Mucus in poo - advice needed please

My 10 month old westie usually is very regular with firm sausage like poos but on Wednesday he woke me up in the night to go out urgently. His poo was slightly loose but covered with slimey mucus. He was back to normal yesterday (Thursday) but last night woke me up twice to go out in the night (he never usually needs to go out after 9pm and has virtually slept through the night since we got him). Once again the poos were slightly loose but covered with lots of slimey mucus.

He is fine in himself - full of beans this morning running around as usual. He is fed on Naturediet.

Has anyone come across this? Is this something I need to speak to the vet about?

We are due to go on holiday tomorrow - should I take him to the vets today?

I would appreciate any help or advice

Many thanks

The slimey mucus is wind...often associated with colitis, especially if there is blood in it.

Ordinarily I would suggest you just keep an eye on him, but if you are going on holiday and taking him with you and travel is involved, I would pop him to the vets just to be checked over, they may give you some a/b's just to be on the safe side.

Alternatively, if he is staying elsewhere whilst you are on holiday I would definately take him to the vet, just incase he has something contagious and you need to let his carer know.

Hope he's ok and that you have a fab holiday

Thanks for quick reply. There was no blood. Think I will phone the vet to see whether they think he needs a check.

We have a shortish journey to our holiday - we are going to the Isle of Wight - hopefully lots of lovely walks on the beach.

Hope things have improved and you enjoy your holiday. Sometimes dogs get mucus after being wormed or having had some medication; a change of diet or eating something whilst out that has irritated the stomach lining. Have you changed the diet recently or done any of the above?

I would check with your vet anyway just to make sure that there is nothing medically wrong but another cause of mucousy, slimy poo is often due to too much fat intake...very common when a dog is chicken intolerant.

If you feed your dog a lot of chicken or chicken based food, try removing all chicken from his diet. If it clears up....Bob's your uncle...do not feed chicken of any kind.

my dog had this problem some years ago, i used actimel (friendly bacteria drink as advertised on tv) in between her meals i syringe fed her this for a couple of days & it did the trick.

Interesting to hear the Actimel comment - I would probably go for a natural yoghurt instead as Actimel has loads of sugar in...

i got the actimel tip off a friend who claimed he got it off the vet, as his dog had this problem too,thinking about it the yoghurt would be better, but the actimel worked, i didnt look at the sugar content so this was news to me, i took the word of my friend..if she ever has the problem again i would give the natural joghurt a try though, it makes sense.

ps that is not to say I don't believe in Actimel - it is a great product for helping to protect the immune system and I knew I was going into hospital for example I would definitely take it... Have also heard a few horse people giving it too

Rather than using Actimel which is meant for a human stomach I would go for a pro biotic suitable for dogs like this one..
http://www.denes.co.uk/advice/fact_s...probiotics.php
I use one called 'Protextin Professional' from the vet or buy online.