Many who have a dog have experienced diarrhea in their pet. Most often, for some reason, owners do not take this problem seriously, and this is in vain, since if the disease is ignored, its consequences can be very sad. In this article we will figure out whether bloody diarrhea in a dog is dangerous and how to treat it.
Mucous bloody diarrhea in animals
A clinical illness such as diarrhea is characterized by frequent release of liquid, mushy stool. The causes of diarrhea can be different, so the composition of unhealthy stool can vary (undigested food debris, stains, mucus, foam, blood, etc.).
There are two types of diarrhea in dogs: acute and chronic. The first one appears and goes away quickly, lasting no more than two days, with almost no noticeable symptoms. Most often, acute diarrhea occurs from the pet’s food or its sudden change. The second can last more than two weeks and indicate various diseases, such as gastritis, enteritis and others.
Black or red stool indicates that there is blood in the stool. To exclude the possibility of blood getting into the stool from the outside, veterinarians examine the dog for the presence of anal fissures and various wounds in the anus. A very dark color indicates that the blood has passed through the upper gastrointestinal tract and been digested. If the color is red, then the blood is not digested, and the problem must be looked for in the colon.
Bloody diarrhea in a dog is a dangerous illness that puts your pet’s life at risk, so you should seek medical help as soon as possible.
Causes of bloody diarrhea in dogs
Diarrhea is characterized by frequent passage of watery stool. Due to various reasons, their consistency and composition may vary, and include foamy substances, blood, mucus, etc.
If you notice that your pet often passes loose stools, you need to find out the cause of this ailment in order to cure the dog as soon as possible. If the problem is left unchecked, over time, diarrhea can lead to exhaustion, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.
Diarrhea lasting more than 2 weeks is especially dangerous for pregnant and lactating dogs, as well as puppies.
In many cases, the cause of bloody diarrhea in a dog can be determined independently by paying attention to the color, consistency and general appearance of loose stools:
- Digested blood will cause black, liquid, slimy, tar-like stool in pets. This occurs due to bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract.
- Bleeding in the lower gastrointestinal tract (in the colon) will provoke the release of loose stool with blood. Blood leaves the intestines undigested.
- In case of acute inflammation in the digestive tract, a dog may produce mucous, liquid stools with foam and bloody bodies (inclusions, clots, threads). At the same time, the stool has a healthy color.
Why can dogs have bloody diarrhea?
There can be many causes of bloody diarrhea in a dog. Let's list some of them:
- Worm infestation.
- Food poisoning.
- Foreign objects or inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Objects with thick corners can damage the gastrointestinal mucosa and cause traumatic enterocolitis.
- Tumors in the colon.
- Mechanical injuries.
- Chronic ailments associated with the liver or pancreas.
- Invagination of the walls of the colon.
- Parasites, protozoal diseases.
- Diseases caused by bacteria or viruses (parvovirus enteritis, atypical rabies, letospirosis, intestinal infections).
- Salmonellosis. Accompanied by the appearance of ulcers on the walls of the intestines and other organs of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Chemical poisoning. Your pet may pick them up on the street.
- Dysbacteriosis. The intestinal mucosa can be damaged by pieces of undigested food.
With the above conditions, a number of other symptoms may be observed, in addition to the appearance of bloody stool:
- lack of appetite;
- anemia;
- colic;
- heat;
- arrhythmia;
- the abdominal walls are tense;
- dehydration, sunken eyes, skin becomes less elastic, coat becomes duller in color.
If the cause of bloody diarrhea is in the upper gastrointestinal tract (stomach), the stool will be scarlet, in the lower part (in the colon) it will be black.
Salmonellosis
An acute disease most often encountered by young dogs. They can catch it through nutrition (through food) or by contact with another infected animal. The incubation period ranges from 1 to 7 days. In addition to bloody diarrhea, this disease causes other characteristic symptoms:
- weight loss;
- lack of coordination;
- vomiting mucus;
- lack of appetite;
- temperature increase.
When the first signs of the disease appear, you should immediately contact a veterinary clinic, since without treatment the dog will not last even 2-3 days after the first symptoms appear.
The disease occurs in two forms: subacute and chronic. The first is characterized by less pronounced disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, but wheezing in the lungs and rhinitis become noticeable. The second form is characterized by bronchopneumonia, discharge of pus from the nose, frequent discharge of liquid bloody and mucous feces, refusal to feed and wheezing in the lungs.
Parvovirus enteritis
An acute viral disease, especially dangerous for small puppies aged 2 months to one and a half years. Most of these diseases lead to death, so the puppy must be treated immediately. The incubation period ranges from 4 to 10 days, but the dog can become dangerous to others within 3–5 days after infection.
The disease can be fulminant or acute, and occur in different forms: cardiac, intestinal and mixed. If a puppy under 2 months of age gets sick and the disease progresses lightning fast, death occurs a few hours after the first symptoms appear. In the acute form, an admixture of blood appears when stool is excreted (initially the stool becomes gray, then acquires a green or purple tint). Symptoms:
- dehydration;
- shock;
- the dog vomits foam (mucus);
- the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract bleeds;
- myocardial inflammation;
- decreased leukocyte levels;
- weight loss;
- leukopenia.
