Older dogs and dogs that have to take lots of medications can struggle with what I call BBD – Bad Belly Day. Lula was on so many medications that she often had bouts of nausea and diarrhea. Some days she just did not want to eat. One of my neighbors suggested 100% pumpkin. She had heard it from a friend so I decided to do a little research and try it. Research indicated pumpkin is good for constipation and diarrhea!
Lula took daily medications for her hips, her hocks and incontinence. She was also sensitive to corn and wheat. So she would frequently develop diarrhea for 1-2 days. During those bouts, I would feed her rice and chicken broth. She would often go completely off all food for days with the diarrhea. The first time I tried the pumpkin, she had been off all food for days so I gaveher some rice mixed with pumpkin. She ate it all and within 24 hours she was all better.
We began the regime of a spoonful of pumpkin a day and found that her BBD’s became less frequent and Lula LOVED her pumpkin. I know use pumpkin with many of my dogs. Louie and Radar both get pumpkin to keep their poop more solid. I do not give it to them every day like Lula but as soon as I see some loose stool, I pull out the pumpkin. I normally give the dog with the problem a few days of about 2 tablespoons of pumpkin and then go to one tablespoon a day to each dog until the can is empty.
Make sure you get the canned 100% Pumpkin NOT Pumpkin Pie Filling (it has all sorts of spices and stuff in it) If you aren’t sure, read the ingredients it should just list Pumpkin. I stock up when it is on sale, usually can get good deals around Thanksgiving and the holidays.
Pam,
Barrow has the worst hot spots and itching. We’ve had him for 18 months, and NOTHING has helped. Fresh Factors seemed to help some at first. I know a lot of it is a yeast problem, as he really does smell bad. I tried Dinovite for the month of October, and I swear it got worse 🙁 I did order a 4-star pet food from Chewys (Precise)which comes today, and will order Dr. Tim’s 5 star food next. Do you think pumpkin could help with itching and gnawing? Thanks! Ann 🙂
Hi Ann,
Lula had that horrible yeast smell as well and I switched her to a No Corn and No Wheat diet, including treats, snacks everything. It took about 4-6 weeks for it to improve but it did. I would check the ingredient list on the food and make sure it does not have any corn or wheat of any type in it. I fed her Nutro Natural Choice Chicken Meal and Brown Rice. I am now using Fromm’s Gold Standard and I know it does not have corn, pretty sure from memory it does not have wheat but I think it has barley. Have you tried using any Benadryl to help with the itching when it is bad? That might help alleviate some of the discomfort while you are waiting to see if the corn and wheat are allergens. I found some of the worst culprits in Lula’s allergies were the treats I was giving her. Even hot dogs have corn starch in them! Who knew!