Can unusually cold weather cause diarrhea?

**waldor** · 9th January 2010, 07:16 PM

Our Cav, Sophie, had diarrhea yesterday. Not terrible explosive stuff, just worse than pudding and clearly her intestinal tract is irritated. She felt fine, had appetite, wondered why I would not feed her, but she had to 'go' every four hours.

We're out of town today. When I dropped her off at our dog groomer to board, I gave her Sophie's cooked rice, explained about the diarrhea, etc. She has decades in grooming, previously showed the smaller size poodles, knows dogs more than I do.

She told me some of her dogs had diarrhea, too, and it is caused by the unusual extreme cold weather we're having. (It's really a lot like what you've got in the UK and Ireland. Highs of only 23F and lows of 15F)

Have any of you ever heard of unusually extreme cold weather causing diarrhea in a dog? I've had a dog all my life, but never experienced this before.

**ByFloSin** · 9th January 2010, 07:58 PM

Sorry I can't help on the 'pudding' front, but just thought I would say that Holly Poppet, my young disabled tricolour, was violently sick several times in the big bed last night.

She has not had her routine changed, nothing has happened to worry her and neither has she been fed anything different from what she would normally have.

I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of her retching and gasping, so sat up in bed to keep an eye on her for as long as I could. I saw that she had been sick over Bubbles' tail and Rebel's ears, not to mention the ivory coloured duvet cover, so I spent quite some time changing bedding and mopping up dogs.

This morning she was fine. Bounded downstairs looking for the morning biscuits and a fresh drink of water. She then rushed out into the frozen back garden to play chase with all the others.

I can't find any other explanation for her sickness except for the cold weather and the fact that because of her disability about a third of her coat stands up on end, leaving her bare skin exposed, so I wonder if she caught a chill.

**Karlin** · 10th January 2010, 12:35 AM

Interesting question, but almost surely not.

Personally I've never heard that cold weather directly causes tummy upsets, and surely if this was true we'd have many sick cavaliers all the time on the board -- given the large number living in Canada, Iceland, Finland, US states with snowy winters... don't recall any of them being sick solely because of weather.

My dogs will regularly get tummy bugs -- a couple of times a year one or the other will have serious runs (especially Lily who is prone to them! Whereas Lucy almost never gets ill). Far more likely a dog would have eaten something when it wasn't noticed, or picked up a bug, etc etc I would think?

For a health compromised cavalier perhaps it might have some contributing aspect -- eg extra stress.

**Oreo** · 10th January 2010, 12:59 AM

I live in Canada, with snow on the ground 5-6 months of the year, and often here we see temperatures stay below -20 for a week or two at a time. I've never seen a dog get diarrhea just from the cold.

BUT, when it was -48 here a month back my one little foster Papillon would not stay outside long enough to do more than a quick wizz, so for two days he just didn't defacate. This was a guy who goes, regularly, twice a day.

Third day he did, and that was followed by two days of diarrhea, but I believe it wasn't from the cold as much as from holding long past the point he should have, and having that upset his system.

Oreo

**Marjorie** · 10th January 2010, 01:16 AM

I don't think the cold will, but if you have snow and your pooch eats too much of it that will give them loose stools. I know my dogs like to eat fresh snow and that's what happens to them. It is pretty common actually.

**Karlin** · 10th January 2010, 11:52 AM

but if you have snow and your pooch eats too much of it that will give them loose stools.

That's interesting -- do you know why?

**Wagtails** · 10th January 2010, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by Marjorie

I don't think the cold will, but if you have snow and your pooch eats too much of it that will give them loose stools. I know my dogs like to eat fresh snow and that's what happens to them. It is pretty common actually.

Funny this has come up because I have had the problem for the first time ever, not with my Cavvies (who are far too sedate to eat snow) but with my young Shih-tzu, who just hoovers it up as she walks along the lane! Generally speaking she has an iron constitution, so I was surprise that this affected her and would be very interested to know why

**Mindysmom** · 10th January 2010, 04:37 PM

That is interesting. As a kid growing up we were always told not to eat snow if lost in the bush but to try and melt it first. I believe that had to do with the snow potentially lowering your core body temperature.

I just googled it though and something that seems to be a common thread that makes sense to me for both kids and dogs is that snow will pick up the same air pollutants that rain will so it would make sense to me that eating it could cause stomach upset.