My puppy, Cally, is almost 4 months old. She has a GI tract infection (on antibiotics) and has terrible diarrhea. I have been reading a lot about giving dogs pumpkin to treat the diarrhea but the vet tech didn't agree. I feel so sorry for her as I know three days of diarrhea must be painful for her. I am desperate at this point, do I defy my vet and try a teaspoon of pumpkin? I have read about buying other medications at the pet store but would prefer something natural. Any thoughts? Thank you! Jenn
Once the tummy trouble has cleared up we give scrambled eggs then move to small portions of their normal food.
Did your vet give you some GI food to help calm things down? Typically with diarrhea (since I can't bear to not feed a meal) I give scrambled egg and a small amount of rice with a tablespoon of pumpkin and slowly re-introduce kibble and continue with pumpkin until things firm up, but we've never had a GI tract infection so not sure if that changes the approach? All of the pet stores in my area sell canned pumpkin, but it's much cheaper at the grocery store!
Hi y'all pumpkin all the way My lab pup now 15wks but at 10 wks was very ill and if not for the pumpkin and rice mixed in with her kibble...she would have been dehydrated it really does firm it up and ease the belly so grateful to have come across it...also probiotics helped as well!
Why does the Vet Tech not like pumpkin? It can work the opposite way and make things worse, and a puppy already having difficulty might react that way is my feeling but I wonder what the Vet Tech's reasoning is? If you do add fibre consider that sweet potato has six times the amount of fibre as pumpkin so you'd need less. Still, I would caution using either when the system is already upset because of fibre's potential to have the effect opposite to what you want. Stick with your Vet. Three days of diarrhoea (I am thinking liquid) can be serious in a young pup. Actually, ask the Vet about the pumpkin or sweet potato, not the Vet Tech.
Thanks for so much good advice. The vet did give us special food to mix with rice. In our vet's office it is kind of weird, you get twice as much time with the vet tech, and the vet just comes in for exams...and he refers to the vet tech a lot when an explanation needs to be given or something. I am not sure if he is just so busy or what?? He's really good, but just prefers everything to go through the techs!?! We haven't seen improvement yet, hopefully it is working. I saw information that read both ways about pumpkin, that it stopped diarrhea and that it got things going after constipation...so, I was confused about what would be best. I try to listen to the vet (and the tech), but the internet makes it too easy to find contradictory information and lots of alternatives. That's why I decided to start this thread, to get information from experienced dog owners. Thanks, again!
Pro kolin really helped my pup when he was younger and got terrible tummies. You could ask about it. That along with the rice really helped. Sam
Pumpkin? Pumpkin? What a bizarre and strange thing to feed a dog! Why on earth would you do that? I'd go with your vet tech.....
Canned pumpkin is recommended by my vet and several others for firming up stool (especially in dogs with anal gland issues). But you need to use the non-sweetened kind and only give a little bit (2 tsp or so). @Jenn K - Have you tried to feed her a bland diet? I can post the recipe if you're interested. It's what I gave my boy when he an entire antler chew and had diarrhea. You can't feed the bland diet for more than a week or two but it does the trick pretty well.
Really? How bizarre. Perhaps it's a US thing. I don't think I have ever seen canned pumpkin. Is that really a thing? Pumpkin in a can? Ok....
Maybe North American? I use it in soups and other pumpkin recipes! It's different from pumpkin pie filling - not sweet. There are quite a few brands at pet food stores and they even have "pumpkin transition blends" to help transition pets between foods, claiming to prevent loose stools! I figured there was no harm in trying it - it's just a high fibre vegetable at the end of the day - Quinn loves it. No real proof it works though - how to tell if it was bland diet or tummy issues resolved on their own or the pumpkin...not sure.
Yes. I wouldn't fee a carnivore a high fibre vegetable for an upset tummy. But, well...you never know.
Your reaction is quite amusing, lol. It is a thing in the US at least but you guys have plenty of canned things we don't, lol. Well, dogs are technically considered omnivores and some odd people 'successfully' feed their dogs a vegetarian or vegan diet (I am not joking). Apparently the fiber just helps to firm up the stool as do apples. Teller used to have 'butt' problems where his anal glands would get irritated but they stopped when I switched him to a higher-quality kibble with more protein. I bet they'd cease if I fed him raw but I can't currently do that (though he sometimes gets raw food supplements like bones and meat as a food topper). Sometimes he still licks his rear RIGHT before he has to poop but we give him apples or pumpkin and both help.
I know you are not joking. We get people on the forum who do this - usually with sickly, malnourished puppies who are very desperately in need of vet attention and a decent diet. I'd think anyone who fed a dog a vegetarian or vegan diet was bonkers.
Pumpkin is pretty much the tried and true loose stool cure in the US. You can't find it (or rarely only at certain times of the year) in Europe. That's why the Brits are freaking out here. This may get me some sad faces, but 20 years of experience with vets in the US has taught me one very important thing: they know very, very little about nutrition. It may have changed recently, but they used to get only a few days nutrition training (out of years of vet school) and that was sponsored by one of the big manufactured pet food companies like Science Diet. Most of the time all that lovely fancy expensive food that they sell in their practice is not very good quality (look at the ingredients - there are a ton of fillers and "meals") but people don't question it because the vet recommends it. So I'd take your vet tech's balking at pumpkin with a very big grain of salt. My pup had a dodgy tummy at times and I would crank back the ingredients in his food (I cooked fresh for him) to 1-2 ingredients and then add stuff back in as his stool firmed up. Sweet potato is a good alternative if you can't find pumpkin. Also for mine (no chicken allergies), white chicken breast with no skin/fat and steel cut oatmeal cooked a very long time. Stuff that didn't work but that I've had recommended to me over the years: potatoes, rice, pasta (recommended by our vet in Italy, LOL), yoghurt, cottage cheese. Also I finally found a probiotic that really helped, but these are controversial and vary so much between products (no regulation or oversight of manufacturers). But having said ALL that, probably a little pumpkin and he will be right as rain.
Very much agree with the Vet + nutrition. We got lucky that our vet didn't tell us what to feed/not feed, but explained to us what to look for in a food - specific ingredients to look for and what to stay away from and that anything we decided that worked for our dog in those parameters would be fine. I think that is pretty rare around here - most stock only Hills or Science Diet and push that - starting with a free bag on your first puppy visit.
That's true about vets. When T first started having butt problems I asked the vet and they were like, "Well you could put him on this special food we have..." (LOL like $80 a bag) OR "You could try some pumpkin in his food." Sweet potato is a good alternative to pumpkin! I wouldn't feed a dog potatoes or pasta lol. Pasta, really? Haha. Rice works when it's part of a bland diet with boiled chicken (all mixed and boiled together). But steel-cut oats are by far the best. I feed them to my boy with chicken and goat's milk when his tummy is wonky. Oddly enough, we feed our cats Hills and have tried to give them different brands but the hairballs were enough to kill us.
I'm not sure it's 'Brits' in general. And it's certainly not because I can't buy canned pumpkin. It's because it sounds like a mad thing to do. Like homeopathy. Or stuff like that. You know, the old wives tales that everyone believes but are just bonkers. But, ok. So why does it work then?
@JulieT - You mean you aren't on a mad scramble at the store trying to get your hands on some canned pumpkin? Lol. My understanding is that it basically works the same as fiber with humans; it just regulates stool at either end of the spectrum and aids in digestion.
