Causes of canine enteritis

The causes of enteritis are roughly the same as the causes of gastritis in dogs:
1. Ingestion of rotten or contaminated food, or accidental consumption of poisonous bait , irritating drugs, foreign bodies, etc.
2. Secondary to certain infectious diseases such as canine distemper, parvovirus, coronavirus disease, parasitic diseases (such as tapeworms, roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, and trichomonas), etc. In addition, pathogenic bacteria can also cause enteritis. For example: Escherichia coli, salmonella, Proteus, etc. can cause enteritis.

3. If the dog is always in a high degree of nervousness, it may easily lead to enteritis.

Clinical symptoms of canine enteritis

1. Diarrhea is the main symptom of canine enteritis and can be seen at the beginning of the disease. The feces is liquid and has a foul odor, and in the later stages it is often mixed with mucus, blood, foam, etc.

2. During auscultation of the abdomen, you can hear increased bowel movements or thunderous sounds, tense abdomen, and curved back.

3. When inflammation spreads to the front of the duodenum or stomach, sick dogs are often accompanied by vomiting.

4. When a sick dog shows symptoms of tenesmus, it means that inflammation has spread to the colon. When bleeding occurs in the small intestine, the feces will be dark green or black.

5. Sick dogs have mild or moderate fever. If infected with bacteria, the body temperature can be as high as 39-39.5 degrees Celsius.

6. As the disease progresses, sick dogs may show symptoms of dehydration and acidosis. At this time, the sick dog often lies on the ground, the skin lacks elasticity, the eyeballs are sunken, the conjunctiva is cyanotic, the dog is highly dehydrated, the urine output is reduced, and in severe cases, it may cause coma or death from autotoxicity.

Prevention and treatment measures for canine enteritis

1. First, fast the dog for 1-2 days. In order to prevent dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, the sick dog should be given fluids, including intravenous infusion of Ringer's solution. Lactic acid compound sodium chloride solution can also be infused intravenously.
2. Clean the gastrointestinal tract: laxatives (such as sodium sulfate, artificial salt) should be used orally in appropriate amounts.
3. Anti-inflammatory and antidiarrheal: use 0.1~0.5g of berberine, taken orally 3 times a day. Among the antibiotics, chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline or chloramphenicol can be used. For non-bacterial enteritis, when the accumulated feces has been basically eliminated and the feces has no sour smell, but still has severe diarrhea, astringent drugs should be given to stop diarrhea, such as activated charcoal.
4. If there are bleeding symptoms, hemostatic measures should be taken. Hemostatic sensitivity can be injected intramuscularly.
5. Antiemetic, metoclopramide, 1~2 mg/kg body weight, intramuscular injection, 2 times/day.
6. In case of parasitic enteritis, in addition to the above treatments, anthelmintic drugs should be given. See specifically ascariasis.