Diet for puppies is a big subject. Sudden change to a different kind of food can cause diarrhoea and this often happens at weaning time, when the change from the mother’s milk to other foods is made too quickly. Worms are another cause, particularly when the puppy looks emaciated in spite of plenty of food. The diarrhoea is usually frothy when these internal parasites are responsible.

Puppy kennels should be kept scrupulously clean and excreta removed at once if possible. Overcrowding, stuffy conditions, lack of exercise and fresh air can predispose to diarrhoea.

Leaving on one side disease and harmful bacteria as possible reasons, the owner should ask himself just why his dogs or puppies have diarrhoea, and not regard it as a perfectly normal happening.

Although referring mainly to puppies, these remarks are equally applicable to adults.

Diarrhoea occasionally results from mental upsets- for instance, when a dog has been on a long journey for the first time-but these cases are very transitory. Sometimes diarrhoea assumes an epidemic character and all or most of a kennel may be affected. This may be due to outside causes-for example, bad meat eaten by all the dogs-but in other cases it is a matter for the veterinary surgeon, who should always be consulted when the diarrhoea is not due to any ascertainable cause. It is advisable to take the temperature of an affected dog or puppy, particularly when there is also depression or other signs of malaise. There is usually a slight rise when an infection is the cause.

Prevention of this troublesome condition is, as we have seen, of prime importance and 75 per cent of the cases seen in kennels would be unnecessary with proper care and feeding and good management and hygiene.

Treatment will, of course, depend on the cause. When it is tainted food, a dose of castor oil is a safe preliminary and this may be sufficient to cure a mild case. Otherwise, a careful diet should be started, consisting mainly of milk thickened with arrowroot or corn flour and rice with milk. Do not give meat, fish, eggs, biscuits or glucose. Do not experiment with invalid foods which might aggravate the trouble, and remember that brown bread and wholemeal generally, is relaxing, so better avoided. When the animal is definitely ill, and there is weakness and prostration, Brand’s Essence is excellent.

Drugs are not usually necessary in mild, uncomplicated cases, but kaolin and charcoal (Grookes) is a useful standby, and Ghlorodyne is often successful in obstinate cases, but as this drug can be very dangerous in amateur hands it should be given only with veterinary approval. As previously mentioned, when the diarrhoea is bacterial in origin there are specific drugs obtainable from the veterinary surgeon, or on prescription, which act directly in the intestines.

Do not be persuaded by a chemist into giving patent medicines or proprietary diarrhoea powders of any kind.

Continue with the diet advised for two or three days at least, longer if necessary. Never be in a hurry to return to solid fare; the intestines must have a chance to recover and resume their normal tone by a bland, soothing diet. Make the return to a normal diet in a gradual way via baked custards, white fish boiled in milk, etc., and if there is any diarrhoea go back to the strict diet immediately. Even when ordinary fare is resumed be very careful; the sudden inclusion of rich and unsuitable items, such as herrings, can renew the whole trouble.

Many cases of diarrhoea do not need such an elaborate and strict diet, and if fish is given instead of meat, and two or three additional meals of arrowroot and milk are given, a mild case will make a speedy and complete recovery.