Will yogurt be beneficial for my dog, who has diarrhea?

Don’t keep changing up what you are feeding your dog. Continue with the rice and slowly add the dog food. Things will settle down soon enough.

You should give the dog its old food again until it is okay again (a day or two) and then slowly switch over to the new food.

I would suggest trying the plain canned pumpkin first, as someone else suggested. Add a heaping tablespoon or so to the rice, and gradually incorporate the kibble over several days. Add two spoonfuls of pumpkin if he’s a large dog. Make sure it’s PLAIN pumpkin, not the sweetened pie filling.

85% of the time I have had success with pumpkin. However, depending on the nature & cause of the diarrhea, I have also seen pumpkin make it WORSE on a few occasions. Pumpkin tends to work better if the problem is more of a “loose stool” instead of true diarrhea. If its extremely watery, mucousy, or frequent small amounts of loose gassy diarrhea, I’ve had bad luck using pumpkin.

When pumpkin fails, cottage cheese may work. I would use it instead of yogurt if you’re going to try a dairy product. Cottage cheese has the same beneficial bacteria cultures as yogurt PLUS it has some of the “binding” effect of cheese….tends to firm up the stool a bit. Not all dogs are dairy intolerant….and a small amount USUALLY won’t cause any ill effects for most dogs.

I usually feed 2 spoonfuls of cottage cheese to 1 cup of plain rice for a 25-30 lb dog on the first day (depending on the severity/cause I may fast the dog for 18-24 hours first). If it really helps, day 2 I might add some plain chicken breast & a little more rice, same amount of cheese. Day 3 I’ll incorporate 25% kibble instead of chicken, and if that goes well, I’ll keep increasing the ratio of kibble until the dog is pottying normal and eating just kibble. Has worked for me several times with different dogs.

If the diarrhea does not change or it gets worse over the next 2-3 days, you may want to visit the vet. I did once have a case of diarrhea that happened to coincide with a VERY gradual food change with a foster dog. I figured the food had to be the culprit. But after 4 days of feeding the dog’s old kibble, and then a bland diet with no improvement- and when Kaopectate didn’t even make a difference (I try to avoid anti-diarrheals sine the dog’s body usualy NEEDS to “flush”….but I figured I’d try it on a whim once all else failed), I took him to the vet & sure enough he had giardia. Just happened to be a concidence that it happened at the same time I changed his diet, the food wasn’t even an issue once he got the giardia cleaned up. Just something to keep in mind, in case

Good luck.

Just make sure you are using plain yogurt, not vanilla, PLAIN. You could also try canned pumpkin.