Have you ever spent hours sitting beside the litter box, hoping this time it will be different? Staring into the tired eyes of your canine, you keep wondering why your dog is suffering from Yorkie Constipation. Well, the time for wondering is over. It’s now time to act, and we’re here to help you through it.
Yorkies or Yorkshire Terriers are some of the tiniest dogs in the canine family. However, what they lack in size, they make up for in personality. Feisty, loving, and full of energy, they can be some of the best pets for devoted owners. They enjoy walks in the park just as much as lazing around and hence are faithful companions to their human counterparts.
Making Life Easy For Your Constipated Yorkie
Like all other canines, Yorkshire Terriers can get constipated as well. This is because their sensitive digestive system does not allow room for much difference from regular diets, resulting in complications like constipation.
Yorkie Constipation and What Causes It
Yorkie constipation can result in decreased bowel movement, straining for prolonged periods, and hard impacted stools. If your dog is constipated, it’s likely one or more of the following reasons:
- Lack of fiber in the diet
- Decreased daily exercise
- High intake of spicy food
- Increasing amounts of stress
- Less water intake
- Excessive self-grooming results in hair on stool
- Ingestion of non-food items like toys and pieces of bones
- Traumatic injury to the pelvis
- Tumors causing obstruction
- Surgery
- Multiple medications
- Enlarged prostate in older dogs
- Parasitic infestation by whipworms
- Hypothyroidism
How to Decide If Your Dog Is Constipated?
It is usually difficult to isolate the exact cause. Hence, a detailed list of symptoms needs to be noted. You can then decide to visit the vet for professional advice on cases of constipation. With this in mind, let’s discuss a list of symptoms for Yorkie constipation:
- Dry, impacted stools
- Straining while passing stool
- Bloody stools
- Bloating
- Mucus in stools
- Pain while passing stool
- Lack of bowel movements for >3 days
- Lack of appetite
Easy Ways To Help A Constipated Yorkie At Home
Making changes in your Yorkie’s daily lifestyle can do wonders for their digestive tract. These six easy techniques will ensure a stress-free life for you and your pet and can easily be added to daily living practices.
1. Maintain A Healthy Eating Schedule
Avoid over-feeding your Yorkie regardless of your emerging motherly instincts. Dogs, like most humans, do well when disciplined with a proper feeding schedule. Therefore, feeding adult Yorkies 2-3 meals per day and puppies 3-4 times per day is best for their delicate digestive system.
2. Maintain Adequate Hydration
Like all other dogs, a Yorkie needs about ½ to 1 ounce of water per pound of body weight every day. So make sure to provide them with fresh water throughout the day. This prevents dehydration and Yorkie constipation.
3. Plan A Diet Full Of Fiber
Fiber will work as a superfood for gut health. In addition, it will speed up the digestion process if your dog is constipated. Add fiber to each meal in the form of oat bran or pure pumpkin.
4. Use High-Quality Dog Food
Switching from low-quality to high-quality dog food might be one of the best decisions you make for your canine best friend. Unfortunately, inexpensive, low-quality dog food is not easily digestible. In addition, it may even cause more severe health problems.
5. Add Wet/Canned Foods To Their Diet
Canned dog foods are rich in moisture and can help speed up bowel movements within the elementary tract. However, you should not overuse them as they can result in dental problems and sticky gums.
6. Add Some Exercise To Their Daily Activities
Taking a walk in the park or playing some catch can be a great bonding activity. Furthermore, it also works in treating Yorkie’s constipation. Without enough exercise, your Yorkie can lose its rapid digestive functioning. This results in constipation along with slowing down of other systems as well.
Using Easily Available Food Items
Using these readily available food items can work as an excellent Yorkie upset stomach remedy. They can be found in almost all grocery stores. In fact, most of them are already present in our refrigerators. In addition, home remedies can be highly beneficial in reducing constipation and might even cure it completely.
1. Canned Natural Pumpkin
Enriched with fiber, plain canned pumpkin speeds up digestion, providing some much-needed relief for your pet. Thus adding a tablespoon of canned natural pumpkin to every meal can have positive effects on Yorkie’s constipation. Moreover, it also contains Vitamin A, which can be beneficial in average amounts.
2. Chicken/Beef Broth With Ginger
For this magic potion, add ¼ teaspoon ginger to ½ cup of either chicken or beef broth. Ginger stimulates the stomach, and the broth acts as a transporting liquid, thus speeding up digestion.
3. Wheat and Oat Bran
These two food items belong to the high fiber list as well. Wheat and oat bran are great for maintaining the colon’s shape and health. Their moderate consumption treats diarrhea, and diabetes and provides weight management in addition to curing Yorkie’s constipation.
4. Using Canned Food
While many dogs consume dry food, switching to canned food from time to time can have multiple benefits. It can cure constipation as it contains higher amounts of moisture and can ease food through the digestive tract. Variety can also serve as a source of excitement for your dog, making them more eager to consume its food.
5. Dairy Products
If you’re looking for more home remedies, you can try your luck with milk and other dairy products. Unfortunately, some dogs, like humans, can also be lactose intolerant. If present along with constipation, lactose intolerance can serve as a good mix to get rid of the impacted stool.
6. Cooking Oils
Olive and vegetable oils can serve as lubricants for the food. When used in small amounts, they help with digestion. However, they can also cause diarrhea in large quantities. Therefore, they should generally be avoided and should only be used when no other remedy is available.
