Vomiting bile and blood

[deucevegas]

On Saturday night, at around 11 p.m., my 7-year old dog started to vomit.  At first (3-4 times), he vomited bile mixed with clear fluids.  After that, he vomited (the 5th time) bile, clear fluids mixed with flecs of bright red blood.  This occurred during the next 4 hour period.  The last time he vomited (about the 6th, I lost count), it consisted entirely of bright red blood.  It was two circular 12” round puddles of red blood.

Sometime between 3:00 a.m. and morning, he had a bowel movement, which was the consistency of brown/red tomato paste.  It wasn’t large, it was about the size of a small muffin.  

When he woke up at about noon, I took him outside in the yard, along with my other dog.  It was as if nothing happened.  He was his usual self.  He ate 1-1/2 biscuits (he usually eats 3 but I only gave him half the usual for fear that it would upset his stomach, but he wanted more).

Later in the day, I fed him 1/3 of what I usually feed him.  It consisted of dry dog food mixed with boiled ground beef and steamed white rice.  Again, he wanted more but I was afraid to overfeed him.  He ate 1 or 2 biscuits in the evening as a snack and I gave him a 1/4 teaspoon of mineral oil.  

Everyone tells me that the symptoms appear to be of a dog that ingested antifreeze.  I don’t have anything like that in my immediate area or any other hazardous chemicals for that matter.  When I have my dogs in the fenced-in yard I am mostly always there with them, with the exception of a few minutes here and there.  But even if someone had thrown something into the yard, he’s not the type of dog that would eat whatever was thrown in.  My other dog would be the one to do that, but she is okay.

Do you have any idea what may have caused such a violent reaction?  It is very puzzling to me because, as I said, it came on so quickly and left so quickly.  He wasn’t exhibiting any symptoms of the kind either before or after.  He was fine 8:30 this morning when I left for work.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

There are many causes for what you describe as follows:  Rodenticide poisoning which cause bleeding, Gastrointestinal masses that have burst and bled, such as a metastatic hemangiosarcoma,  GI ulceration from foreign body injestion, bones, infected items, and more.

Your dog really requires blood work, X-Rays, possible endoscopy, colonoscopy, barium study, whatever is necessary to determine the cause of this problem.

[Jaybay]

He obviously has something bleeding in his GI tract.  I strongly urge you to get him to a vet today.  Whatever was bleeding could certainly start up again, and you need to find out what in the world caused it.