Is your head spinning?
Are you looking for a simple home remedy to remedy your dog’s dose of diarrhea?
Your gut (sorry for the pun) told you to go with boiled chicken but from what you have read, you are no longer sure?
Lots of different and contradictory information.
Many people claim that boiled chicken (with rice) helps diarrhea.
Other people strongly disagree and believe that it causes diarrhea.
And the trouble is that you are looking for advice when your dog has diarrhea.
This isn’t a time to dilly daddle.
You are desperate and you need clear and simple instructions that you can act on NOW…
So let me help you…
4 Reasons that boiled chicken can give my dog diarrhea?
To be honest it is highly unlikely that boiled chicken will cause your dog to have diarrhea but there are a few reasons why it might.
[1] Under cooked chicken
Chicken which hasn’t been boiled for long enough could cause food poisoning (which might include a dose of diarrhea) because raw chicken might contain Campylobacter, Salmonella and Clostridium perfringens bacteria.
[2] Rotten chicken
Chicken that is rotten could also give a dog diarrhea because it will likely be full of bacteria or fungal contamination- contamination which cannot be destroyed by cooking it.
[3] Stray chicken bones
Chicken that has been cooked with the bones could also give your dog diarrhea because cooked chicken bones are very brittle.
Once eaten they can turn into tiny little daggers in your dog’s stomach, making it bleed. The worse case scenario is that these splinters of bones get stuck in your dog’s throat causing breathing or swallowing issues.
- Should I dilute chicken broth to use with my dog?
[4] Chicken intolerance
It is very unlikely that a dog has an allergy to chicken but what is more likely in dogs is that they have an intolerance- a much milder version of an allergy, which can include a bout of diarrhea.
There are no true figures of the rate of chicken allergies in dogs or humans but it is very rare.
Moving on, I next want to look at if boiling chicken is the best way of cooking it for your dog?
[1] Boiling vs grilling vs roasting vs frying
Off the top of my head I could think of four ways of cooking a chicken- boiling, grilling, roasting and frying.
But which one is best for your dog?
I think at the outset, we can all agree that at the bottom of this list, the most inappropriate way of preparing chicken for your dog is by frying it- apart from cooking the chicken it just adds more fat to the meat, which isn’t ideal for any dog.
In terms of your dog, I think that boiling is the best option.
It is quick and healthy because it doesn’t need oil added to it.
Grilling and roasting are nearly as quick a method of cooking chicken but they normally require oil to prevent the chicken from sticking to the grill or the oven tray.
And oil is something that we want to avoid giving our dog.
Not only that but in my experience any cooking that involves oil means that the clean up afterwards takes longer.
And so next, I want to look at how chicken can be one of the best things to give a dog with diarrhea.
[2] Why is chicken so good for diarrhea?
One of the best things to do if your dog has diarrhea is not to feed them any food.
And if you can’t do that then the best advice is to feed your dog a bland diet.
And the two most commonly used ingredients for this diet are rice and chicken.
It is important to say that chicken breast is the easiest part of the chicken.
I mean any part of the chicken meat can be used but just don’t use any skin or bones.
Chicken is so good for diarrhea because it is a lean meat which is low in fibre and easy for the body to digest.
[3] What parts of the chicken should you feed to your dog?
If you are like me then you hate waste and I think that dogs are a very handy way of reducing food waste.
But it needs to be done sensibly as they aren’t food dustbins.
If you want to use as much as the chicken as possible, then the only thing to feed your dog directly should be the chicken meat.
So that you don’t feel as if you are wasting the bones, use them to create a broth (but just remember to take them out after it has been made.)
The trickiest part of the chicken to try and not to use is the skin.
But chicken skin is full of fat and so that is why it can cause your dog to have diarrhea if they have too much of it.
[4] How should you prepare and cook boiled chicken properly?
It is probably best to boil chicken breasts whole and then shred them or cut them up afterwards.
Place the chicken into a large pan of plain boiling water (your dogs don’t need their chicken seasoned.)
Depending on the size of your chicken breasts it will take between 10-15 minutes to cook.
If you have a thermometer, stick it in the chicken breasts and if the temperature is 75 °C then they are cooked.
If you don’t have a thermometer, then you need to cut into the breast and look at the colour of the juice.
If it is clear, the breast is cooked but if the juice is a touch red or pink, it needs a little longer.
[5] How to hydrate a dog with diarrhea?
One of the problems with diarrhea is that it can quickly lead to dehydration because of the amount of water that the body loses.
And when the water “leaves” the body it is taking crucial nutrients with it.
And this is the same for dogs or humans.
And it is especially dangerous for puppies whose bodies are growing and developing so rapidly that they can’t afford to lose too much water.
There is an important rule of thumb here.
Try and cure your dog’s diarrhea at home in the first instance but if it hasn’t got significantly better after 24 hours then book an appointment at your vets.
Although it is recommended to not feed your dog anything after a bout of diarrhea, this doesn’t mean that you should stop their access to water.
If your dog turns his nose up at his dull bowl of water, you can try something a bit tastier, such as a bone marrow broth.
[6] What other foods can help your dog with diarrhea
Although this article has mainly focused on the role that boiled chicken plays in causing or causing diarrhea, chicken and boiled rice aren’t the only foods that might settle your dog’s stomach down and cure their diarrhea.
From a personal point of view, chicken and boiled rice was never that successful with my dogs- I think that they have a slight intolerance to boiled rice.
But that forced me to look into other alternatives.
I am weak and I can’t starve my dogs when they have diarrhea.
And my go to miracle cure which I can guarantee will repair my dogs’ runny tummy in twelve hours or so, is sweet potato.
They have a helping of steamed sweet potato instead of their usual food and within a few hours, diarrhea has turned into solid but soft orange poop!
Now this is odd because sweet potato is full of fibre, which contradicts the best advice about bland diets.
But importantly for me it is a natural product which doesn’t involve any medications or chemicals.
And if my story of sweet potato strikes a chord, you might want to read about using pumpkin to treat diarrhea.
