Puppy question

westisbest

Hi,

So we got a puppy about 3/4 weeks ago. He's a lovely dog and very smart, he already knows how to sit and lie down and give the paw and find the chicken (his rubber toy!).

But we're a bit worried about him. He has had both sets of vaccinations now, he's about 13 weeks old, and he sleeps indoors and is indoors a lot of the day except when he is eating or playing supervised outside. Over the last two weeks though we have noticed that every so often he will have bloody mucus in his stools. Its not a regular thing, maybe once a week but every time I see it I panic. He is on the same food since we got him although we were giving him scraps of our food on occasion too but we have stopped that now.

I don't have the most confidence in our vet tbh, last time we were in they were not concerned about the bloody stools. He did get wormed on his first vet visit but not the second (two weeks later) is this normal or is it to generate more revenue for them by bringing us back a third time?

And OT when we had a cat we use to worm her ourselves, is this not possible for dogs? Not being smart but for the cat we'd just put it in her food or get her to swallow it but the vet maintains we need to bring the dog in each time for them to administer it even though it is a dry tablet not an injection.

Any ideas? We have a vet appt on Thurs for more worming and will mention the bloody mucus then but is it more urgent than that? He is still full of energy and has normal appetite etc so I dont know know what to do!

LisaO

I can't say if your vet is any cop but they are certainly having you on about the worming. Most, if not all dog wormers are administered orally, usually tablet but sometimes liquid & it much easier to give something to a dog rather than a cat! If you have another vet in your area, contact them & ask them what wormer they would suggest for your pup & what dosage. You should be able to just go in & buy it over the counter - no consultation charge. In fact, it is possible to buy wormers & flea treatments on line - if you do a search on this forum for worming you should find some recommendations for sites to use.

As regards the bloody mucus in his stools, I would expect my vet to ask for a stool sample for analysis, as it could be a simple issue, such as gut irritation due to diet or ingesting something appropriate or an indication of an underlying condition. Again, maybe time to ask advice of another vet?

tk123

For the mucus - our guy has had this a few times when he had an upset tummy. Rice & Chicken sorted him out and we got prokolin a couple of times from the vets too which sorted it in a few days.

Knine

It could be that the dog has a touch of colitis which is an inflamation of the large intestine and result in the dog producing watery bloody stools with mucus. One of my dogs suffers from it and if he gets stressed or even when he is being wormed he gets a bout of it.

But to be on the safe side I would always recommend you take him to the vet if he has prolonged watery motions as this is also symptom of a wide range of disorders and some are serious. If you feel your vet is not taking you serious I would strongly consider changing vet.

You have got excellent advice above and chicken and rice boiled is excellent for a dog who is having stomach trouble. To make the mixture I buy chicken joints and boil them and the rice together as the rice is then more appealing to the dog. I remove all bones as cooked chicken bones are not suitable for dogs.

You most certainly dont need to bring the dog to the vet for worming. You can easily do it yourself. Try to steer away from petshop and supermarket wormers as they are not as effective as what you get from the vets. Drontal is one I would recommend. There are also Droncit, panacur and many others

Try this site www.petdrugsonline.co.uk

morganafay

Do you feed the puppy a good quality food? I wouldn't really be too worried about it if it only happens sometimes, cos puppies can get upset tummies easily and that could cause it.

And you can definitely worm the puppy yourself, just be careful of the dosage. I wormed my puppy yesterday and she just ate the tablet out of my hand, my other dogs are the same. Cats are way more difficult! One of mine can smell the worming tablet if it's crushed into any food at all and won't eat it, so I have to make her swallow it and she's the most aggressive cat ever! :rolleyes: