The longer your puppy is constipated, the more difficult it will be to relieve its constipation. Monitor the puppy's bowel movements to ensure it is defecating at least a couple of times a day. If your puppy is straining to defecate or you have not seen it defecate in a day, it may be constipated. Act fast with constipation relief for your puppy.
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Exercise
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Long walks will help get your puppy's bowels moving. Take it for a couple of walks a day and spend time playing with it outside. This will help get your puppy's bowels moving again, and being outdoors will give it plenty of opportunity to defecate. Sometimes when a puppy is learning about house training, it will hold it too long and cause the bowels to slow down, which can result in constipation. Make sure you are getting your puppy outside to give it a chance to defecate several times a day, especially right after eating.
Diet
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Feed your constipated puppy a high fiber diet. You can mix a teaspoon or two of oat bran or bran cereal in its regular food. You should also give it one to two teaspoons of pumpkin a day (one to two tablespoons if it is over 15 pounds). Use fresh or canned pumpkin--but make sure it is pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin is high in fiber and contains water, making it ideal relief for constipation. You can also feed your constipated puppy one teaspoon of olive oil a day until its bowels are moving smoothly again. A quarter of a cup to a half of a cup of milk for two days should also relieve constipation. However, cow's milk in a puppy who is not constipated will result in diarrhea.
Make sure your puppy is drinking plenty of water. Give it fresh water several times a day, and if it is not drinking it, add water to its food.
Enema
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If your puppy's long hair has knotted up and caused an obstruction on its anus, trim away the obstruction. To administer an enema, mix a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice with two tablespoons of warm water for a small puppy and up to a pint of warm water for a large puppy. Lubricate the tip of a plastic or rubber syringe with vegetable oil and gently insert it in your puppy's rectum. With gentle and consistent pressure, slowly--over 2 to 3 minutes--insert the water into your puppy's rectum. Your puppy should respond by defecating in the minutes following the enema. Repeat the enema one or two times for the next day or two.
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