Pumpkin for Dogs – Can It Help Them?

How Can Pumpkin Keep your Dog Healthy?

We all associate pumpkins with Halloween, but there is more to this vegetable than most of us realize. It may sound surprising, but it is something you can add to your dog’s diet plan. Yes, the humble pumpkin could benefit your dog when it comes to promoting health and wellness. It is a nutritious treat that provides certain benefits, some of which you never even expected. 

Adding pumpkin to your dog’s diet results in the following:

1 – It improves urinary health.

Oil derived from pumpkin flesh and seeds are thought to help in maintaining good urinary health. If your pet suffers from urinary incontinence, adding some pumpkin in its diet won’t hurt. It’ll give your dog a world of favor (it’s delicious too!).

2 – Pumpkin helps in digestion.

Natural pumpkin treats are an essential source of fiber for pets, especially those with problems in digestion, such as constipation and diarrhea. There are also canned pumpkin products that you can mix with dog food. These products don’t just offer a tasty treat, but also relieve digestive and stomach problems. 

3 – Adding pumpkin to a dog’s diet helps in managing weight.

If your canine buddy is obese or overweight, you can help it shed some of the weight by replacing a portion of its regular diet with pumpkin. The good thing about pumpkin treats and canned products for pets is that they are low in calories, which means your canine buddy will love eating it, and you don’t feel guilty about it.

Aside from those three notable benefits, adding pumpkin to your dog’s diet is a highly effective treatment for diarrhea. No matter how careful you are in monitoring what your dog eats, there’s always a risk of diarrhea. When that happens, you must be there to respond. But before we talk further about how pumpkin can help in treating diarrhea, it is best to delve on how your dog can get one.

Pumpkin for Treating Diarrhea in Dogs

The truth is diarrhea may only be a symptom of an underlying disease or infection, i.e. parvo and parasites. It also could only be an upset stomach. Like humans, dogs may suffer from diarrhea because of a sudden change in diet or from emotional stress.

The mild cases are the ones that may be treated with the help of a pumpkin treat or supplement. You can also administer a bland or mild diet while your dog shows signs of an upset stomach. 

If you notice that the dog’s stool has blood in it or if diarrhea has become consistent, then the only option left is to take it to a veterinarian.

How Pumpkin Can Help Your Dog

Products like the Petness Happy Baked Biscuit that contain pumpkin are filled with fiber and essential vitamins and nutrients. You should consider a dog food supplement with pumpkin as a first aid kit for diarrhea because the soluble fiber content in this vegetable will add bulk to the stool, thereby helping get rid of an almost liquid secretion.

Moreover, the same soluble fiber content helps in producing the essential fatty acids that provide energy to the cells and stimulate sodium production in the intestines. All these processes, including the prebiotic tendencies of fiber from pumpkin, will prevent the worsening of diarrhea. 

So, if your dog suffers from diarrhea, give it a pumpkin-based product, preferably the one with hemp oil in it to help in boosting the dog’s mood