Mucus on poo

[Brittney]

I was grooming Ande today and of course he was pooping while I was doing so. During playtime his poops are always fine. Firm, dark and just over all normal poops. Well during grooming him his poops were really light colored and not in form, and a tiny bit had stringy mucus on it. :wacko: Could it be a stress thing?? because this morning they were normal poops. One last thing I need to stress about. He lives with Bryson and Bryson's poops are fine, just shiny. Ohhh I don't need this to happen right now. :cry3:

 

[Rickman]

I'd give them both some LifeLine to straighten things out in their gut!
Also make sure their water is filtered, [I use Britta] to prevent guadia, too!

 

[Brittney]

It is filtered. The only water I use for them is RO

 

[starleomach]

Mucus is a sign of giardia. I would get them tested. It is contagous and can spread to you and other animals. It also can happen with other water issues.

 

[AZChins]

Sometimes there will be some droppings that are a little off. It doesn't necessarily mean that there is anything at all wrong. If he's got giardia, it's not just going to stop and start...it keeps going and it gets worse. Watch his droppings and if in a few hours they are back to normal, there isn't a problem. Parasite problems don't just go away and come back and then go away. Generally it will go away WITH TREATMENT and then come back a few weeks later.

These guys weren't on any antiparasitic that could have just helped but not eliminated the problem, were they?

I wouldn't worry until you have to. Mucus on poops does happy every now and then with some chins...it sometimes is just a sign of minor inflammation in the intestinal tract and often it won't happen again.

If it comes back or gets worse, take him in to the vet. If it doesn't, it may be a good idea to not watch that closely at the droppings.

And, yes, strange droppings can always be the result of stress or other changes to the schedule or diet.

 

[Brittney]

I let them run around in the bathroom and his poops were back to normal. So I'm guessing he's fine. It's never happened before (the mucus) but his poops always end up off when he's being groomed, kinda like he is squeezing them out, but then go back to normal shortly after.

And no, they haven't been given any antiparasites.

 

[AZChins]

Then it could definitely be the stress. I've had chins here that will stress out from a stranger holding them and end up with strange droppings in just a few minutes. Chins are just really sensitive like that sometimes.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

MaveRick is that way when he's in the car or at the vets office.
His poos are perfectly fine until he's in the car, then he's got stressed poos. When he's at the vets office waiting to be since they go back to normal, but once he in the room and the vets holding him...stressed again. Once he's home in his cage, everything goes back to normal.

 

[Directorthiang]

I'd be cautious, though, if one of your chins has shiny or greasy looking poop. That's also a sign of giardia, in addition to the mucous. And, not to be a nay-sayer, sometimes an infected chin will have poops that look normal and poops that look suspicious. My boy just finished a round of metronidazole for giardia, and his poop varied back and forth for a couple of days before I took him in just to be cautious. Good thing--he DID have giardia, and even after 10 days of treatment, his poop is now large and shiny AGAIN. Looks like another round of antiparasitics is necessary.... (sigh)

 

[Riven]

All animals have certain amounts of parasitic creatures in them, even humans, it is when these levels get out of control that things get out of whack. I would not be concerned over one or two poos.

Most water filters that you get in the stores really don't do much good for parasites, etc. If you really want to "be safe" get your own high quality filter that filters down to .03 microns or less, otherwise most of them don't really get everything out anyway.