively in fats content material: from lower than 2 to greater than 8 grams of fats per 100 kilocalories (with a canine’s minimal requirement of just one.4 grams per 100 kilocalories)!  The diploma of dietary fats restriction wanted to handle power diarrhea in canines that reply to this method varies extensively, so some trial and error with the weight-reduction plan’s fats stage and digestibility could also be wanted for particular person canines.

3. Elevated fiber weight-reduction plan: Canines with colitis (irritation of the colon) typically reply finest to diets which are larger in fiber.  However it may be extra difficult as a result of there are different types of fiber (which may’t be decided from the assured evaluation on present pet meals labels).  Your veterinarian or a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist® may help to establish one of the best elevated fiber weight-reduction plan or fiber complement (and the proper dose) on your canine.  The elevated fiber method additionally is useful for some canines with power diarrhea not related to colitis.

The optimum weight-reduction plan for power diarrhea entails loads of trial and error with these three completely different approaches so it’s straightforward to get pissed off.  But when one method doesn’t work, one other one could – every canine is a person however make sure you make just one change at a time to have the ability to determine what’s or isn’t serving to (I like to recommend holding a journal of diet and symptoms).  And even when weight-reduction plan alone doesn’t utterly management your canine’s power diarrhea and a mix of remedy and weight-reduction plan is required, optimizing the weight-reduction plan may help to maintain the quantity and doses of medicines as little as attainable.  Subsequently, whereas it may be difficult to seek out the optimum weight-reduction plan for a canine with power diarrhea, it’s value the additional effort!

Lisa M. Freeman, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Nutrition)

Dr. Freeman is a veterinary nutritionist and a professor at Cummings College of Veterinary Medication at Tufts College. She is on the cutting-edge of science, with tons of of articles in prestigious journals, talking engagements at nationwide and worldwide conferences, and awards for her scientific achievements. Nonetheless, she is also enthusiastic about offering goal and correct info on pet diet to veterinarians, pet homeowners, and different animal fanatics.