When my puppy first had mucus diarrhea, it was new to me and I had limited knowledge about it at the time.
During that time, I thought puppies only have mucus diarrhea because they ate what they were not supposed to, which was true but not the only reason.
So in this post, I would be enlightening you on the different causes of puppy mucus diarrhea and their treatments that I wish I knew of.
Why does my puppy have mucus diarrhea?
When your puppy has mucus diarrhea, it is due to inflammation of the colon.
The inflammation could be caused by stress, change in diet, picking food from the trash or by the road, parvovirus, and gastrointestinal endoparasites.
Stress
Like humans, dogs too experience stress but it is different in dogs.
For dogs, stress could be caused by a change in environment.
It could be moving to another house or city or maybe the dog was recently adopted.
Addition to the family can cause stress too. This could be a new child, a relative staying over at the house, or a new pet.
Being away from home could also cause stress for your puppy.
Change in diet
Here at healthycheerfuldog.com, I always advise dog owners to change their dog’s diet gradually and not at once.
If you change your puppy’s diet and you begin to notice mucus diarrhea, you have to check the new diet because your puppy may be sensitive to some of the ingredients.
Picking food from the trash or road
There are a lot of human foods that are harmful to your puppy.
If your puppy is the type that picks up stuff from the trash and roads, then there is a high likely hood of it eating harmful food.
To prevent your puppy from eating harmful food, I recommend you wear it a basket muzzle during walks and playtime.
Parvovirus
Parvovirus is a highly contagious virus that affects all dogs.
It is most common in dogs and puppies below 5 months of age.
If your puppy’s mucus diarrhea is caused by parvovirus, your puppy would likely have other symptoms.
These symptoms include loss of appetite, abdominal pain, bloating, low body temperature, and vomiting.
Gastrointestinal Endoparasites
Endoparasites such as worms could cause intestinal infection which could lead to mucus diarrhea.
Puppies whose mucus diarrhea is caused by gastrointestinal parasites would have other symptoms which you could use to identify it.
The symptoms include variable appetite, irritability, shaggy coat, abdominal pain, bloating, weight loss, and mild coughing.
What should I feed my puppy with mucus diarrhea?
Regardless of the cause of your puppy’s mucus diarrhea, I would give you a feeding guide that would be okay for your puppy.
When it comes to feeding, the first thing to feed your puppy with mucus diarrhea is nothing.
I know it sounds strange.
For the first 24 hours, you should not give your puppy any food to eat.
Food should not be given within the first 24 hours that you notice mucus diarrhea so that the intestinal tract can rest completely.
It also gives time for the inflammation to subside.
Although food should not be given to the puppy within the first 24 hours, water is very necessary.
You have to ensure your dog is well hydrated.
Your dog should be granted free access to water. If your dog does not drink water I advise that you force it to drink.
When you want to introduce food to your puppy after 24 hours, I recommend that you introduce something that is especially bland.
My number one choice of food after the 24-hour wait is plain white rice.
You should give your dog ¼ cup of rice per 10 lbs.
Plain white rice helps firm up your puppy’s mucus stool.
White rice is low in fiber, which helps in not promoting bowel movement.
White rice is low in fiber because the bran, which contains most of the insoluble fiber, has been processed away.
Low-fiber food allows the bowel to form instead of promoting its movement.
Plain rice is also easy to digest, which saves the bowel from doing a lot of work which is good because it is not in a good state at the time.
I recommend your feed your puppy plain rice for 2-3 days.
Treatments for puppy mucus diarrhea
These treatments are more effective if the causes of your puppy’s mucus diarrhea are stress, a change in diet, and eating harmful food.
It would also work if the causes of your puppy’s mucus diarrhea are parvovirus and endoparasites.
But I advise that you treat the diseases while you treat the mucus diarrhea.
Most of the treatments I would provide are natural remedies that are effective for puppy mucus diarrhea.
Chamomile tea ( ½ cup per 10lbs twice a day)
It is good for diarrhea. It helps in calming the inflamed intestinal tract.
It also relaxes your digestive muscles.
A study in rats found that chamomile extract prevented diarrhea.
You should give your puppy the dosage above for 2-5 days.
Probiotics for puppy mucus diarrhea
These are really good bacteria that are lost during diarrhea.
Probiotics help your puppy digest food, they keep bad bacteria from getting out of control and making your puppy sick.
They also create vitamins and help support the cells that line your puppy’s gut to prevent bad bacteria that you may have consumed from entering your blood.
One food that is high in probiotics is plain natural yogurt.
The majority of natural plain yogurts are quite high in acidophilus and lactobacillus and are very effective for mucus diarrhea.
You should give your puppy 1 tbsp per day for 2-5 days.
Diatomaceous earth (food grade) for puppy diarrhea
Diatomaceous earth is made of single-celled honeycomb-structured algae organisms with silicon exoskeletons called diatoms.
It is basically a type of algae mineral that is rich in silica.
This aquatic food can help heal and repair the gut and enable good stuff to proliferate.
This food grade of diatomaceous earth decreases some of the inflammation.
It also binds some of the toxins that would be causing the results of mucus diarrhea.
It binds the fluid in the stomach and firms up the stool
It also has some other benefits for your puppy’s gut which include:
Detoxifying the gut,
Cleansing the intestinal walls and digestive tract,
killing parasites, which would be helpful if the cause of your puppy mucus diarrhea is parasites,
Increasing mineral absorption, and
Reducing gas and bloating.
At the time of publishing this blog post, this product cost $5.29.
Although I have mentioned a lot of helpful treatments, I do recommend, you take your puppy to see the vet if you notice mucus diarrhea.
There are a lot of people who don’t understand the causes and treatment of puppy mucus discharge which leads them to make bad decisions.
Some pet owners give their pets the wrong treatment while some don’t do anything and think it is normal.
I hereby urge you to share this post with people who may need it (Facebook groups and Reddit).
Help a puppy parent today.
If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comment section, healthycheerfuldog.com is always happy to help.
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