(Sorry) Mucus in dog poo.

zebidee1

I'm not asking for medical advice, I would just like to know if this is common or not?

Harley (our lab) usually poos in the garden and it's reasonably firm but if he poos whilst on a walk, it's usually very yellow and runny.

We have always put this down to him being nervous (he has history) rather than any other health cause, as it happens almost every time and has done for months. He's happy and healthy with a shining coat and full of life so there has been no reason to think there was any other reason. If there was an underlying health cause, his garden poo would be yellow and runny too, and it's not.

However yesterday he was runnier than usual and he passed a small amount of clear white mucus. I didn't think anything about it but I've just read conflicting articles on the net about whether mucus in dog poo is a problem or not.

Any advice please? Does dog poo sometimes naturally have mucus or not?

elsien

My dog has colitis, and that was one of the first signs, along with passing more and needing to go more often. She showed no other signs of illness and appeared otherwise healthy, so I ignored it She also varied between being runny and firm on daily basis, which she always has done, so that was another reason I took no notice for a while. I then got the scare of my life when she started passing blood. Worth getting checked out I think, just in case.
I've never had any other dog passing mucus, so I now assume an underlying cause.

zebidee1

Thanks elsien.

I've just made an appointment for the Vet for this afternoon so will get him checked.

pboae

As elsien says, it's a classic sign of colitis, and that can be triggered by stress/anxiety, which would explain why it only happens on walks. Colitis itself is fairly common, and not usually too serious, but it shouldn't be left untreated for any length of time as the irritation of the bowel can eventually cause other problems.

Hopefully your vet will be able to sort him out.

loobs40

I really didn't need to spot this thread while sitting at my desk eating a sausage baguette.........:eek:

zebidee1

Sorry loobs.

Anyway, vet says it's definitely colitis and the fact that Harley is so nervous is probably what has triggered it, and caused the runny poo on walks, as pboae suggested.

Ironically, he managed to take several biscuits from the vet receptionist this time, whereas he used to cower in a corner if she so much as glanced his way before, so he is getting a bit braver even although it's really slow progress.

He needs to starve for the rest of the day (did you read my last thread about feeding him? :eek: ) and then on to chicken & rice tomorrow.

He's got antibiotics as a precaution (he felt a bit hot but the vet had such a hard time examining his tum as he was freaking out so much that she decided against sticking a thermometer up his bum to check his temp and chose to err on the side of caution just in case. He's also got a paste to help stop the runs and settle his tum.

I'm now £38 lighter which I think was money well spent.

Thank you again elsien (and you pboe), I might have left him over the weekend to 'see how he was' so I'm glad you replied and pointed me in the right direction.

elsien

You're welcome, glad you got it sorted.
My mutt has so far only needed treatment the once, but a couple of times when she's got really stressed (like yours, it doesn't take much!) it's shown signs of coming back, then gone away again. With any luck, yours will be a once off as well.
I had to starve Ellie for 48 hours once - that was the theory, I caved in after a day and a half of continuous staring and nudging. Good luck.

zebidee1

Further question about feeding if anyone can advise?

After Harley's episode above....it would now seem that he has normal formed poo when he is fed (real) chicken and brown rice, but as soon as he is put back onto his usual Burns dry food...his poo goes yellow and soft/runny most times now. I'm wondering if he has developed some sort of allergy against this food? I did mention to the vet but she seems to think that would be highly unlikely as Burns is what they would advise a dog with a dodgy tum to be fed on. He seemed fine on the puppy version but he's been on the adult version for a couple of months now and thinking back....we think his poo might have had yellow/runny episodes since then? Don't know that for sure though.

Also, we have noticed that when he is fed real rice and chicken, he seems 'settled' and content whereas on Burns lately, he is always up wanting out to the garden and is generally unsettled and a bit more whinney (sp?) than usual. I'm sure it's not my imagination and my gut feeling is that we should change his food. The vet said his episode of colitis would make him feel like he needed to go even if he didn't so that's why he is heading for the door all the time........but he doesn't do this when he gets real food.

