What to Do When a Dog Is Chronically Constipated with Dry, Hard, and Small Stools

1 Causes and Solutions for Chronic Dog Constipation

1. Causes of long-term constipation in dogs:

1. Megacolon

Canine megacolon refers to the thickening of the colon, where stool becomes dry and hard and cannot be discharged, accumulating in the intestine and thus causing megacolon.

Dogs with megacolon will be constipated for a long time, and the stool accumulated in the colon will become longer and longer, and the water in the stool gradually decreases, causing the stool to gradually become drier and harder to discharge, and eventually leading to the dog completely unable to discharge stool normally.

2. Diet problems

Dogs with healthy intestines may also often be constipated, which is generally related to diet. Because dogs are omnivorous animals with meat as the staple food, and the intestines are relatively short compared to other animals, if the food has less water and less fiber, it is also relatively easy to cause dog constipation.

3. Lack of exercise

Lack of exercise in daily life leads to insufficient intestinal peristalsis in dogs, which also causes dog constipation. In addition, puppies have insufficient gastrointestinal peristalsis, and older dogs have degraded gastrointestinal digestive ability; a slight overeating easily causes indigestion and constipation.

Long-term constipation in dogs will keep stool retained in the intestines for a long time, continuously discharging toxins, destroying the originally fragile gastrointestinal environment. Over time, it easily leads to harmful consequences such as damaged gastrointestinal function, endocrine disorders, and slow metabolism in dogs, which will seriously affect the dog’s health.

2. What to do about frequent constipation in dogs?

1. Improve diet

Some dogs’ constipation may be caused by dry food. You can first adjust the dog’s diet structure and prepare some light millet porridge and vegetable porridge to feed, and eat a little apple and banana after meals to help the dog supplement vitamins and cellulose, thereby helping the dog defecate. Also prepare enough clean drinking water every day to let the dog replenish water to lubricate the intestines, which can also reduce the difficulty of the dog’s defecation to a certain extent.

2. Supplement probiotics

If the dog’s constipation is due to digestive problems, intestinal peristalsis is relatively poor. You should also appropriately feed some active probiotics to help supplement beneficial bacteria and increase intestinal peristalsis, thereby helping the dog defecate. If it is convenient to feed some yogurt or honey water, the effect of helping defecation will be better. Every day after the dog finishes eating, take the dog out for a walk; appropriate exercise can also help the dog digest the food in the stomach.

3. Massage to improve

You can relieve the dog’s constipation by massaging the abdomen, from the lower part of the chest to the upper part of the abdomen, slowly massaging from top to bottom, moving the food accumulated in the intestines downward, thereby helping digestion and achieving the effect of improving the dog’s constipation.

4. Glycerol enema for defecation

If the dog still does not defecate, you can touch the dog’s abdomen and anus to see if there is hardened stool at the anus. If so, you can use a glycerol enema to lubricate the rectum and stimulate the dog to defecate. Pay attention to technique when using it, and do not use it too many times, so as not to make the dog dependent. If the dog’s constipation is severe and it has not been able to defecate for several days, quickly take the dog to the hospital for examination. If it is megacolon, severe cases may require surgical treatment.

The above is all about what to do when a dog is chronically constipated with dry, hard, and small stools. If you have other things you want to know, you can consult an online pet doctor at any time, and we will answer in detail based on your dog’s specific constipation situation.