What Should I Do If I See Blood In My Dogs Stool Or Vomit
Regardless of the type of blood you see in your dog’s stool or vomit it is important to contact your vet, or your nearest emergency vet right away. Bloody diarrhea or vomiting can be a veterinary emergency requiring immediate care. Some causes of blood in stool or vomit are potentially fatal if left untreated, so it’s always wise to err on the side of caution.
At Carolina Veterinary Specialists, our board-certified Veterinary Internal Medicine Specialist is equipped to offer advanced diagnostics and care for pets with internal health conditions. Our emergency veterinary team treats animals in circumstances requiring urgent medical care, including life-threatening emergencies.
What To Do About Black Diarrhea
It is important to call your doctor at the first sign of black diarrhea . In both kids and adults, a doctor will test to see if there is blood present in the stool, and this will help them narrow down what might be causing the black diarrhea. If your black diarrhea has red streaks or is accompanied by a fever, nausea, or cramping or pain, its especially important to seek medical attention right away.
What Causes Bloody Stool In Dogs
There are many, many things that can cause blood to appear in your dogs stool. Some of these issues are life-threatening and need to be dealt with immediately, while others still require attention, but are not as urgent. The causes of bloody stool in dogs can be categorized into three different problems: eating the wrong thing, long-term diseases, and acute diseases.
Eating the wrong thing is fairly straightforward. Dogs are infamous for eating anything and everything, including their own feces. Therefore, it should be no surprise that dogs will eat things that they shouldnt. This category includes things that are obviously not foods, involving the following problems: foreign bodies , sensitivities and inflammation from new foods, parasites, bacterial and viral infections, toxins, and occasionally trauma to the gut, depending on the nature of what was eaten. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to monitor what your dog eats.
Long-term diseases are also what they sound like. They are diseases that tend to be chronic, or even congenital. These issues are usually long-lasting without treatment, or can become a permanent part of your dogs life regardless. This includes the following problems: inflammatory conditions affecting the bowel, cancers, pancreatic disease, liver disease, Addisons disease, and blood clotting disorders.
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How Do I Treat Rectal Bleeding
In most cases, rectal bleeding can be treated by caring for the cause of the bleeding. Rectal bleeding is often a part of a bigger issue that needs to be taken care of. Once that condition has been treated, the bleeding usually stops. Treatment options can vary depending on the condition. Conditions like anal fissures can go away on their own over time or be treated with ointments. Hemorrhoids are another common cause of rectal bleeding that can be treated by either resolving any constipation issues, changing your diet and water intake, or possibly having surgery.
One more severe cause of rectal bleeding can be cancer. If this is the case, your healthcare provider will develop a treatment plan to treat the cancer, often removing any tumors.
Why Does My Dog Have Blood In Their Vomit
While taking a close look a vomit is never pleasant, in order to determine the cause of the blood in your dog’s vomit you will need to provide your vet with a detailed description of the blood. Does your dog’s vomit have a couple of streaks of red blood through it, or is all of the vomit tinged pink or red? Does the vomit contain a black or dark substance that looks a bit like coffee grinds? Dark coffee grind-like blood can indicates that the blood has been partially digested and as such means that the bleeding has been occurring over a longer period of time and is certainly cause for concern.
As with the appearance of blood in your dog’s stool, when you see blood in your dog’s vomit it can be caused by something minor such as swallowing blood from a wound or nose bleed, but could also be due to more serious issues such as internal bleeding.
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What Does Blood In Stool Look Like
The medical name for bloody stools is hematochezia. Blood in stool usually looks like bright red drops of blood in the toilet bowl or red streaks on stool. Usually, the color of blood in poop depends on the location of the bleeding, and in fact, there is a lot that the color of your stool can tell about your health.
Dr. William Shiel on MedicineNet says that bright red blood in stool is usually a sign that the bleeding is closer to the anus or lower down the gastrointestinal tract at the base of the colon. Stools that look dark or tarry can mean that the bleeding is further up the colon. If you have bleeding in the stomach caused by an ulcer, your stools may appear black and have a foul smell.1
Bleeding in the right side of the colon may result in stool that has a dark maroon or almost black color to it. This is because feces from the right side of the colon take longer to travel through the digestive tract, and the old blood turns black. This is also called melena.
Some medical conditions mean that blood cant be detected in stool with the naked eye, and this is called occult rectal bleeding. Some cases of anal cancer, colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, or hemorrhoids can result in little rectal bleeding. Usually, the only way to detect occult blood in stool is to send a sample to the lab for testing.1
Is It Normal To Have Diarrhea Early In Pregnancy
Although diarrhea isnt a sign of early pregnancy, its possible that you may experience diarrhea or other digestive issues in your first trimester. Early on in your pregnancy, your body starts going through lots of changes, and these can affect your bowel movements, leading to either hard or loose stools.
Morning sickness and diarrhoea during pregnancy are common because your body is undergoing important hormonal shifts to accommodate the babys development. No matter when it happens, if you get diarrhea at 8 weeks pregnant or later, youll need to increase your fluid intake and monitor how long it lasts.
In daily life, reasons for diarrhea can range from bacterial and viral infections to food poisoning and medications. However, loose stools in pregnancy and diarrhea during early pregnancy are often caused by hormonal and dietary changes, stress, and underlying conditions like IBS.
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How Does Rectal Bleeding Appear
You might see or experience rectal bleeding in a few different ways, including:
- Seeing blood on your toilet paper when you wipe.
- Seeing blood in the bowl of the toilet when you are using the bathroom the water in the bowl might look like its been dyed red.
- Noticing dark red, black or tarry poop while you are having a bowel movement.
Rectal bleeding can be bright red or darker in color. You can also have rectal bleeding without being able to see it. This can happen when you have very small amounts of blood in your stool called occult bleeding.
Bright Red Blood In Your Dogs Stool
Bright red blood looks dramatic, but it isnt always a sign of a life-threatening illness. If you notice a single streak of red blood in your dogs stool, and the rest of his poop is normal, it might be a fluke. But you should still call your veterinarian. Consistent bleeding or large amounts of blood, on the other hand, indicate a more serious problem.
Here are some of the more common causes of bloody stool in dogs:
- Colitis
- Parasites, such as hookworms
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Anal sac infections or impactions
Severe conditions that can cause bloody stool or bloody diarrhea include viral and bacterial infections, parvovirus, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, and possibly cancer. Your veterinarian may perform a series of diagnostic tests to help determine the cause of the bleeding, but if you think your unvaccinated dog may have been exposed to parvovirus, call ahead before you bring him into the emergency room to help the staff limit the spread of infection.
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Blood In Stool Treatments
A doctor may use one of several techniques to stop acute bleeding. Often endoscopy is used to inject chemicals into the site of bleeding, treat the bleeding site with an electric current or laser, or apply a band or clip to close the bleeding vessel. If endoscopy does not control bleeding, the doctor may use angiography to inject medicine into the blood vessels to control bleeding.
Beyond stopping the immediate bleeding, if necessary, treatment involves addressing the cause of bleeding to keep it from returning. Treatment varies depending on the cause and may include medications such as antibiotics to treat H. pylori, ones to suppress acid in the stomach, or anti-inflammatory drugs to treat colitis. Surgery may be needed to remove polyps or the parts of the colon damaged by cancer, diverticulitis, or inflammatory bowel disease.
Depending on the cause, however, treatment may involve simple things you can do on your own. These including eating a high-fiber diet to relieve constipation that can cause and aggravate hemorrhoids and anal fissures, and taking a Sitz bath, which means sitting in warm water to relieve fissures and hemorrhoids.
Your doctor will prescribe or recommend treatment based on the diagnosis.
Video Capsule And Small Intestine Endoscopy
If neither an upper or lower gastrointestinal source of blood in the stool is found, the small intestine becomes suspect as the source of the bleeding. There are two ways of examining the small intestine. The first is the video capsule, a large pill containing a miniature camera, battery and transmitter that is swallowed and relays photos of the small intestine wirelessly to a recorder carried over the abdomen. The second way to examine the small intestine is with a specialized endoscope similar to the endoscopes used for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and colonoscopy. The advantage of these endoscopes over the video capsule is that bleeding lesions can be biopsied and treated, something that can’t be done with the capsule. Unfortunately, small intestinal enteroscopy is time consuming and not generally available. Patients often must be sent to centers where small intestinal enteroscopy is available.
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Why You Should Never Ignore Blood In Your Stool
It’s perfectly normal to feel concerned if you spot blood in your stool or on the toilet paper after wiping. Bloody stool isn’t a normal occurrence and should be evaluated immediately. Whether you notice a faint red streak or dark blood in your stool, it can be a sign that something is amiss. If you ignore the symptom, whatever condition is causing it may get worse, so getting in to see a gastroenterologist can help get to the bottom of things.
At Digestive Disorders Associates, we see patients with a wide variety of digestive complaints and can provide a comprehensive evaluation for issues such as bloody stools. Sometimes theres an innocent explanation for finding blood in your stool. The only way to know for sure is to have a thorough examination.
Here are some of the possible reasons behind bloody stools.
How Can You Prepare For The Vet
There are a few other things that you should look for and consider when you are talking to your vet about your dog and its bloody stool. Looking at the overall condition of your dog will help your vet determine just how urgent the situation is, and if you already know what to look for, then you can make sure that the call to the vet goes as smoothly as possible. Other symptoms will usually help the vet narrow down what could be happening to your dog before you arrive at the clinic.
First things first, you will want to note how long your dog has had bloody stool, and if this has ever happened to your dog before. This helps the vet determine if this is a new, old, or recurring problem with your dog. Theres a good chance the vet will also ask if the stool is diarrhea, and if so, how long it has been like that, as this will help determine what is causing the gastrointestinal issue.
Your vet will also probably ask if you noticed your dog eating anything it shouldnt be eating, as this will determine if the issue is caused by something the dog ate rather than a disease or illness. Your vet will also ask if your dog is allowed to roam free outside, as this could mean your dog ate something unsupervised, and if it was outside, then theres a good chance whatever the dog ate was either infected with bacteria or parasites.
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Why Do I Have A Lot Of Mucus In My Stool
Its also used to reduce damage that may be caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi. As well, mucus can protect against stomach acid or other potentially harmful fluids or irritants. The presence of mucus in stool is common. When youre healthy, mucus is typically clear, which makes it difficult to notice. It may also appear white or yellow.
What Is Bloody Diarrhea
Bloody diarrhea is a potentially critical condition in which there is blood mixed in with loose, watery stools. The blood can arise from anywhere along your digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus. Bloody diarrhea is often a sign of due to injury or disease. Diarrhea that contains bright red or maroon-colored blood may be referred to as , while melena is used to describe black, tarry, and smelly diarrhea. Bloody may also be referred to as , which is usually caused by a bacterial infection.
Bloody diarrhea can occur in all age groups and populations. Depending on the cause, it can last for a short time and disappear relatively quickly, such as when it is due to a gastrointestinal infection. Bloody diarrhea can also recur over a longer period of time , such as when it is due to .
Bloody diarrhea is a potentially life-threatening condition that should be evaluated in a medical setting. If you are also dizzy, weak, and , you should seek immediate medical care in an emergency setting.
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Quick Facts About Black Stool
- Most cases of black stools are from eating black foods or iron supplements.
- Stool that is black due to blood indicates a problem in the upper GI tract.
- Blood in the stool can be detected through a stool test.
- See your healthcare provider right away if you have black stool along with pain, vomiting, or diarrhea.
- If you suspect there is blood in your stool, contact your healthcare provider as soon as possible.
Blood In Stool : The Ultimate Guide
Plus Treatment Methods You Can Learn Today To Get Rid of Blood in Stool Medically and/or Naturally
Urgent or Emergency?
If you think you have concerns that needs immediate medical attention, give your doctor a visit. Not sure what counts as urgent or emergency?
Blood in stool happens for a number of reasons. The occurrence may either indicate a serious medical condition or nothing of concern at all.
There are several causes that can result to blood in stool or pooping blood. It can be due to medical condition, diet or genetics.
The amount of blood will vary from person to person which is usually influenced by the core causative factor involved. In extreme cases, some people experience large amounts of blood in stool which suggests the need for immediate medical consultation.
Hematochezia, the medical term for fresh blood in stool, is a common occurrence where up to 15% of adults within the last six months already have noticed presence of blood on toilet paper after passing stools.
Studies have shown that most individuals become aware of the bleeding only upon seeing spots on toilet paper or toilet bowl after a bowel movement.
Its a common initial fear for an individual to wonder, Why is there blood in my stool? Do I have cancer? Am I going to die? There are different factors that can lead to the presence of blood in the stool where in fact, eating beets make it look like you have bloody stools but not.
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What Bloody Poop Really Is
Sure, pooping blood sounds pretty straightforward, but it can actually mean a few different things depending on where the blood is coming from. The blood that you notice in your poop or when you wipe could be coming from your rectum, your lower colon, or other areas of your digestive system. For instance, the Mayo Clinic1 explains that rectal bleeding typically refers to bleeding coming from your lower colon or rectum. The small amount of red blood that you may notice coating your poop, blotting your toilet paper, or dripping into the toilet bowl are all most commonly coming from the rectum. But blood in your poop can also come from other areas of your digestive system. For example: A gastric ulcer, which is an open sore that develops on the inside lining of your stomach, can cause bleeding in your G.I. tract that leads to bloody poop, according to the Mayo Clinic2.