by Sara Jackson

Created on: June 11, 2009

Dogs suffer from both acute and chronic diarrhea. Acute diarrhea is the way for a dog's body to ride itself of harmful or unwanted toxins. Some of these toxins include ingestion of poisons, prescription medications and certain people food.

Insecticides and household cleaning products can be poisonous to dogs. If you suspect that your dog's diarrhea is a symptom of ingesting household products, then you need to get him to a veterinarian immediately, or call the poison control center. To insure your pet's safety, keep all cleaning and pesticide products safely out of reach.

Your vet may prescribe certain medications including antibiotics, which can cause an intestinal upset resulting in diarrhea. You need to contact your vet right away if you suspect your dog's diarrhea is due to side effects from their prescribed medication. You shouldn't take your pet off their medicine without consulting your veterinarian first, because he may feel that the side effect of diarrhea is necessary in order to treat the condition.

A lot of pet owners know which foods are bad for their pets, including chocolate. Chocolate is the most recognized as being fatal if ingested. Your vet should immediately be contacted if you think or have seen your dog eating chocolate.

Dogs that have chronic diarrhea will have water, or soft stool, blood or mucus in their stool and a normal-looking bowel movement followed by a soft one. They can even experience explosive diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea can last for days, resulting in weight loss, dehydration and lethargy. Causes include worms and intestinal parasites, changes in food, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), bacterial infection, liver, thyroid, or kidney disease. Eating foreign objects on a regular basis can also cause it.

Not all intestinal worms and parasites cause diarrhea. It is difficult to be sure that your dog's diarrhea is a symptom of either intestinal worms or parasites, because worms are not always visible in the animal's stool. Treatment by a vet is required if this is the known cause of your dog's diarrhea.

Changing your dog's regular food suddenly can cause an upset in the animal's digestive track. If you're going to change your dog's food, you should do it gradually. Ideally, you should mix some of the new food in with the old, and slowly increase the amount of new food. Also, owners should change their dog's water once a day, and never leave their food bowl full of food for more

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