This is a short story about our recent dilemma with Giardia in our dog and exactly how to give dogs probiotic powder for diarrhea.
My family just adopted a beautiful XL American Bully in July and we’re over the moon in love with him. However, during his 2 week training he picked up Giardia and when I say watery stools are my nightmare now, I mean it!
Disclaimer: Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means you pay no extra, but I make a small commission. Read my affiliate disclosure for more info. None of the following is intended to be medical advice and you should do your own research and consult a veterinary expert if you have health related questions.
The night he came home is when it started and the second day home his bowel movements were more like bursting pipes. I’ll save you the graphics now and not talk about the disgusting details any further.
The point is, our puppy was sick with horrid diarrhea. It took me a couple days, but eventually I figured out the perfect home based protocol for our sweet pup.
A Quick Run-down on Giardia
Our dog, Maui, went away to a trainer for 2 weeks. While he was there he picked up the parasite, Giardia, and came home with the watery diarrhea I mentioned earlier.
Giardia is a microscopic parasite that is highly contagious and is really damaging to the intestinal tract. I used to be a vet tech and I’m pretty obsessed with using my microscope so I did a fecal test on our dog’s stool to confirm what I suspected.
The video below shows a ton of bacteria in his stool and then the falling leaf (closer to the end) that keeps twirling is the nasty culprit we’re talking about.
It was hard to find, but I finally found some suggestions for recovering from Giardia in dogs. I am going to skip over all of the medical talk for this post, but you can read here the pros and cons of battling doggy diarrhea at home.
In a nut shell, conventional medications for “treating” diarrhea in dogs is potentially more harmful than home remedies. And they don’t work quite as well!
We had this harmful experience with our last pup who developed autoimmune disorders and severe digestive issues after we treated his diarrhea the conventional way.
Dr. Peter Dobias has a lot of helpful information on his website and I highly recommend you check it out if you want to dive further into natural remedies and recipes for your pets.
How to Give Dogs Probiotic Powder for Diarrhea & Giardia
Among several recommendations, including fasting, feeding a raw diet and other supplements, giving probiotics is at the top of the list for helping dogs with Giardia-induced diarrhea at home.
Dr. Dobias has his own probiotic that he recommends on his website, but it is quite pricey so I was looking for something comparable, but cheaper. There are a lot of dog probiotics on Amazon, but I wanted one that could ship to me the next day, is USA made, with no toxins or junk added.
The one I chose is called Honest Paws and it’s an organic pre and probiotic powder. What I liked about the product:
- Clean ingredients
- Prebiotics & Probiotics that work together for a healthy gut
- USA made
- Disabled Veteran Small business
This bag of 30 packets is only around $24.
Reviews of Honest Paws Probiotic Powder for Dogs
I always look at the reviews of products before I buy and this dog probiotic powder had over 1,000 reviews. The overall review score is over 4 and most all of the reviews are positive. A lot of the reviews posted for this product said it worked fast for their dogs suffering from Giardia related diarrhea. Bingo.
Spoiler alert – we had such a good experience that I also left a 5 star review.
3 Ways to Give Probiotic Powder to Dogs
My dog was very hungry after fasting for a whole 24 hours. So I went with the easiest way to give the probiotic powder – just emptying the packet in his food and mixing it in. He ate it right up. But there’s a few different way to give dogs probiotic powder.
- Sprinkle on food or mix into food
- Mix into broth
- Hide it in a spoonful of peanut butter
We were able to just add two packets to the pumpkin he had to eat for the first two meals. Then we added it to the homemade recipe we found on Dr. Dobias’ website. And pictured below, it’s added to his regular dog food.
Other things that make this probiotic so easy to give:
- The amount of powder is so minimal.
- The probiotics are flavored like chicken.
- They come in pre-measured packets so you don’t need to measure anything out.
By the end of day-one of probiotics Maui’s stool returned to normal! His puppy spirit came back too and we were able to move on with our lives.
So when you’re looking for an effective, safe supplement while battling Giardia, I recommend following Dr. Dobias’ suggestions and using Honest Paws probiotics as one step in your at-home protocol.
If you’re reading this in November 2023, they are giving 20% off for Black Friday!! So go ahead and stock up while you can! Click here to view on Amazon.