'bloody' Diarrhoea Query

[poochmad]

Last night Henschke had an awful bout of diarrhoea - it appeared to have blood mixed in it. As we stood scratching our head to think of the cause, we determined the only difference that night was that:

1. He had a tray of ice cubes (he loves ice).

2. He was wormed - which is 13 days overdue.

3. He seemed to have had a block anal gland (hubby inadvertantly unblocked it when he cleaned his bum as we didn't know why he was being so smelly until I did a search here).

4. Upon checking the poo - I discovered two bones from chicken.

Could any of the above caused the diarrhoea or was it just a coincidence? If he had worms - would the worming medication caused this reaction?

He had the diarrhoea, 1.5 hours after the worming tablets, ice and anal gland 'fix'. The chicken had been fed that morning.

One other thing, he is currently getting 1 sardine with each meal (he's fed twice - a smaller meal in the morning and a larger meal in the evening as he doesn't tend to eat that much in the morning) - is this too much, should we reduce the amount of sardines as I read on here last night (as part of my research before posting this thread) that sardines are also used if a dog is constipated.

Thoughts/suggestions welcomed.

[cashew]

Is the blood "fresh" looking?

I have not come across dogs having bloody diarrhoea from the squeezing of anal glands.

I think the average time for food to pass through the dog's entire system is about 4hrs? So quite unlikely for it to be a de-worming effect..then again I might be wrong.

Ice is perfectly fine if the source of water is directly from our taps..unless poor baby had been dragging his ice all over the garden and thus picking up bacteria?

I personally find sardines too oily for my baby. When he gets too much oil, he produces loose stools. If Henschke is totally well you might want to eliminate sardine and see if he still has the loose/bloody stools. My friend's CHH produces bloody stools everytime he steals the cat food.

[Nekhbet]

if it's bright red fresh blood it is probably from the bones or a stomach infection.

If it is dark VET right now. This means it comes from higher in the digestive tract and needs medical attention ASAP

[SoL]

Personally I'd say vet in either case!

[Dame Aussie]

Me too, don't chance it

[peigirl]

I've seen more blood come out of my boy's bowels than I'd like to admit. Bones have done some very nasty things to him.

If you are seeing whole bits of bone in his poo then it sounds like the bone has cut him on the way through. Wormers can also cause loose motions but generally not blood - though saying that my boy has pooed blood after a heartwormer. He however has IBD and has an extremely sensitive gut/bowel.

I've also seen my boy eat and food pass out the other end in under 1 hour too.

Trip to the vet at your discretion. I would certainly give some probiotics to soothe the stomach and some yogurt too. Depending on how much blood and if it continued vet would probably prescribe Metrogyl to help the healing process.

[poochmad]

Thanks for all responses...however the mystery has been solved. He had worms - found the little dead white buggers in his dried up stool.

The good news is that he did a lovely firm stool when we got home. :rolleyes:

However, does this mean we need to worm him again?

[puggy_puggy]

How old is your dog?

I probably would be only feeding the sardines twice a week at the most as they can cause diarrhoea.

Ice melts so that wont cause a problem.

With his anal glands I would probably have your vet or a groomer give them a good squeeze, and teaching you how to do it, as just wiping them would not express them properly.

With the worming I probably would be doing him again in a week or so but my brain is a bit befuddled at the moment so I could be wrong.

[Cockerlover]

Dont have anything more to add than has already been said ,but i personally dont like bones . also cut down on the sardines maybe 1 sardine a week, imo

if the bloody stools continue ,then a vet check is the way to go ,heres hoping its nothing serious.

[poochmad]

How old is your dog?

I probably would be only feeding the sardines twice a week at the most as they can cause diarrhoea.

Ice melts so that wont cause a problem.

With his anal glands I would probably have your vet or a groomer give them a good squeeze, and teaching you how to do it, as just wiping them would not express them properly.

With the worming I probably would be doing him again in a week or so but my brain is a bit befuddled at the moment so I could be wrong.

He's 5 1/2 months old.

We were told to feed sardines by his breeder to prevent collapsed pasterns...unfortunately, I think we ended up with another problem - sloppy poos. Since last night we have cut back on the amount of sardines and are only giving 1 tspn each meal - it already seems to be working as his poos are a lot firmer. I will monitor and see whether I need to remove the sardines all together.

I read somewhere else on the forum to re-worm in a fortnight?

[Clyde]

I would worm again in a fortnight.

FWIW I've had dogs have diarrhea before from worming even when they haven't had worms. My little guy used to drool and vomit too.

[poochmad]

I would worm again in a fortnight.

FWIW I've had dogs have diarrhea before from worming even when they haven't had worms. My little guy used to drool and vomit too.

Thanks. Will do.