Diarrhea vs. Explosive Diarrhea
It may seem like it’s just a little word. Explosive. But if your dog has explosive diarrhea? You know that it’s a BIG problem.
A messy one too. Because while diarrhea in dogs is nasty enough, explosive diarrhea in dogs means that it’ll go everywhere and your poor pup has little control. Moreover, it means that it’s a huge gut health problem and his small intestine needs your help!
What Causes Explosive Diarrhea in Dogs?
Diarrhea, in general, is what happens when your dog’s stool is watery. Like he’s peeing Hershey’s syrup-watery.
Your dog is likely to have a leaky butt and it might look and smell like a bunch of vegan brownies (we kid, we kid).
But when it’s explosive diarrhea, it looks and smells like a bunch of butt dynamite went off. And your poor dog looks like someone just set it off for no good reason!
What dog diarrhea really means is that your dog’s fecal matter is going through his gut too quickly–meaning he’s not absorbing enough water, nutrients and electrolytes. It’s a sign something isn’t right.
Explosive diarrhea in dogs usually means that his gut is out of whack and the trouble can be traced all the way to his small intestine. Other potential and most common causes include:
- Liver or kidney disease
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Antibiotics or swallowing human medications
- Viral or Bacterial infection
- Colitis, or inflammation of the large intestine
- Sudden diet change (i.e. switching your dog’s food)
- Garbage gut causing upset stomach
- Dietary indiscretion: Eating garbage, foreign objects, or too much table scraps
- Trauma to the gastrointestinal tract (i.e. from eating bones)
Good dog gut health begins with the first bite of food he takes. The small intestine is where his gut digests food and absorbs fluid. If the appropriate amount of fluid isn’t being absorbed (whether due to inflammation or infection or some other dysfunction), you get the joy of cleaning up poop soup. The water that would normally absorb into your dog’s bloodstream instead gets pent up inside his gut and…well, what went in goes out pretty explosively.
Most dog diarrhea cases can be solved fairly easily by normalizing stool consistency with specially formulated dog foods or following a bland diet for a few days. However, if it takes more than a day or two, we recommend consulting your veterinarian. If your furry friend has bloody diarrhea, you should contact your vet immediately. Bloody or black diarrhea can be a life threatening problem and requires expert veterinary care including physical examination, blood tests, fecal cultures etc. to find the underlying cause.
What Can Make My Pup’s Gut Give Him Diarrhea?
If your best friend has a case of nuclear diarrhea, there are several reasons this could be.
Most ALL lead back to the gut (have we mentioned that good health begins in the gut?) and commonly include various parasites your dog may have come in contact with.
Dogs, especially the young dogs, love to put stuff in their mouth and Giardia and internal intestinal parasites often end up getting ingested and wreaking havoc on their gut.
Additionally, dogs are known for finding the nastiest garbage grunge delectable. They’ll eat rotten or spoiled food like it’s their job and this can give them bacterial infections that include clostridia, salmonella, campylobacter and more.
That’ll send your dog’s gut warriors (good bacteria) into overdrive to fight and the end is a bottom-blast of epic proportions.
Basically, anything that makes your dog’s gut imbalanced or irritated can cause severe diarrhea and needs to be addressed.
Explosive diarrhea means your dog loses fluids pretty rapidly and that can lead to significant dehydration. In rare cases, pancreatitis, inflammatory bowel disease or even lymphoma could be the cause of your dog’s diarrhea, but it’s typically a gut issue without any other symptom presentation.
Your dog’s gut, or his microbiome is full of bacteria. A community of bacteria, actually, and it works together to keep your dog’s immune system healthy by fueling his body.
When you feed your dog, a healthy microbiome is what allows his body to absorb all the nutrition he needs. The helpful bacteria in your dog’s gut (probiotics) is key to a healthy microbiome.
But when that bacteria gets overthrown by harmful bacteria (that can come from rotten food or infection or poor diet), your dog’s gut suffers. It can no longer optimally absorb food, and without good fiber to absorb the excess water in your dog’s intestinal tract, it’s like there’s a poop pool party from your dog’s rear end.
You have to take action.
How Can I Help if My Dog Has Explosive Diarrhea?
Most importantly, ensure your dog is hydrated. Dehydration makes things worse, and while you may think, “But he’s already just pooing nothing but watery stool,” the truth is, he really isn’t keeping fluids down or in and he needs to be hydrated.
If your dog’s explosive diarrhea bouts keep happening and they seem like he’s putting out more than he can take in (consider measuring how much water he drinks), contact your vet.
If it seems like your dog’s explosive diarrhea isn’t keeping him from wanting to catch his frisbee or play with his favorite toy still, keep an eye on them. It’s likely there’s gut irritation and working to ensure a healthy gut will help.
Some experts recommend fasting your dog for about 24 hours so his gut can recover but be sure they have access to water.
When your dog’s bout of explosive diarrhea seems calmer, consider giving easy-to-digest foods (chicken and rice are always faves for dogs) and working on ensuring they have their best dog gut health.
If you want to know more about what can cause diarrhea and how you can help, you can find that here.
Bernie’s Perfect Poop: How To Say, “Heck No!” to Colon Blow
The best way to help prevent explosive dog diarrhea is to ensure your dog’s gut is as healthy as it can be. And that’s where Bernie’s Perfect Poop comes in.
When you give your dog these delicious Miscanthus grass bits, you’re giving him a dose of gut health with every meal.
Perfect Poop does just what it says it does–works to give your dog the perfect poop. Poop that has just the right consistency and isn’t a big old mess of dookie vomit. With high-quality fiber ensuring there’s enough water absorption and the right speed through the gut, your dog’s watery nightmare can firm up quickly.
The pre- and probiotics in Bernie’s Perfect Poop help make your dog’s microbiome one of flourishing healthy bacteria that will prevent any irritants in his gut from making a batch of poop-soup-diarrhea.
The digestive enzymes start breaking food down for maximum absorption at the first bite, and all these clean and natural ingredients work together to fortify your dog’s gut and ensure that what goes in comes out as it should (instead of all over your floor and walls. Eww!).
Severe diarrhea is no fun for anyone, but giving your dog Bernie’s Perfect Poop every day can help ensure his gut is the healthiest it can be.
In fact, that’s why you want to give him Perfect Poop every day. You want a dog with a healthy gut all the time so you don’t even get to explosive dog diarrhea.
Healthy guts make for happy butts, as we say around here. Doesn’t hurt when it comes to cleaning up soft stools either!
