Everyday Puppy Health: Diarrhoea, Giardia, Grooming Routine

Triage first: a single soft or mushy stool in a puppy that eats, plays and drinks is usually the receipt for excitement, food experiments or a find in the bushes. Then it's: rest, water on offer, one or two days of bland food in small portions — boiled chicken with rice or Moro's carrot soup are the classics — and keep an eye on the stools.

Diarrhoea becomes a vet case markedly earlier in a puppy than in an adult dog, because the small body barely buffers fluid loss: after 24 hours without improvement at the latest; immediately with blood in the stool, repeated vomiting, fever, listlessness, or if the puppy stops drinking. In doubt, calling the practice is never wrong — that's what the saved number is for.

What you don't do: give medication from the human medicine cabinet on your own initiative. Several of them — ibuprofen and paracetamol above all — are toxic to dogs. And “charcoal tablets and wait” doesn't replace a diagnosis in a sick puppy.

When a young dog's diarrhoea goes and returns — sometimes slimy, sometimes watery, often foul-smelling, while the puppy seems bright in between — giardia tops the list. According to ESCCAP, these single-celled gut parasites are the most common endoparasite finding of all in dogs under one year.

Diagnosis is unspectacular: a pooled stool sample over three days, because the pathogen isn't shed with every stool. Treatment is a prescribed antiparasitic — and, at least as important, hygiene: bowls rinsed hot daily, bedding washed, faeces removed immediately and completely, and the dog bathed after treatment so he doesn't reinfect himself from cysts in his coat.

The hygiene part is where most “stubborn cases” fail. Schedule the follow-up test after treatment as a fixed appointment, and inform owners of contact dogs from puppy class or your circle — giardia likes to travel through entire playgroups.

The base melody you know from week 4: monthly deworming or faecal checks until month six. The calendar entry matters more than the product — slipped rhythms are the most common mistake in parasite protection.

New in the warm season is protection against ticks and fleas. Which active class, whether spot-on, tablet or collar, depends on age, weight, region and lifestyle — that's a conversation with your practice, not a drugstore shelf decision, especially since some products are only licensed from a certain age or weight.

Regardless of product, after every walk through tall grass: one check-over — head, ears, armpits, between the toes. A tick removed early is the best protection; a tick remover belongs retrofitted into the starter kit if it's missing.

On the week-8 principle: practise before it's needed. A puppy who collects treats weekly for thirty seconds of brush, paw handling, ear look and tooth check has no grooming drama as an adult — and you spot changes like redness, lumps or tartar before they become problems.

Nail trimming is the exercise with the greatest fear potential — on both sides of the clippers. The rule: standing on level ground, the nails shouldn't touch the floor. Trim millimetre by millimetre in front of the quick (the blood-supplied core, visible in light nails); with dark nails, take tiny slivers more often instead. Have the first cut shown to you at the vet practice — one wrong cut into the quick, and the paw phobia is learned.

Bathing, by the way, only happens when genuinely necessary — lukewarm water and mild dog shampoo, never human shampoo (wrong pH). Usually a brush and a damp towel suffice; the coat self-regulates better than shampoo advertising claims.