One of my beagles has the runs today, big time.

He pooped once this morning and it was normal. But since then, he's gone 3 more times and it's been diarrhea each time. Plus, he's been passing gas alot.

I'm going to go out and buy some Pedialyte and hopefully he will drink it. But, I'm not sure if this is something to be concerned about.

His daily diet is:

Blue Buffalo with Dr. Pitcairn's healthy powder and a shot of salmon oil
And then at night, I always give him a raw chicken wing or something along those lines.

Should I just wait this out a couple days and see what happens?

Thanks.

P.S. How much Pedialyte should I give him?

Little help?

I would give him boiled hamburger and rice. Rinse the hamburger well with some hot water to get out all the grease. That should help

Go to the store and buy plain canned pumpkin. Give maybe 1/4 cup and and give some more later. Pumpkin will naturally help with the loose stool. I learned about this here on Chaz and it works every time.

Thanks for the advice!

Well, Bailey is about 6 months, and we have already had a few major incidents at the vet from things he has ingested. With beagles, they are constantly eating stuff (at lease mine dones), do you recall him picking anything different up or you doing anything different in the yard or his surroundings?

From what my vet has told me, the diarrah (although not good), is ok for a little while but once they start to vomit, it's time to go to the vet.

Good luck and please keep us posted on his condition!

You got that right. Their noses are basically attached to the ground. It is very possible. I don't recall seeing him eat anything out of the ordinary, but it is indeed possible.

My female, Samantha, vomitted a few days ago because she apparently ate a piece of yarn.

Beagles definitely walk to the beat of a different drum.

They've been eating BLUE since November, which is when I rescued them.

As long as there is no blood in the stool and no vomiting and the individual is acting normal then its probably ok to watch for a day or two to see if the condition resolves by itself.

As a general rule it is probably better to feed him nothing for a while rather than try to get him to eat/drink something that the system is not used to. Anything new has as good a chance of upsetting things further as it does of being helpful. No food and only water for 12 -18 hrs will not harm and will allow the gut to settle.

Just an interesting bit of info that is not generally appreciated by people.
Diarrhoea is caused by both an increase in gut motility AND a decrease in gut motility. Either scenario can lead to diarrhoea. Thus if the cause is a decreased motility and you give a medication to slow the gut motility
down (most over the counter preps) then its obvious you are not helping the situation!

It is always better to be conservative initially.

Hi!

What's "gut motility"?

Food is moved along from the stomach to the rectum by "gut motility" - too much OR too little can lead to the runs because it interferes with the normal absorbtion of fluid from the intestines in the course of normal digestion. More fluid than normal in the intestines = the runs.

Hope that helps (and doesn't confuse further!!)

what kinds of things can increase or decrease gut motility? my puppy's poop will be fine one time and then be like toothpaste the next and i'm trying to find out why... maybe too much water?

An excessive intake of water will lead to increased urination, not the runs. You need to consider things like diet variations (including milk),worm infestation, other infectious agents like giardia, bacteria and viruses etc,etc.
It can be a slow process of elimination but taking a stool sample to your vet would be a good place to start.

When a dog has diarrhea, it's better to fast them for a while rather than just switching to different food.

If the stool is just a little loose, adding a bit of canned pumpkin to meals may help, but if it is full-blown diarrhea, food should be withheld so the digestive tract can get a rest and turn resources towards healing itself. A 24 to 48 hour fast and then slowly starting up again with a bland diet usually does the trick, and if it doesn't, it's definiely time to see the vet to rule out inflammation etc.