Picture this, you feed your dog dinner as usual and either A) they don’t want to eat at all or B) a few hours later you notice they’ve thrown up or they have a horrible case of diarrhea. You feel terrible. What do you do for your poor dog?

Well your dog sitters in Chandler have a few ideas you can try.

First, did you change your dog’s diet recently? If you did, did you do it abruptly? When changing our pet’s food, it should be done slowly to allow their digestive system time to acclimate and get used to it. Imagine all you’re used to eating is a bland diet of American food and WHAM you switch to funky Ethiopian or spicy Indian. YOUR stomach would get upset, too. If you just up and switched without gradually increasing the new food in with the old, that might be the dilemma.

But I didn’t change my dog’s diet. Now what?  Dogs are no different than people and they can get upset stomachs, too. Stress, maybe they ate something outside they shouldn’t have, or maybe they’ve eaten some grass with some pesticides on it. Who knows….

First thing to do if you’re dog has diarrhea is to give them pumpkin – usually a 1/2 to 3/4 cup is more than enough depending on your dog’s size. Be sure it is plain canned pumpkin with *no sugar* and NOT pie filling. The pumpkin will help bind them up and most dogs love pumpkin.

You can also try giving them plain white rice and perhaps a little plain boiled chicken (no spices) mixed in. Again think bland, easy to digest, gentle on the tummy. If that sits well with them and they eat it, consider going back to kibble slowly for the next meal. Mix half plain white rice with half kibble and see how they respond. If they do ok with that with one meal, you can probably go back to a regular diet, just monitor. If they are still having issues and that doesn’t sit well, go back to plain white rice only, or even consider not feeding them for one meal to allow their tummies time to completely settle. A dog is ok with skipping a meal.

Think about how you feel when you have an upset stomach, you don’t want to eat either, right?

If your dog STILL has an upset stomach a full 24 hours later, and is either still not eating or having continued major stomach issues even being fed the pumpkin and/or rice/chicken mixture, you may want to consider getting them to the vet. Most dogs will want to eat something after 24 hours of not eating, even if they have an upset stomach. A dog that isn’t eating is not a well dog and he may have a parasite or something else going.

Be sure your dog is staying hydrated if they have diarrhea, too. Another reason the moisture in the pumpkin and rice are good.

During one of our visits we had a client’s dog first not eat and then he threw up what he had eaten. We took these steps, by not feeding him one meal, then using plain white rice as his first meal, then a little kibble with rice, then mostly kibble with a small portion of rice and finally his regular diet. Our client’s dog was fine and back on track after 36 hours. No trip to the vet required. 🙂

If you notice your dog having some stomach upset, follow these pointers by your Chandler pet sitter and hopefully your baby will be back on track soon, too!