As the disease progresses, loose stools become initially mucus-filled, then watery, and eventually the stool released is foul-smelling and contains bloody bodies.
A pet can catch parvovirus enteritis from another sick animal, through contact with it, or through nutrition. Without proper treatment, a dog infected with a viral type of enteritis will die 1–4 days after the first symptoms appear.
Atypical form of rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes permanent damage to an animal's nervous system and can cause bloody diarrhea in the dog. A pet can catch it from another infected animal due to a bite or drool.
The atypical form of rabies has several forms:
- weight loss;
- temperature increase;
- the dog refuses food and begins to reach for inedible objects instead of food;
- frequent vomiting;
- slight changes in behavior.
Death occurs a short time after the first symptoms appear. If a person (or other animal) has been in contact with an infected dog, he must undergo anti-rabies therapy.
Other reasons
Some rarer causes that cause a dog to have diarrhea with blood and mucus:
- Worms. The walls of the colon are damaged, which then begin to bleed.
- Plague. Accompanied by mucus discharge from the eyes and nose, fear of light, and decreased physical activity. The dog's body temperature rises to 40 degrees or more.
- Gastroenteritis (hemorrhagic, coronavirus).
- Piroplasmosis (babesiosis).
What are the signs of blood in stool?
There are several ways to determine the presence of blood in your pet’s stool, among which the simplest is a characteristic change in the color of the stool:
- Black may indicate the presence of digested blood, under the influence of which the bowel movements have a tar-like consistency called “melena” and means bleeding of the upper gastrointestinal tract;
- Scarlet is a clear sign of bleeding of the large intestine, therefore, without having time to be exposed to enzymes, the blood is released out unchanged
Diagnostics
Diagnosis of a sick animal should be made in a veterinary clinic. It includes a general examination, medical history, blood, urine and stool tests.
A blood test reveals the level of hemoglobin, which indicates how much blood the animal’s body has lost. When analyzing stool, you can detect the presence of worm eggs or bacteria. A complete diagnosis of a sick dog’s condition may include the following procedures:
- taking an anamnesis, finding out how the dog felt before visiting the doctor, how often it went to the toilet, what the color of the stool was (red, black, green, purple), health, etc.;
- general examination of the dog;
- urine (general) and blood tests (general and for toxins);
- Ultrasound of internal organs;
- stool analysis for helminth eggs and bacteria, bacterial culture.
Treatment
Treatment of a sick animal is carried out strictly depending on the cause of bloody diarrhea. If the diarrhea is acute and short-term, caused by food or a sudden change in food, then in this case you do not need to resort to medical help. But if the disease takes a more severe form, then it is necessary to urgently contact a veterinary clinic and see specialists. Home self-treatment of severe forms of bloody diarrhea is extremely dangerous for a sick dog, since the cause must be diagnosed.
Help at home
In the acute short-term form of the disease, you can treat your pet yourself. The following tools are suitable for this:
- No-shpa. Useful for reducing spasms of the colon, reduces pain.
- Smecta, activated carbon (one tablet per 10 kilograms of dog weight) or enterosgel. These products help remove toxins from the body.
- Lactobifadol. Normalizes the condition of the colon.
- Decoctions and tinctures (blueberries, chamomile, oak bark, etc.). Helps against inflammation.
When to urgently contact a veterinarian
You should see a specialist if your pet has diarrhea with blood for more than 24 hours, and other symptoms include fever and vomiting. If these symptoms appear in a puppy, you cannot wait even a day; you need to urgently go to a veterinary clinic. Otherwise, within a day the puppy may already die.
Most often, blood in the stool appears from damage to the intestinal mucosa by bones. To treat such mechanical injuries, a specialist should prescribe wound healing agents. If the wound is serious, it is treated surgically.
Is it possible to give medications?
The veterinarian you contact for help should prescribe medications. To choose therapy, the doctor needs to familiarize himself with the test results, and the selection of medications becomes a matter of individual cases. At home, it is better to limit yourself to a diet and, perhaps, a couple of tablets of activated carbon dissolved in water.
At the clinic, they will almost always provide you with anti-worm tablets first. Then your pet will have an IV installed. The solution entering the animal’s blood will have several effects at once: against infection, against inflammation. The tablets will resist inflammation in a less aggressive form. Critical cases will require antibiotics.
Feeding dogs with diarrhea
In the first 24 hours after bloody substances appear in the stool, you should stop feeding the dog anything and give only clean water. The dog must drink a lot; if it refuses, you will have to force it. Refusal to drink can lead to dehydration.
If the diarrhea has stopped and your dog's stool no longer looks unhealthy, you can give your pet a small amount of boiled rice. The dog should be fed such small portions 4-5 times a day, increasing the portion with each meal. In addition to rice, you can give fermented milk products (but also in small quantities). Two to three days of such nutrition - and you can return to your usual diet (but only on the condition that the diarrhea has completely stopped).
Prevention
- Do not allow the animal to eat inedible food, expired/spoiled products, do not allow the dog to “pick up” anything on the street, especially in trash cans.
- Vaccinate and vaccinate the animal in a timely manner.
- Give antibiotics and other drugs that cause diarrhea only under the supervision of a specialist.
- Monitor your general condition.
- Provide your four-legged dog with a complete, balanced diet.
