My Husky Has Diarrhea: Reasons Why & How To Help

When your Husky has diarrhea it’s hard to know how to help them.

You’ll want to know why it’s happened, and most important, the next steps to take in order to help them get back to normal.

This article has absolutely everything you need to know. I’ll also include infomation on when it’s time to call the vet.

How do I know this works? Over the last decade I’ve been helping thousands of husky owners handle different situations, and bouts of diarrhea is something I’m fairly familiar with.

Reasons Why Your Husky Has Diarrhea

It’s important to know why your Husky has diarrhea, as this will help you act the most appropriately. However, it can be difficult and the cause may be an undiscovered health issue, you won’t already know about

Take a look at the list below of potential causes and if you think that none of them apply, it’s best to visit your veterinarian as soon as possible for further checks.

List of causes for diarrhea in Huskies:

1. Food intolerances
2. Allergies
3. Stress
4. Sudden changes to his diet
5. Ingestion of rotten food
6. Dehydration (can be the cause and a symptom)
7. Medications
8. Ingestion of toxic/poisonous items (plants, insects, small animals)
9. Other health issues

If none of the above causes apply, it’s best to visit your veterinarian if you don’t see progress after 24 hours.

Your veterinarian will be able to check for other health issues such as:

1. Bacterial infections
2. Parasites
3. Kidney or liver disease
4. Cancer
5. Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis

How to Help Your Husky With Diarrhea: 4 Quick Solutions

Let’s go through some of the ways you can help your Husky overcome his diarrhea as soon as possible. Of course, depending on the cause of diarrhea, it may require specific treatment. I will explain when each treatment should or shouldn’t be used, depending on the situation.

1) Fasting

A tried and tested way to help most Huskies with diarrhea is to limit food or fast completely for one day.

This is not advised for puppies (under 1) or seniors (over 7).

Fasting allows your Husky’s stomach and digestive system to rest and recover before having to breakdown food again.

It’s vital to ensure your Husky drinks more water than usual to avoid dehydration from not eating.

When a husky should fast:

Fasting for one day works particularly well if the diarrhea is caused by food intolerances, allergies, changes to his diet, or ingestion of rotten or poisonous foods.

When a husky shouldn’t fast:

If your Husky is still a puppy, or over 7 years old. Fasting is not advised as young and old dogs need a constant supply of nutrition. A change such as fasting could shock their system and cause further problems.

With puppies and seniors, it’s advised to get help from your veterinarian right from the beginning. If you suspect his diarrhea to be from stress, medication or dehydration, fasting will not help.

• Popular: Why Isn’t My Husky Eating? Why & What To Do

2) Change to bland gut-friendly food

If you can fast your Husky, do that first, then follow this method. And when fasting isn’t appropriate, it’s best only to feed your Husky bland food that will not irritate his gut.

Whatever the case, you’ll want to limit his food intake to some extent, and this is to help give his digestive system a rest. Diarrhea puts a lot of stress on his digestive system and giving him too much food will likely worsen matters.

Feed your Husky three small meals per day, and try foods like diary-free yogurt, cottage cheese, cooked macaroni, white rice, plain boiled chicken breast (no skin) or pumpkin.

These foods are easily digestible and don’t typically cause irritation.

Keep the portions small and monitor how your Husky deals with this diet for the rest of the day. Keep your Husky on this diet until diarrhea improves significantly.

When to do this:
This method for helping your Husky is very safe and as long as you avoid any specific allergies your Husky has, this will nearly always help.

Something to think about:
Because of the nature of this diet, this will likely resolve any diarrhea, but it may not resolve any underlying causes such as stress or certain medication your Husky takes. So it’s always best to visit your vet for further check-ups.

Related: Why Your Dog Has Orange Poop After Eating Chicken & Rice

3) Use Pro-Pectalin

If you don’t know what Pro-Pectalin is:

Pro-Pectalin is formulated to help maintain a balanced microbial flora and promote intestinal health. Pro-Pectalin helps maintain proper gut pH, supports normal digestive function and aids in reducing occasional loose stools due to environmental stress or changes in diet.

Vetoquinol USA – https://www.vetoquinolusa.com/pro-pectalin

Pro-Pectalin is one of the best over-the-counter items you can buy to help your Husky quickly with diarrhea. It’s a safe, probiotic tablet or gel that helps harden up your Husky’s stools and soothes their digestive tract.

It’s recommended to have this in your household pet medical kit at all times. It is an inexpensive and quick method to provide relief for your Husky.

Check out the positive reviews on this item for yourself on Amazon: Vetoquinol Pro-Pectalin Oral Gel 

4) Add Pedialyte or low-sodium chicken broth to water

Dehydration can cause diarrhea, but it can also be a symptom. It has to be avoided at all costs.

The tricky thing is, most Huskies won’t want to drink water when they’re feeling sick or when they have diarrhea. It can prove to be quite difficult to get them to drink plain water, but it’s critical for a fast recovery.

You can add in some Pedialyte, which is an electrolyte drink made for children but is commonly given to dogs to help stop and prevent dehydration.