Time To Visit The Vet
Making lifestyle changes and using home remedies was the first step. Visiting the vet for professional advice should be the next step on your list while seeking treatment for Yorkie constipation.
Whether mild or severe, the vet needs to make a proper diagnosis to provide appropriate treatment. If constipation persists after the home remedies, you know it’s time to go.
The vet will ask you a series of questions about your Yorkie’s current illness. Don’t panic and answer each question calmly. The questions might be regarding:
- Your dog’s eating habits
- Contents of your dog’s diet
- Your dog’s water intake
- Any pelvic or spinal injuries
- Consistency of last stool
- Pain on passing stool
- Any other discomfort
- Medications being used at the moment
- Possible consumption of any non-food item
Curing Mild Constipation
After taking a detailed history and performing a thorough examination, the vet will decide the severity of constipation. To treat mild cases, the vet might:
- Move your Yorkie on to another food source
- Omit certain foods from its diet
- Add different natural or artificial fiber supplements
- Provide an organized diet plan
- Start medications like stool softeners
Curing Serious Constipation
If the vet has diagnosed your Yorkie with severe disease, they will make a treatment plan to restore its normal digestive functioning. Severe cases of constipation can be highly stress-inducing for both you and your pet. But don’t worry, with a bit of patience and the proper treatment, it can be cured quite easily. The vet may prescribe any of the following depending on the degree of severity:
- Starting a low-residue diet
- Laxatives like Psyllium and Lactulose
- Medications with enzyme-blocking effects
- Performing an enema
- Surgically removing non-food items from the digestive tract.
How To Prevent Constipation?
Taking care of your Yorkie’s diet and feeding habits can be a foolproof way of preventing Yorkie constipation. High-quality, expensive dog food is packed with nutrients. Along with good water intake, these two lifestyle changes will serve as game changers in preventing Yorkie’s stomach problems. Keep water dishes filled throughout the day when at home. Also, remember to carry an extra water bottle for your Yorkie when you’re planning to step out for prolonged periods.
Maintaining discipline through a proper feeding schedule and regular exercise is also very beneficial. Exercise will keep your pet active and help with digestion. In addition, a regular feeding schedule will ensure limited changes in the diet. Remember, prevention is always better than cure.
What Not To Give Your Yorkie
After the in-depth discussion regarding the food items you can add to your Yorkie’s diet, let’s move on to the food items you need to avoid strictly. Even though high-quality food items are the way to go, they require thorough research to make sure that nothing harmful is entering your Yorkie’s body.
Asking the vet for a detailed list of Yorkie foods to avoid is the best option. But if you haven’t gotten around to doing that, let us help you with it. With the following items, ignorance is definitely not better than bliss. It’s vital to be aware of them so you can actively avoid using them in your dog’s daily meals and prevent Yorkie constipation.
- Meat products that are only used to complete the daily protein requirement
- Partially cooked meats
- Grapes
- Onions
- Ingredients exported from China
- Manufactured food colors and flavors
- Chocolates
- Non-specific oils
- Macadamia nuts
- Nutmeg
Planning The Best Yorkie Diet
Making a detailed meal plan will ensure that you have all the food items readily available. Furthermore, it will save you the hassle of running to grocery stores at the last moment. When making a diet plan, it’s essential to consider the following factors:
1. Gender
Female Yorkies, when pregnant or while feeding their young ones, will require more food to fulfill their nutritional needs. However, once spayed, their dietary requirements will decrease.
2. Age
Puppies younger than three months mainly depend on the mother’s breastmilk to survive. So they usually feed on demand. Likewise, the same method is followed once they’ve started weaning. Consequently, older Yorkies need to stick to a stricter schedule and take around 3-4 meals daily.
3. Health and Illnesses
Yorkies, like all other dogs, will require different kinds of food for various health problems. The amount or type of food will depend on health status, and different illnesses may alter their diet plan.
How Much Food Should You Feed Your Yorkie
Even though Yorkies are tiny creatures, they are packed full of energy. Hence, often they can develop quite an appetite. Nevertheless, it would be best to be mindful of how much you feed them since they can become lazy and overweight with excessive food intake. Therefore, maintaining a balanced feeding schedule is critical. Serving size is directly related to the age and weight of your Yorkie. A general recommendation for serving size is given below.
| Age and Weight | Feeding Amount |
| <3 months of age | Feeding on demand |
| >3 months-1 year (2-4 pounds) | ¼ to ½ cup per day |
| Adults (3-4 pounds) | ⅓ to ½ cup per day |
| Adults (7-8 pounds) | ⅔ cup per day |
How Frequently Should You Feed Your Yorkie
Because of their tiny size, Yorkies need to be fed small, repeated meals throughout the day. If they go long periods without food, they can develop health problems like low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Sticking to stable timings will ensure they receive good nutrition at the correct time. Some Yorkies may prefer one meal over the other, but it’s always good to strike up a balance in each meal.
How often you feed your Yorkie depends mainly on their age.
- Up to three months, feed them freely throughout the day
- From three months to one year, set a schedule and provide 3-4 meals per day
- For one year and older Yorkies, 2-3 meals per day are sufficient
Takeaway
To conclude, it’s never easy when your dog is suffering. After all, your Yorkie is your best friend, and their pain is yours as well. Owning a pet is fun, but along with it comes huge responsibility. However, knowledge is power, and with this detailed guide packed with information, you have covered all the essentials of Yorkie constipation and are now fully prepared to help out your furry, canine friend.
