Causes of sickness and diarrhoea?
General Bug: Picked up on walks or from day care settings.
Reaction to Cleaning Products: From at-home cleaning products.
Non-natural Food or Treats: Consumption of inappropriate foods or treats.
Bile Vomit: Also known as hunger pukes.
Regurgitation: Natural behaviour in dogs, often after gorging.
Recent Vaccinations/Treatments: Vaccines, flea, or worm treatments causing reactions like vomiting, diarrhoea, or hot spots.
Protein Intolerance/Allergy: Rare on a raw diet but possible.
Stress/Anxiety: Behaviour changes, including lethargy, can trigger sickness and diarrhoea.
Try not to panic, all our dogs go through this at some point in their lives. It’s usually nothing to worry about, however...
Seek professional veterinary advice if:
There has been 3 instances or more of vomiting or diarrhoea or both in the last 24hrs.
Any amount of Vomiting or diarrhoea in a dog with medication or health condition
Any signs of lethargy, behaviour changes, pain or injury
Any blood / possible blood in the vomit or diarrhoea
If in doubt, do not ask Facebook. Do contact your vet. A vet practice or emergency vet practice can triage over the phone to determine whether they need to see your dog or not. Many insurance policies now offer a video vet option as a part of their policies, this can give you quick access to a medical professional if you need it too but they may recommend you then contact your own vet too.
The Recovery Process
The old recommendation from vets in times of illness was to feed chicken & rice, however the science has evolved now to show that dogs cannot digest rice well; it raises blood sugars and can cause inflammation in the GI tract. White rice, high on the glycaemic index, can spike blood glucose levels and is mostly genetically modified.
RFFDMSUK have therefore designed the below process, tested with our own dogs over the years, to ensure it is both safe and effective.
Up to 5 days recovery plan:
This plan should be used for a maximum of 5 days
This plan uses boneless food. This can be chunks, mince, breasts, fillets - whatever you can access as long as it is 100% boneless and has no salt or additives.
This can be purchased from raw pet food suppliers or supermarkets.
Boil and feed any of these 3 BONELESS options, including some of the liquid from cooking once its cooled (helps to replace any fluids lost during the illness):
Chicken
Turkey
White Fish
Get a good gut support added into the meals, this will help sooth from the inside and help firm up any diarrhoea. If UK Based we find adding one of these helps:
***If your dog is prescribed medication always discuss supplements with them. If your dog is on antibiotics Four Leaf Rover Saccharomyces Boulardi is required as it is clinically proven to not affect, or be affected by antibiotics
Include some bone broth for additional gut support as well as getting extra hydration into them whilst getting important nutrients as well. Either a homemade bone broth or a branded dog safe pre-made broth can be used. If UK based some options for pre-made bone broth are:
Note: It is common for dogs to be reluctant to eat after being unwell, small meals with the daily feeding amount split between 5-6 meals can help.
Up to 10 days recovery plan:
If your vet advises you that you need to feed cooked food to your dog for up to 10 days please add in fruits & vegetables (see the guide on fruits & vegetables for some popular options).
Karnlea Pumpkin Powder is a particularly popular choice as it can aid digestive health, but as it is in powder form the majority of the natural sugars have been evaporated so it is also often ok for those with yeasty dogs even
You could feed a raw meaty bone for the bone content separately to the cooked food (of course NEVER feed cooked bones), or if not you could add Aniforte ground beef bones or ground horse bones for the bone content (this is of course not as beneficial as an actual raw meaty bone but it is a safe substitute)
Don’t forget to add in offal too, liver should always make up 5%, plus another 5% secreting organ such as kidney, spleen, testicles, sweetbread, pancreas or brain
Remember, you do not want to incinerate the food, just cook it through (white meat should be white throughout when cooked)
To this we would recommend adding an egg (you can lightly scramble so its still wet, or soft boil it, for the purposes of recovery), 2-3 times a week.
You could also also add in some raw oily fish (or if not possible then algae oil can be added which is).
Another great add on would be Aniforte Colostrum and Bovine Blood to help to support the microbiome.
Note: It is common for dogs to be reluctant to eat after being unwell, small meals with the daily feeding amount split between 5-6 meals can help.
Over 10 days recovery:
If your vet needs you to feed cooked food for longer than 10 days please consider a gently cooked / lightly steamed pre-made option such as Different Dog, until you can return to raw.
After the illness/recovery:
Once the sickness/ diarrhoea has passed you can return to previous diet.
If feeding a raw diet then we recommend sticking to a gentle 80.10.10 protein for the first few days such as turkey or chicken.
We would recommend using River & Wren Botanical Detox after any medications are completed, to help to detox your dogs body from the effects these can have. Alternatively, Prodog Raw Revive may be another option for you to help aid your dog through their recovery
The Truth about the foods most commonly recommended on social media
You often hear about people including some of the following to their pets diet when poorly however these are not foods we would suggest feeding whilst sickness or diarrhoea are occurring and this is why.
Rice: Rice should be avoided as is high on the glycaemic index which will cause a spike in the blood glucose levels. Due to the starchy nature of rice it will increase the inflammation in the GI tract.
Sweet Potato: Provides a great source of vitamins and minerals however not all dogs can tolerate them. Sweet potato contains natural sugars, like any root vegetable, that can build up a yeast infection. If feeding this ensure it is lightly steamed to aid digestion.
Pumpkin Flesh: Pumpkin flesh should be fed with extreme caution. It is packed with vitamins that can boost the immune system whilst recovering from illness & is a good source of soluble fibre however it can cause some dogs to become itchy or yeasty. If feeding this never ever feed Pie filling
Human Gravy: Instant / powder / granule gravy is high in salt and fat, some common ingredients found in human gravy are Palm oil, potato starch & onion these are all ingredients to avoid for dogs. Ingredients such as wheat flour is high calorie and pro-inflammatory.
Additional hints & tips
These are some additional extra’s that can be added during the recovery to help aid in recovery and just give an extra boost for your dogs.
Wormcount: Get a Wormcount kit if you haven’t recently carried one out, get a kit that includes a giardia test as this helps to further rule out something more serious.
Eggs: Loosely scrambled egg, but still wet, while recovering can help add hydration and its naturally binding too. Eggs are packed with every essential amino acid needed to sustain life and includes antioxidants!
Prebiotics: Prebiotics can help control inflammation around the body as well as providing antioxidant nutrients. Helps to stimulate appetite and fights virus’ and infections
Probiotics: Probiotics help replace bad bacteria with good bacteria. Kefir, especially when formulated for dogs specifically, can contain up to 61 strains of bacteria making it a potent choice as a probiotic.
Vitamin Water: Special shout out to Stef from Stef’s Pet Pantry for this idea, creating vitamin water by using dog safe fruits and herbs (such as blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, cucumber, nettle, dandelion) can give that extra boost to the body. (Use caution in dogs with known health conditions)
RFFDMSUK Privacy Policy can be found here, our Statement of Transparency is here, and our Terms & Conditions here