Bloody Diarrhea in Dogs: Duke’s Bloody Vomiting and Diarrhea

What can cause bloody diarrhea and vomiting in dogs?

Duke is a 7-year-old gentle giant. He loves life and his family. Duke’s life was great until one Saturday morning he started vomiting blood.

Bloody Diarrhea in Dogs: Duke's Bloody Vomiting and Diarrhea

Duke’s mom took him to a vet right away. They ran a blood panel, but everything looked good except for a high red blood cell count.

The most common cause of a temporarily high red blood cell count is dehydration. Since Duke was vomiting, dehydration was a likely explanation.

There are other possible reasons for high red blood cell count, but they didn’t fit the picture. And other than vomiting, nothing else seemed wrong with Duke.

They tried to check Duke’s stool but couldn’t get a good sample. From what they were able to examine, they said there was nothing abnormal in it.

Based on the findings and history, Duke’s veterinarian concluded that Duke likely has stomach ulcers.

Duke received a shot to stop the vomiting and was released to home care with medications to treat the ulcers as well as vomiting meds.

The next day, however, Duke also started having bloody diarrhea.

The emergency vet Duke’s mom called said this may be normal with ulcers. Should stomach ulcers cause fresh blood in the stool, though? As the day went on, the blood in the poop decreased, but Duke continued to have watery diarrhea.

This went on till the next day when the blood also returned. After calling the vet, Duke’s mom was told to give things another 24 hours to settle. Even though Duke’s diarrhea had more blood in it than anything else and Duke stopped eating, the vet insisted on waiting.

So they waited.

24 hours later, Duke still wasn’t eating and continued pooping blood. Finally, the vet concluded that Duke might not have stomach ulcers since the blood in the stool was bright red. It was bright red the whole time. But they still wanted to wait one more day. They advised a bland diet for the time being.

Meanwhile, Duke continued to spew bloody poo everywhere and refused food.

Duke’s mom took him to the ER. They kept him for fluids and diagnostics.

Finally, they were able to get a good stool sample. Duke had whipworms.

Related articles:
Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog: Blood in the Stool

Further reading:
Blood in Dog’s Stool (Hematochezia)

Categories: Conditions • Diarrhea • Symptoms • Vomiting • Whipworms

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Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Countless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that merely seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners. What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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