What is Happening When My Greyhound is Having Diarrhea?
It starts when your greyhound’s gut becomes inflamed, irritated by bacteria, something that doesn’t agree with his tummy, or just plain stress. An unusual reaction happens: an intricate set of nerves are triggered. A signal goes to your greyhound’s brain to gather water from the rest of his body, maybe even produce some mucous, as well; and send it to flood his digestive system, flushing out the offending substance.
“My greyhound gets diarrhea every time we________________________ (go to a meet-and-greet, are on vacation, etc.)”
This is probably stress-induced. Do an internet search on “anxiety in dogs,” and you will turn up all kinds of great ideas for calming down your dog, and helping him get over his anxiety. Treat his diarrhea as described above.
The best thing to cut down future outbursts is bring down his anxiety level with a calmer environment. The easiest way to do this may be to simply to relocate your dog’s bed. Consider these questions:
Sometimes, a bout of anxiety can awaken hidden parasites, and start an outbreak. If the diarrhea has blood in it, or you suspect it’s a bit more than only nerves, call the vet.
If things still don’t get firm after all the above, it’s time for to bring in a sample to your vet. It’s quite common for hookworm, among other parasites, to linger in a dog’s intestines even after one or even more treatments. Panacur is a safe, inexpensive de-wormer . . . but you may have to add it to you dogs food for up to seven days depending on the parasite and then still need to repeat the process in two weeks. Its an inconvenience, but important for the long term health of your dog.
First, it’s perfectly normal for your new Sighthound — permanent pack member or foster pup — to have mushy poop for the first couple of days. Normal mushy can just be part of the adjustment period. To help get things on the right track, here are a few of our tried and true methods:
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Finally, the last thing you ever want to see in poop is a spot of red and we understand the panic it causes. But heres something to put your mind at ease: A spot or couple of drops of bright red blood, especially after a bout of diarrhea, is almost always nothing to worry about. Its the brown blood and the metallic, coppery smell in stool that necessitates a trip to the vet.
If the fecal is negative, its time to consider a food change. While the traditional accepted method is to gradually mix in the new food as an increasing portion of your dogs kibble over the course of a week, the purpose of that strategy is to prevent loose stools. If that ship has already sailed, you can make a faster change. Weve found skipping one meal and then offering a half-size portion of the new food at the next meal time works pretty well. If there are no ill effects from the reduced portion, they can go back up to their normal amount of the new food at the following meal.