Why does my senior dog have mucus in his stool? Is it worms?

There is always some mucus in stool. It aids in defecation. An increased amount can be due to some inflammation in the intestine. If she had intestinal parasites and was recently treated, this could be the cause. If she is behaving normally, you can monitor her at home. Consider a bland diet in small, frequent amounts until the stool is normal then transition slowly to her regular diet. Symptoms that should be addressed by your veterinarian include lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite or abdominal pain.

There are many different causes for chronic diarrhea in older dogs, none of which are usually great news. The best and shortest list I can provide you is the following: lymphoma of the GI tract, inflammatory bowel disease, lymphangiectasia, liver disease, gastrointestinal parasites, and/or nutritional deficiencies like lack of vitamin B12. Since you have mostly ruled out GI parasites, I would recommend beginning to investigate the possibilities of some of the others I have listed. In order to do this, you will need to obtain some blood work with your vet (baseline plus the B12 test), then work out whether or not he/she can do ultrasound / endoscopy to rule in / out the other conditions I have listed. Hope this makes sense. Best of luck.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Ollie. I do recommend having him seen by his veterinarian. Mucus indicates inflammation the colon and is not normal. Once a cause is determined, he can be treated. I hope this information helps!

That looks like mucus rather than worms. It is not normal and is caused by irritation in the colon for some reason. I'd recommend feeding each dog a bit of glitter or crayon shards with their normal food (easiest with canned food, or their kibble moistened with water) and note which color you give you which pup, and see who ends up producing the abnormal stool sample, so you can take them to the vet. Hope that helps!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I'm sorry to hear Mimi has been having diarrhea. Diarrhea with mucus can be due to a variety of reasons, including intestinal parasites, dietary indiscretion, food intolerance, or another underlying issue. I would recommend having her evaluated by her regular veterinarian, have any necessary testing done (fecal analysis, etc) and start any treatment (probiotic/antidiarrheal) that she may need to resolve it. Good luck!

Blood in faeces can be due to many disorders. It can be due to inflammation due to eating something off, ranging all the way to more serious issues such as tumours of the gut. Due to the many possibilities it is imperative to have the dog examined by a vet. This is the quickest and most reliable way to get to the bottom of what is going on. Hopefully it will be something fairly straightforward.

Soft poop often contains mucous. It is completely normal. Intestinal worms will look like variations of spaghetti in the feces and are visible to the naked eye. It is still a good idea to deworm Cash if you haven't done that in a while.