dark loose stool

Dark brown stool can be a sign of intestinal bleeding. Black tarry stool is very serious and may point to internal bleeding.

7 Textures Of Poop And What They Mean Bristol Stool Chart

Some foods like licorice green leafy vegetables or taking.

. Consult your doctor if youre. If your stool is black this may be due to bleeding in the intestinal tract. Other less common causes include intestinal blood located in the upper. Purina has also provided a handy referencea color.

There are some exceptions to this. Black stools caused by these kinds of upper GI issues are sometimes referred to as melena. Most commonly black stools are caused by eating certain foods or taking supplements like iron. Sometimes these sores bleed.

A few of these conditions include. If youre taking iron supplements for example your stools may appear dark green to the point where they almost look black. The term melena describes black tarry diarrhea. A bleeding ulcer is the most common concerning cause of dark stools.

This can indicate a. However other foods can cause dark stool as well as iron iron supplements or dark leafy greens such as spinach or. Gastritis esophagitis Mallory-Weiss syndrome. An ulcer is an open sore on the inside of your stomach or small intestine.

If you see this contact your vet as soon as possible. Usually black or dark green stool is caused by eating certain foods or due to gastrointestinal GI bleeding. As bile pigments travel through your gastrointestinal tract they are chemically altered by enzymes changing the pigments from green to brown. Dark stool that contains blood from the upper GI tract is sometimes called melena.

Although melena is technically blood with stool medical professionals do not typically consider it bloody diarrhea. Its very common for black stools to occur because the dog has gotten blood from his or her respiratory tract which has in turn been coughed up swallowed and digested.