The first thing to do when dealing with diarrhea is to stop feeding and fast your dog for a minimum period for 12 hours, 24 hours is more standardly reccommended. This gives the system a break and an opportunity for it to heal. You should offer water or a meat broth (with any fat removed). If your dog is also vomiting, it becomes more important to keep it hydrated
If you see an improvement in 24 hours he can start eating again but the food needs to be more easily tolerated hence the need for a 'bland diet'
For dogs on a raw diet.
You can ease into it with broth and a little of the boiled meat you used to make the broth- removing skin and fat. Don't add rice or potato as it only forces the dogs system to have to deal with digesting carbohydrates which it is not used to. Then graduate to small amounts of regular raw food increasing either the frequency of small amounts or the portions back to normal quantities.
For dogs on Kibble
You can ease into it with broth and a little of the boiled meat you used to make the broth adding some potato ( or rice if he tolerates rice easily). Then graduate to small amounts of regular kibble increasing either the frequency of small amounts or the portions back to normal quantities.
During this time of fasting/bland diet - a safe supplement you can add that helps heal the digestive system is L- Glutamine. The dosage is 500mg for a 20lb dog per day. Studies also show that probiotics help dogs recover faster from episodes of diarrhea.
Don't forget the sequence is not Diarrhea => Bland Diet, the sequence is Diarrhea=> Fast for 12/24hours => Bland Diet- don't forget the fasting part.
