How To Manage Dog Diarrhea After Antibiotics

Our dogs are walking, barking ecosystems.  

Your dog has trillions of organisms in his body. Bacteria, fungi, archaea, and eukaryotes make up the canine microbiome … and they outnumber the cells in his body 10:1. They’re everywhere … in your dog’s gut, spread all over his skin, lungs and urinary tract and even in places like his nailbeds,.

The canine microbiome helps protect against disease, maintain healthy digestion and regulate hormones. So, a healthy microbiome = a healthy dog.

But what happens when you add the side effects of antibiotics in dogs into the equation? What can you do to prevent and manage dog diarrhea after antibiotics?

What Is Dysbiosis In Dogs?

Dysbiosis is when the canine microbiome is out of balance (1). There’s tons of evidence linking an imbalanced microbiome to a variety of diseases. Here are just a few of them …

• Obesity: There’s evidence that improving the microbiome of overweight dogs can help weight loss (2).
• Mental health: New research shows a link between aggression and dysbiosis (3)
• Cancer: Dysbiosis has been linked to the development of several different cancers … such as intestinal lymphoma (4).
• Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI): A diseased pancreas doesn’t digest food effectively. One study has shown that dogs with EPI often have dysbiosis (5).
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): New evidence shows that the microbiome destroys sick immune cells that can cause diseases like IBD.
• Infections: A dysfunctional microbiome leaves your dog vulnerable to infections.
• Diarrhea: Processed foods, disease and antibiotics weaken the microbiome, allowing disease-causing organisms to flourish.

Unfortunately, veterinarians often prescribe antibiotics for just about any illness in your dog. And that leads to long term gut damage that weakens your dog’s ability to resist disease.

How Antibiotics Harm The Microbiome

Antibiotics have the same effect on the microbiome as bulldozers in a rainforest. They destroy everything in their path.

A few organisms in the microbiome are resistant to some common antibiotics. Many are not. This means that antibiotics kill the beneficial organisms as well as the bad ones … and that leads to dysbiosis and exposes your dog to some of the diseases listed earlier.

And it isn’t just antibiotics that can harm these beneficial organisms. Your dog’s microbiome is also sensitive to many other drugs and foods. One example is a proton pump inhibitor drug called omeprazole. This drug helps suppress stomach acid, in both humans and dogs. While further studies are needed, this drug has already been linked to dysbiosis (6).

What Can You Give A Dog For Upset Stomach From Antibiotics?

Here’s what to do to help protect your dog from antibiotic damage … and restore his gut health after antibiotics.

What To Feed A Dog On Antibiotics

A raw diet (which is also high protein low carb – HPLC) improves diversity in the gut microbiome. Some studies have even shown knock-on effects with obesity. Beagles and Labradors lost weight … while minimizing muscle loss … on a HPLC diet supplemented with fiber (7).

The most important thing to prevent dysbiosis is to avoid dry food (yes, that means kibble) … which is always high in carbohydrate. A raw, fresh food diet can promote a more balanced gut microbiome. Balanced and nutritious high protein, low carb, raw food is usually the best diet for your dog. Dogs don’t need starchy carbohydrates in their diet.

Give Spore-Forming Probiotics

To rebuild the canine microbiome, give a probiotic that contains a wide variety of bacteria. If you buy a probiotic, the best type of probiotic includes soil-based organisms that are spore-forming, like Bacillus strains.

Spore-forming strains form a hard coating that protects them from heat, stomach acids … and most antibiotics (9, 10).

You can also feed probiotic foods like kimchi and fermented veggies.

RELATED: Learn which are the best probiotics for dogs …

Give S Boulardii Probiotic Yeast For Diarrhea

Saccharomyces boulardii is a probiotic yeast. It’s been shown to be highly effective in resolving dog diarrhea after antibiotics. S. boulardii treats acute and chronic diarrhea in humans … and research iin dogs shows the same results (11).

S. boulardii can’t be killed by antibiotics. So you can give it when your dog’s taking antibiotics, to help protect the beneficial gut bacteria and prevent antibiotic-related diarrhea. This makes it one of the most effective probiotics for dogs on antibiotics.

You can give S boulardii on its own or along with other probiotics. It’s a great supplement to keep in your fridge …for the dogs and people in your home.

RELATED: Find out more about how S.boulardii can help your dog …

Add Prebiotics

Don’t forget to feed the probiotics with prebiotics. Prebiotics are a type of dietary fiber that help feed the microbiome in the gut. Studies show that prebiotics help improve digestion in our dogs. Some great natural sources of prebiotics include bananas, dandelion greens, and asparagus. You can also buy prebiotic supplements or find a probiotic supplement that contains prebiotics as well.

Why You Should Avoid Antibiotics For Dogs

Veterinarians are under increasing pressure to prescribe antibiotics. Unfortunately, drug companies feed a lot of misleading information to vets. Combined with pressure from peers, this leads a lot of vets to over-use antibiotics. In fact, the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) Task Force For Antimicrobial Stewardship in Companion Animals said it “seems likely” that the amount of unnecessary use of antibiotics in companion animal settings is close to 50% .

Massive antibiotic misuse has led to the development of antibiotic-resistant organisms. These organisms continue to flourish even when treated with our strongest medicines. There are even concerns that otherwise healthy dogs carry and spread these bugs.

There’s a chance that some day your dog will come across a disease that his immune system can’t fight off. It’s important to use antibiotics sparingly, and only when they’re really necessary. Always make an informed decision when it comes to antibiotic use in your dog. Where the situation is not life-threatening, consider other options.

Be sure to make it clear to your veterinarian that you would prefer to avoid unnecessary antibiotic use. There are many natural alternatives that won’t cause the same damage to your dog’s health.

Occasionally antibiotics may be unavoidable. If that happens, make sure you follow these steps to protect your dog’s microbiome. Your dog’s microbiome is a vital asset in the fight against disease. To keep your dog healthy and happy, you need to pay attention to gut health and do everything you can to keep it in check.