Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
What causes diarrhoea in dogs and lifestyle risks to know
By Stavisky, Jenny et al.·Published in Preventive veterinary medicine·2011·School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: A case-control study of pathogen and lifestyle risk factors for diarrhoea in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with diarrhea was studied to find out what might be causing their symptoms. The research found that dogs who scavenged for food, had recently changed their diet, or were fed a home-cooked diet were at a higher risk of developing diarrhea. Additionally, dogs that had stayed in kennels recently were also more likely to have diarrhea. Interestingly, being female, up to date on vaccinations, and having contact with horse manure seemed to lower the risk. This suggests that lifestyle factors may play a bigger role in diarrhea than specific germs in vaccinated dogs.
People also search for: dog diarrhea causes · home-cooked diet dog diarrhea · kennel stay dog diarrhea
Abstract
Diarrhoea is a common and multi-factorial condition in dogs, the aetiology of which is often incompletely understood. A case-control study was carried out to compare the carriage of some common canine enteric pathogens (enteric coronavirus, parvovirus, distemper, endoparasites, Campylobacter and Salmonella spp.), as well as lifestyle factors such as vaccination history, diet and contact with other species, in dogs presenting at first opinion veterinary practices with and without diarrhoea. Multivariable conditional logistic regression showed that dogs in the study which scavenged or had had a recent change of diet (OR 3.5, p=0.002), had recently stayed in kennels (OR 9.5, p=0.01), or were fed a home-cooked diet (OR 4, p=0.002) were at a significantly greater risk of diarrhoea, whilst being female (OR 0.4, p=0.01), currently up to date with routine vaccinations (OR 0.4, p=0.05) and having contact with horse faeces (OR 0.4, p=0.06) were associated with a reduced risk. None of the pathogens tested for was a significant factor in the final multivariable model suggesting that in this predominantly vaccinated population, diarrhoea may be more associated with lifestyle risk factors than specific pathogens.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21420191/