By Rachele Baker, DVM – Question: Karyn writes: I recently got an eight-week-old pitbull puppy. I have noticed that his stool is usually runny and sometimes has blood in it. What would cause 
Answer: Hi Karyn. If you have not already done so, I would recommend that you take your puppy to your veterinarian for a physical examination and diagnostics as indicated. Without the ability to perform a physical examination and diagnostics (such as fecal tests), I cannot diagnose the reason for your puppy’s diarrhea. However, I can tell you some things that can cause diarrhea in puppies.
Rapid Change In Diet: A rapid change in diet can lead to diarrhea in puppies and adult dogs. It is generally recommended to gradually transition from one diet to a new diet over a period of three days or longer. After you brought your new puppy home, if you immediately fed him a different brand of puppy food than he was being fed by his previous owner without a gradual transition period, that could lead to him developing diarrhea.
Dietary Indiscretion: With puppies in particular, diarrhea can be caused by dietary indiscretion such as getting into the trash and eating garbage, eating â€people food,†or eating items such as spoiled food or other things found outside.
Toxin Ingestion: Puppies are constantly exploring their environment and will eat or chew on almost anything they find. Ingestion of toxins such as household chemicals or toxic plants can result in diarrhea as well as other clinical signs depending on the toxin ingested.
Intestinal Obstruction: Intestinal obstruction can occur if a puppy eats a foreign body such as a child’s toy or other objects found in and around the house. This can result in diarrhea as well as vomiting, loss of appetite, depression, and abdominal pain.
Intestinal Parasites: There are a number of intestinal parasites (“wormsâ€) that can infect puppies and cause diarrhea including roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, coccidia, and giardia. I will go into a little detail about two of these intestinal parasites: roundworms and hookworms.
Roundworms: Roundworms are the most common intestinal parasite in dogs. Adult worms resemble spaghetti and are usually three to four inches long but can grow up to seven inches long. The adult worms may be seen in the stool or in vomit. A fecal test may be used to diagnose roundworm infection.
Roundworm larvae migrate from the intestines to the liver, lungs, kidneys, and other organs. Roundworm larvae in the muscle tissue of a pregnant dog can migrate through the placenta to her puppies. Therefore, many puppies have roundworms before they are born.  Roundworm larvae can enter the mother dog’s mammary glands and puppies can become infected while nursing. Since almost all puppies are infected with roundworms, puppies are usually routinely dewormed two or more times during the course of their puppy vaccinations.
Adults dogs can become infected with roundworms either by ingesting eggs from the environment (usually when they are licking dirt off themselves during normal grooming) or by ingesting other animals infected with roundworms.
Roundworms are zoonotic which means that they can be passed from animals to humans and cause disease in humans. Infected dogs shed roundworm eggs in their feces into the environment. Humans can become infected if they accidentally ingest dirt containing roundworm eggs (i.e. by eating improperly washed vegetables contaminated with dirt) or when children accidentally ingest dirt while playing outside.
Hookworms: Adult hookworms are one-half to three-quarters of an inch long but they are rarely seen in the stool because of their firm attachment to the walls of the intestines with their six sharp teeth. Hookworms feed on blood siphoned from the host’s intestinal walls. As adult hookworms move to new feeding sites within the intestines, they leave behind small bleeding ulcerations which may result in blood being passed in the stool. A heavy hookworm infestation in puppies can cause enough blood loss to result in anemia. A fecal test may be used to detect hookworm infection.
Some hookworm larvae migrate to the lungs. Hookworm larvae can enter the mother dog’s mammary glands and puppies can become infected while nursing. This is the most common route of infection for puppies.
Adults dogs can become infected with hookworms by ingesting eggs from the environment (usually when they are licking dirt off themselves during normal grooming), by ingesting other animals infected with hookworms, or by skin penetration from hookworms in the environment.
Hookworms are zoonotic which means that they can be passed from animals to humans and cause disease in humans. Infected dogs shed hookworm eggs in their feces into the environment. Humans can become infected if they accidentally ingest dirt containing hookworm eggs or, more commonly, by skin penetration from hookworms in the environment (i.e. from walking barefoot on a beach where dogs have defecated in the sand).
Parvovirus: Because this virus is shed in enormous numbers by infected animals and is very hardy, it is present worldwide in every environment. Some dogs are subclinically infected with parvovirus and do not appear sick but they will still shed virus particles in their stool. Virus particles on the ground can attach to the bottom of people’s shoes and to the paws of dogs and other animals and be spread everywhere. So all puppies will be exposed to parvovirus at some point in their lives.
Puppies can get infected with the virus when they are licking dirt off themselves during normal grooming or when they eat things off the ground. Whether a puppy becomes clinically ill with parvovirus after exposure depends on the number of virus particles the puppy is exposed to, whether the puppy has been adequately vaccinated for parvovirus prior to exposure, and how strong the puppy’s immune system is. A special fecal test (ELISA) can be used to diagnose parvovirus infection.
The average infectious dose of parvovirus for an unvaccinated puppy is one thousand virus particles. A dog infected with parvovirus sheds thirty-five million virus particles per ounce of stool for two to three weeks after infection. Since the virus is so widespread in the environment, it is recommended that puppies be kept away from public outdoor areas until their vaccination series has been completed at about sixteen weeks of age.
After infecting a puppy, parvovirus enters the puppy’s bone marrow and kills white blood cells which are needed to protect the puppy against disease. Then the parvovirus enters the puppy’s intestines and attacks the intestinal cells responsible for absorption of fluids and nutrients. This results in diarrhea and vomiting. The damage to the intestinal walls can allow bacteria to migrate through the intestinal walls into the rest of the body resulting in severe disease from bacterial toxins.
Canine parvovirus is not zoonotic and will not infect people.
So, as you can see, there are many things that can cause diarrhea in puppies. If you have not already done so, I would recommend that you take your puppy to your veterinarian for a physical examination and diagnostics to determine the cause of your puppy’s diarrhea so that he can get the treatment he needs. I hope your puppy does well.
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