New puppy with a little blood in stool

[deltawave]

My new little rescue puppy is 3 months old, and doing great! We are working on housetraining and he is catching on, but his habits are that he poops a LOT in the morning when he wakes up, usually right away, again after breakfast, and sometimes again 5 minutes later. Not a problem, stools appear normal, and his fecal exam was negative and he’s been dewormed very properly since birth. (born into a shelter situation, so well looked after)

The thing I’ve noticed is that after the last bit of stool, when presumably he’s emptying out the last bit of his colon, there’s a little drop of blood. Naturally this stool is looser than the first one and there may or may not be a little drop of mucus mixed in.

Normal? He’s eating well, healthy and thriving, but is sampling the odd bit of horse poop and other “stuff” he comes across on our daily rounds. My other dog was recently dewormed. His mama was heartworm positive but treated if that adds any relevant info.

Should I be concerned or just observe? No bloody stuff noted with normal stools later in the day–it just seems to be in the early morning when he evacuates the WHOLE system. :lol:

[Bluey]

Take stool sample to the vet and mention that.
Puppy could be fighting a bit of coccidiosis, or giardia, or some such, not enough to be sick, but it is running it’s course.

Good to be sure that is not something that may become a problem if he is somehow stressed before he is completely over it.
Good if you can rule that out, ask your vet.

[deltawave]

They did a fecal at the vet’s just this week and it was negative (required for doggy day care)–would that not include cocci and the usual suspects?

[Bluey]

I think those fecals are only for worms.
You have to ask for any other.

Still, it probably is just normal puppy stuff from straining.
Ask your vet.

[EqTrainer]

[QUOTE=Bluey;6183565]
Take stool sample to the vet and mention that.
Puppy could be fighting a bit of coccidiosis, or giardia, or some such, not enough to be sick, but it is running it’s course.

Good to be sure that is not something that may become a problem if he is somehow stressed before he is completely over it.
Good if you can rule that out, ask your vet.;)[/QUOTE]

This. And, do another parasite fecal. As you know DW, the poop with the eggs is not always the one that gets floated!

[Bluey]

I tell you my Dr and vet story.

Dr needed a good dog vet, his had retired.
I gave our vet name, he took his older dog there, the dog was diagnosed and put on treatment for diabetes.

Later, Dr told me, “vets don’t really know much about diabetes, don’t they.”
Ok, I didn’t say anything, what do I know.

A while later, at the vet, he tells me “I am always surpised that Drs think they know all about medicine, including in other species than humans and no, they don’t.
He sure had some strange ideas about how to treat his dog.”:lol:

I didn’t ask what that may have been, I hope both learned from each other.:yes:

[LauraKY]

I agree with another fecal. Our hound was having the same problem. Three fecals later it showed a hookworm infection.

[EqTrainer]

I wasnt going to say it but yes… Mine had blood in his stool and it was hookworms. On a regular deworming schedule due to being a farm dog. So there ya go.

[Bacardi1]

Another vote to have vet re-check a stool sample.

We adopted a young dog who had been “thoroughly wormed”, was thoroughly housebroken, & just one week later, in addition to having a few unexpected accidents, was having looser-than-normal stool ending with a little blood. Another fecal check turned up worms, & another worming resolved the problem permanently.

[Foxtrot_s]

DD’s boxer pup had exactly the same, tinge of blood and mucous. Another worming and it resolved so far. She came from a ‘backyard’ breeder at 7 weeks, so early history is unknown, but has since been done according to our vet.

[Sonesta]

This touch of blood can come from hookworms, whipworms, giardia or coccidia.

Time for a more complete fecal exam.

[Brio]

Fecal floats do not catch coccidia - that’s done on a fecal smear which is not always routine. Giardia has its own snap test.

[NRB]

In my dog, when there was blood in the stool, it was bright red, so coming from the colon. (dark red is higher up in the GI system) Vet said fiber responsive colitis, and I added some fiber in the form of canned pumpkin, or sweet potato to the dogs diet. And it was controlled that way. I also added a probiotic just to cover my bases.

At another time I also had the dog come up positive for Coccidia, treated and then positive for Giardia, treated, and positive for giardia and not treated (long story) POINT is that for both the coccidia and giardia the dog was symptom free, more or less, as in no bloody stools and just an occasional loose pile…

So I’'ve seen bloody stool from colitis, but never from coccidia and giardia…

And in my vets office, they test in house fecals for Coccidia, but they send out to a lab for the Giardia test. So my thought it that Giardia would not be covered in a routine in-house fecal…

[Horsegal984]

Ok… Time for some clarification… A fecal floatation will show roundworms, hooks, whips, AND coccidia. It does NOT show giardia or tapeworms. An animal can be checked in house for giardia is done by doing a fecal smear. The snap test is a little controversial, because it doesn’t always give accurate results of if an animal needs treatment. Plus, giardia is commonly treated with Flagyl(metronidazole) which is the drug of choice for non-specific gastritis and colitis. So ultimately, if you’re going to treat with Metro anyway is it worth the extra money to you to KNOW it’s giradia as opposed to stress colitis?

[alto]

SNAP tests - worth every penny when dealing with rescue dogs.

This site has some decent reprints.

If pup hasn’t been SNAP tested for parvo, I’d do that, as early treatment makes such a difference (I haven’t followed the history on this pup so this may be more or less likely).

ETA

born into a shelter situation, so well looked after

Unless intakes stop when there are pups in the shelter or quarantine/isolation is much better than any shelter I’ve had experience with, expect pup to have been exposed to coccidia & possibly parvo (probability of this depending on area).
Based on your description of pup’s morning bathroom habits & mine with coccidia, I’d start the Albon :yes:
(btw coccidia smells different than hookworms than parvo
the colors are different too :p)

[Sonesta]

There is a much better treatment now for coccidia than Albon. Albon doesn’t kill the coccidia; it just prevents it from reproducing while its in the system and allows the system to pass it out in the feces.

There is a product called toltrizural (sold by Bayer under name “Baycox”) that will kill the organism and it is wonderful. It has not yet (I don’t think) been “approved for use in dogs” but most all the big shelters and animal rescue places have been using it for several years. I use it as well. It completely kills the coccidia.

Here’s a great research article about it. http://fanciers.com/cat-facts/cat-health/12-Drugs%20and%20therapies/86-baycox-for-treatment-of-coccidia.html

Note that they quote completely a scientific research article, but if you want to see that article itself, then go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11068811.

Considering it works much better and doesn’t have the terrible side effects of Albon (Keratitis being the most common), I no longer use Albon for coccidia.

[deltawave]

Updating to say that after his first dose of HeartGard, stools are completely firm, normal, and not having the same sort of “wormy” smell. It has been so very long since I’ve had puppies around that I’d sort of forgotten that aspect of canine diagnostics! :lol:

[Calamber]

[QUOTE=deltawave;6183566]
They did a fecal at the vet’s just this week and it was negative (required for doggy day care)–would that not include cocci and the usual suspects?[/QUOTE]

No, normal fecals do not test for giarrdia nor coccidiosis. That is interesting though and rather proves my thoughts about fecals and the possibility of false negatives.

I had a similar issue with a three year old Chesapeake Bay that I had rescued from a really neglectful situation. She had everything, including whips, hookworm, tapeworm, and rounds. It took me nearly six months of almost continuous every two weeks deworming with Strongid, rigorous exercise and good diet before she was totally healthy.