Dog gastroenteritis is also a common problem for dogs. The main symptoms of gastroenteritis are diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, fever, and toxemia, the severity of which varies depending on the cause and stage of the disease. Let me introduce the relevant knowledge of "dog gastroenteritis" to all dog owners.

Enteritis refers to acute or chronic inflammatory disease of the intestinal mucosa. Enteritis can occur as a separate disease affecting only the small intestine, but more commonly it is widespread inflammation of the stomach, small intestine, and colon. Enteritis is a general term that includes inflammation of the stomach, small intestine and colon.

[Cause] The cause of enteritis is roughly the same as that of gastritis, but this disease is usually secondary to certain infectious diseases, parasitic diseases, and toxic diseases. Such as: canine distemper, parvovirus, coronavirus, tapeworm, roundworm, hookworm, whipworm, trichomonas, organophosphorus poisoning and other pesticide poisoning. In addition, pathogenic bacteria can also cause enteritis. For example: Escherichia coli, salmonella, Proteus, etc. can cause enteritis.

[Symptoms]The main symptoms of enteritis are diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and toxemia.

At the beginning of the disease, intestinal catarrhal symptoms often appear, with mucus and soft stools in the stool. When inflammation spreads to the submucosal tissue, the stool will be watery and smelly. When there is inflammation in the duodenum, vomiting symptoms may occur. When the intestinal mucosa is damaged and bleeding, the feces will be tomato paste color with a fishy smell, tenesmus, and anal incontinence in severe dogs.

Severe changes in the whole body include depression, slow reaction, general weakness, body temperature rising above 40-41°C, tachycardia, visible mucosal cyanosis, sunken eyeballs, high degree of dehydration, and acidosis. Severe cases may cause coma or death from self-poisoning.

What should I do if my dog ​​has gastroenteritis?

1. Adjust eating habits

Since the disease enters through the mouth, drug treatment only treats the symptoms but not the root cause. If you want your dog’s stomach to suffer less, you should adjust your eating habits, avoid frequent food changes, and feed your dog reasonably.

To adjust your eating habits, you must first change the type of food. The food should be fresh, easy to digest and absorb, and can also be based on dog food with rich nutritional ingredients. Don’t feed your dog harsh, hard foods.

2. Eat less seafood and other allergenic foods

To avoid food allergies, dogs should eat less shellfish, meat, high-fat, offal and seafood foods.

3. Eat small meals often

Feed small and frequent meals every day to avoid adding burden to the dog’s gastrointestinal tract.

4. Changing food requires a process

When replacing food, you need to slowly add and replace it. Generally speaking, a one-week replacement period is better, that is, slowly add new food until one week later, completely replace it with the new food.

5. Feed probiotics

Common drugs for treating gastrointestinal discomfort in dogs include probiotics, etc. Probiotics are an essential factor for pet gastrointestinal health and even body health. Supplementing pets with probiotics every day can maintain the health of the gastrointestinal tract.

Probiotics are basically powdered drugs that can be licked by pets or dissolved in water for drinking, or mixed into food for feeding. Generally, the dog's condition will improve after taking probiotics.