Constipated Puppy
5 Tips for Helping a Constipated Puppy
A constipated puppy is one who is having irregular bowel movements and is showing signs of strain and discomfort during the process. The puppy may or may not show visible signs of pain. While a constipated puppy is not facing a major health problem, frequent constipation or even repeated episodes of constipation can be indications of some other issue and warrants medical intervention. Similarly, if you find that soon after ingesting some foreign object, your puppy starts showing difficulties with bowel movement and if there is accompanying distending of the stomach then you should consult a doctor. It is better to get help rather than assume that the object will be automatically ejected by the dog’s body through its feces as the intestinal passage may be blocked and causing problems.
Most often though, a constipated puppy is not facing any such major difficulty and constipation in puppies is much like in humans. Diet and regular exercise can help fix the problem.
A puppy showing signs of constipation should have a diet that has 4-5 percent fiber. There are now dog foods available with as much as 8 to 16 percent fiber. Other than these high-fiber products you can also add apples, pears, celery and carrots to your dog’s diet as this will increase the fiber intake of the puppy. Bran, canned pumpkin, milk and oil are also recommended to ease the bowel movement of a constipated puppy.
Exercise and physical activity is a must for any puppy but one that is prone to constipation is in particular need of daily workouts. If you do take your constipated puppy for daily walks and still find this problem, you can consider increasing the duration of the walks and maybe even try to make it happen more than once a day. Sometimes a puppy that has been neutered or has had some recent surgery and is significantly less physically active may have constipation. This will become alright most often as the puppy returns to a more normal level of activity and exercise.
Dog training experts also feel that plenty of outside time will allow the puppy to pass motion without holding it in; if the puppy is being house-broken, he or she may start to get worried about having an accident while inside and this can lead to excessive restraint. So exercise and outside time can serve the dual purpose of setting up healthy habits and affording the right opportunity for the puppy to poop.
Other than these two essentials, adequate water is also important to help a constipated puppy. The recommendation is that a puppy needs an ounce of water for every pound of its body weight. If you live in a hot weather region or if the weather is unseasonably warm, you should increase this recommended dose. A particularly active dog will also need to be given additional water. A dog which is inadequately hydrated is more likely to be constipated.
While you ensure that your dog has plenty of fiber, water and exercise, you can also keep an eye out to eliminate some of the causes of constipation. A curious puppy which tends to chew and eat random things is very vulnerable to eating something inappropriate. So, you should eliminate dangerous items from the immediate environment of the puppy. Also, a puppy with particularly long hair and one that is prone to lick itself can have a hairball-induced constipation. Hair can cause a block in the digestive tract. Sometimes a medicine that a puppy is taking for some other health condition can have a side effect and lead to constipation and so this is also worth considering while figuring out the causes of constipation. In older dogs, prostate problems, tumors, kidney disease and hernia can lead to constipation.
If diet and exercise alone are not enough to address the problems of a constipated puppy, there are some over the counter medicines known to help. If you do find that the problem is prolonged or repeated, you should talk about it with your veterinarian to make sure that there is no other bigger illness and to create an long-term plan for handling the constipation.