If you don’t have any Pedialyte to hand, a little amount of low-sodium chicken broth can be added to his water to get him drinking it. A tiny amount of sodium like this won’t do any harm, and the volume of water he drinks is so much more important than consuming a small amount of salt.

It may not seem like a ninja tip, but hydration is so important, I have to include it here. You should always keep your Husky drinking water, regardless of the cause of diarrhea. Dehydration is always bad, so grab the chicken broth!

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When should you see a veterinarian?

There will be moments when you should seek help from your veterinarian without wasting any further time trying to fix his diarrhea yourself.

As mentioned above, if you can genuinely rule out the common causes of diarrhea like food intolerances, allergies, stress, sudden dietary changes, dehydration, medications or ingestion of rotten or poisonous items, you should visit your veterinarian as soon as possible.

Why? well, your husky may have diarrhea because of a more serious health condition, which you want to be found and treated asap. Diarrhea can be such a common symptom of a wide array of health issues, it’s best to play it safe.

If your Husky has diarrhea after you see him eat a rotten vegetable from your garbage, this likely isn’t worth a trip to your vet and will pass.

If you’re unsure, it’s ok to play it safe and have a check-up 🙂

Preventing Diarrhea in Huskies

Prevention is always better than cure, as the saying goes. I understand that some things can’t be prevented, but you can still do a lot to keep your Husky as healthy as he should be.

The no.1 cause for diarrhea in Huskies is when they don’t agree with the dog food they’re eating. Huskies have very sensitive stomachs and it can take a while before you find an option that works for them. It helps to know this and gives you a good starting point when trying to investigate why your Husky has diarrhea.

Some tips to help prevent diarrhea in Huskies:

• Start with a limited ingredient dog food for sensitive stomachs
• Ensure fresh cold water at all times
• Daily exercise. One hour in the morning and one in the evening
• Avoid giving your husky these common toxic foods
• Keep your Husky up to date with vaccinations
• Keep your Husky’s bed area clean and free from bacteria
• Ensure a stress-free life for your Husky

14 Best Foods For a Husky With Diarrhea

I explained earlier that you should first fast your Husky if he isn’t a puppy or senior, then switch him over to a bland food diet, instead of his usual dog food.

This is one of the most effective ways to help your Husky and it will give his digestive system a chance to recover.

I covered some of the bland foods you can feed your Husky above, but here’s a complete list containing more foods:

• Sweet potato
• White potato
• Banana
• Apple sauce
• Oatmeal
• Watermelon (no seeds or pips)
• Boiled egg
• Cooked carrots (mashed)
• Boiled chicken breast
• Dairy-free yogurt
• Pumpkin
• Cottage cheese
• Cooked macaroni
• White rice

All of these are great options for your Husky after he has completed a fast.

In most cases, it’s best to opt for just white rice and plain boiled chicken. It’s best to keep things simple when your husky’s stomach isn’t at it’s strongest!

It’s also a good idea to familiarize yourself with the best types of commercial dog food, most appropriate for Huskies. You can see that article just below:

Related Article: The Best Foods for a Husky With a Sensitive Stomach
https://www.myhappyhusky.com/best-food-for-husky-with-sensitive-stomach/

Extra tips for avoiding diarrhea

It’s always helpful to know what may or may not cause diarrhea so here are a few more things to consider.

1) Introduce new foods or treats slowly

Whenever changing foods or trying out a new treat, it’s important to do it gradually and slowly. Of course, a tiny small treat won’t make much difference, but a huge beef bone likely will… When switching diets or food, you should do so gradually over the course of a week.

The slower the better, and it will give him time to adjust.

2) Learn the list of common allergens and toxic food

I bet you didn’t know that chicken can be a common allergen. wait, what!? Yep, and it’s in literally everything.

It may just be that your Husky doesn’t get along with chicken, and because you think it’s so normal, you would never expect it. The list is pretty long, but its something that you’ll benefit from knowing.

List of common allergens in dogs – Cesarsway.com
List of toxic fruits and ingredients for dogs – This site

3) Huskies and the raw diet

This topic is surrounded by heavy debate. Raw diet vs commercial dog food diet. I think it can be a great diet for some huskies.

Many people swear that it’s healthier and more beneficial for a husky to eat a raw diet, but to this day there is still little to actually prove this to be true.

If you’ve had your Husky for at least a few years and know them very well, you could try it. But thorough research must be done first. You should NOT rush into a raw-food diet, and it’s advised to consult your veterinarian for a tailored plan first.

Summary

If your Husky has diarrhea, you must help him as quickly as possible.

If you can’t off the top of your head think of a valid reason your Husky could have diarrhea, it’s best to play it safe and see a veterinarian as soon as possible.

If you do have an idea, and it’s not something serious, the above tips and tricks will help your Husky overcome diarrhea in no time.

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Other Resources:
https://www.petmd.com/dog/emergency/common-emergencies/e_dg_diarrhea
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5508351/
https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/forums/topic/siberian-husky-with-diarrhea/