How long with diarrhea before go to vet?

[StaceyMG]

Hi, my dog has had diarrhea now for 24 hrs. It's been bad enough that he woke me up in the middle of the night to go and then all day today as soon as he has to go, he freaks out at the back door because he has to go really bad. It was brown until recently, now it is yellow. He's acting pretty lethargic and wanting to cuddle a lot. I've given him 2 ice cubes since he isn't drinking his water and he's had about 3/4 of a cup of rice throughout the day and a little bit of chicken. My dog has white fur and one time when he went, it kind of looked like there was a little bit of red on his rear end, but his poop was not red. I know that dogs can often get diarrhea so I don't what to be overreacting but at what point should I take him into see the vet? Should I be concerned if he still has it all day tomorrow despite me only feeding him rice? Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

[SmallBarkBigBite]

I used to be a K9 handler, our dog of choice was a German Shepherd. I have also owned a GSD and a Belgian Malinois personally. These types of dogs are prone to this problem so I have a lot of experience with it. Typically every vet I have ever worked with has told me upon severe diarrhea, to rest the gut for 24 hours, unless the dog is a puppy (they don't usually want to keep food from a growing puppy, no matter what). If the dog is an adult, witholding food might seem cruel, but in actuality it gives the intestines time to slow down and make the inflammation go away. Then after 24 hours, slowly introduce small meals of rice. Now as for the possibly having blood in the stool, I will tell you that in some dogs this happens when the bowels are really angry so to speak, it may occur in small amounts and is not a problem. However, if your dog is lethargic and this not something that is typical with your dog, I would definitely seek the help of your local vet, just to be safe, as passing blood may be a sign of something more serious. Better safe than sorry.

[Nettle]

What a lovely dog you have, trying to be clean even through this. Love him for it!

Keep him well hydrated, and if necessary make a broth out of a real bone/bones or some real chicken, strain off and add a LITTLE salt and a tablespoonful of honey and syringe the liquid into his mouth if he won't drink. Hydration is critically important. You can feed the cooked-out chicken meat but not the cooked bones.

Give plain bio yoghurt with honey, and add some stewed apple, pear or pumpkin. This is very good for settling digestions and restoring intestinal flora.

It sounds as if the diarrhoea is running a correct course but we cannot replace your vet, so if you are at all worried or it goes on for more than another day with no sign of improvement, or he is running a high temperature, you are best to go to a vet.