Green diarrhea in the puppy indicates obvious health problems. The difficulty is that diarrhea is only a symptom, and treatment can be prescribed only after determining the cause that caused this symptom. Let’s figure out why the puppy can have green diarrhea and what to do to help the pet.
Norms and pathologies
In the body of any living being, all organs and systems are equivalent. It is generally believed that the heart or the brain is more important than, for example, the stomach or intestines. In fact, the digestive system feeds the entire body and when it is not in order, absolutely all organs suffer.
Normally, the digestion of food begins immediately after it enters the oral cavity. Saliva softens the food and partially prepares for digestion. After swallowing, food moves through the esophagus to the stomach. The stomach consists of dense muscle tissue and is constantly shrinking. The mucous membrane of the stomach is adapted to work in an acidic environment, since solid food is prepared for digestion when exposed to high acid secrets.
The process of digesting food does not begin in the stomach, but in the intestine. In order for the food to be properly digested, the dog’s intestines should be populated with friendly microflora and saturated with enzymes. Moving along the small intestine, the food is treated with bile and special secrets, which are produced by the mucous membranes.
The speed of digestion depends largely on the age and size of the dog. A puppy needs 2-4 hours on average to digest a normal portion of food. During this time, the food that moves through the intestines is fermented and split into useful substances and waste products. Useful substances are brought up in the bloodstream through the mucous membrane, and the products from which are derived naturally.
After switching to adult food, at the age of 4 months and older, the normal feces in the puppy are brown, dense in consistency and fairly high humidity. If the dog’s fur is soiled in the area of the anus, the owner should carefully monitor the condition of the puppy, as the situation and the development of diarrhea can be aggravated.
The color of feces directly depends on the diet of the dog. At the age from birth to 1 month, the puppy’s diet consists only of milk, so normally the feces have a yellow color and a soft consistency. Up to 4 months of age, most of the dog’s diet consists of protein foods: dairy and meat products. Since the puppy most often feeds on crushed or liquid food, the consistency of stool remains soft and plastic, but also their color darkens.
Normal color and consistency of stools are observed only after the puppy is fully transferred to adult food, at the age of 4-6 months. Diarrhea can occur during this period due to the change of milk teeth to the root. This event is a great stress for the body and can give unexpected consequences.
Causes of green diarrhea and first aid
For a puppy who is transferred to an adult diet, the yellow and green color of stool is not the norm. Green staining of stool can indicate a process of decay or a glut of bile.
The first of the reasons that can be considered is liver failure or the pathology of the gallbladder and ducts. To diagnose such diseases at such an early age is difficult, and most owners believe that puppies do not have such diseases. Of course, hepatic insufficiency in a puppy is a rarity, but such a pathology can be congenital or hereditary.
Important! In acute liver failure in dogs can be jaundice, and stools “can dial” a bright yellow color.
In order to make sure that the liver and gall bladder of the dog are healthy, it is necessary to donate blood for laboratory analysis. When submitting the sample to the laboratory, please specify that you need not only an expanded, but also a biochemical blood test. When receiving the results, pay special attention to the level of bilirubin, if it is raised or lowered, the puppy has problems with the liver.
The appearance of green diarrhea can contribute to dysbacteriosis. Until recently, veterinarians did not recognize that carnivorous animals can develop dysbiosis. Pathology implies the replacement of colonies of friendly bacteria in the intestines, pathogenic microflora. This can happen if the dog has suffered a serious illness or was subjected to aggressive treatment. Dysbacteriosis is very often observed in puppies, which were fed artificially.
To eliminate this disorder, it is enough to transfer the pet to a diet or to resort to the use of drugs containing lacto- and bifidobacteria. Diet for eliminating dysbacteriosis involves increasing the mass fraction of natural fermented and fermented foods in the dog’s diet. It should be understood that in the store you do not buy natural yogurt or cottage cheese, it will have to be cooked independently on the basis of home-made milk.
Important! With dysbiosis, green and yellow diarrhea in the puppy can alternate.
Natural dairy products are very useful, but when they are introduced into the diet of a dog it is worth considering the fat content of the product. If the cottage cheese is made from homemade milk, it has a high fat content, which can lead to diarrhea or aggravate the condition of the animal. To eliminate dysbacteriosis, the optimal fermented milk products are kefir or homemade yogurt.
Staining of fecal matter can give an excess of iron. With a natural diet, the dog does not receive as much iron as possible, so that its feces become green. However, when using mineral supplements or specialized feeds of poor quality, this is likely. Economy class food contains dyes.
Remember! Quality dry food has a uniform color, consistency and has no sharp odor.
When introducing mineral supplements into your diet, you should strictly adhere to the dosage. If you are not sure how to use the supplement you need to study the instructions or contact the veterinarian for advice.
One of the indicative symptoms of a very dangerous parvoviral enteritis is considered to be green diarrhea with blood. With viral enteritis in feces there is a distinct smell of rot. The incubation period of parvovirus enteritis can vary from 3 to 7 days.
On the first day of development of acute form, the dog looks weakened and apathetic, can refuse food and sleep for a long time. Against the background of weakness in the puppy develops diarrhea, which has a yellow color or a watery structure. If the condition worsens, which occurs within 10-12 hours, the fecal masses become green and start to smell very unpleasant.
Further, the pathology passes into an acute form, which is called the critical period. In fecal masses there is a sufficiently large amount of blood, and if untimely assistance is provided, vomiting develops with bloody inclusions. Treatment of enteritis is very troublesome and does not guarantee success. Despite the prevalence of the virus, the universal method of its treatment has not yet been invented. To prevent parvovirus enteritis infection in a puppy, it is necessary to inoculate, but even the best vaccination does not guarantee that the dog will not get sick.