He's had real rice and chicken yesterday and this morning but obviously cant stay on this all the time so I was thinking about trying one of those dry foods aimed at dogs with sensitive tums.

Royal Canin Intestinal seems well regarded from what I've read and Hills Science seems to be too.

Any advice please? Can you buy those foods off the shelf or only via a vet? Any links to other forums where this kind of thing has been discussed? Alll I've read is how wonderful Burns is, but I just have this nagging feeling that it's not great for Harley no matter what the vet says.

elsien

Never tried Burns, but my dog does ok on James Wellbeloved dried food- the vet said that because she was fed on this (and it's hypoallergenic), I didn't need to go on the chicken and rice diet that he would normally recommend for colitis, I could keep feeding her as normal. I haven't tried any of the other ones you mention.
He also said to put porridge oats in her food for extra fibre ( better than bran, apparently for sensitive tums.)
Might be worth a change of food to put your mind at rest - I find that the mutt still has stressed days when she goes a bit more runny at times, but mostly she's ok, and I haven't had to go back to the vet as yet.

Have a look at this thread as well. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=818663&highlight=hypoallergenic

pboae

Which Burns did you have him on? Although it is usually a good for dog's with sensitive stomachs, any dog can become intolerant of any food. As elsien says JWB is another good one.

zebidee1

Sorry pboae & elsien, I didn't realise there were other replies on this thread until I came back to update it.

pboae....it was Burns chicken and rice (dry food) that he was on.

We've had a fair bit of upset with Harley and his tum lately. Things have got steadily worse and we came downstairs 2 mornings on the trot to find he had seriously messed his crate. (Not fun trying to get small person ready for school whilst throwing very smelly bedding in garden and getting dog into the bath first thing in the morning!)

Since he's always been very good with toilet training we assumed he must just not have been able to hold it in. We had to start to put him to bed later and get up with him during the night and earlier in the morning but even then he was still desperate to go. Even on ordinary boiled brown rice and chicken, he was still pretty erratic with yellow yukky poo.

We went back to the vet who wanted 3 days worth of poo samples and has sent it off for testing in case there is some nasty parasite luking in his gut somewhere although she thought it was unlikely. (Results back next week.)She put him on Hills ID which is supposed to be very easily digested for dogs with dodgy tums but as soon as he had the first meal he seemed worse and within 2 days his poo was terrible with large amounts of greyish mucus and he was straining to poo when there was nothing left to come out.

Someone mentioned that dogs can sometimes be intolerant to chicken so we stopped feeding him any dog food and also fresh chicken (vet doesn't know this yet) and gave him rice and white fish. Big difference. His first poo after that was brown and formed, with no mucus. We then tried rice & liver...yellow poo (formed but had undigested bits of meat). Back to fish...part yellow/part brown poo.

I did a search on the net and got several pages that mentioned yellow poo being a sign of intolerance to certain foods. Given the way Harley seems to react I'm now wondering if this is the case.

Is it feasable for dogs to be intolerant of most/all meat? He only seems to be ok on fish. He was fine on chicken previously but not any more it would seem.

My problem now is that I'm spending rather a lot of money on trying expensive dog foods that dont seem to agree with him and so the bag is not getting used after one or two feeds. It's also costing a fortune buying white fish, not that I grudge it but I'd prefer if he was on dog dried food tbh.

I'm thinking of trying him on Burns fish and rice but I'm wary of wasting yet another bag. I'm pretty confident the stool sample wont show anything as I really feel this is a diet issue but I'm not sure what to do or try now tbh. Just fish and rice wont supply all his nutritional requirements so I cant feed him this long term. Any thoughts? The vet seemed to think he needed to be on a new feed for at least 2 weeks to see a true picture but Harley seems to react quite badly after only one meal and it gets worse over the following days so I'm not happy to leave him on something that's obviously not agreeing with him.

I'm assuming the make up of the Burns fish and rice will be very similar to the chicken and rice (apart from the chicken obviously) so this might be a good way of narrowing down what it is that's disagreeing with him? Either that or it'll be another waste of money. :rolleyes: Any thoughts?