Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis

[tornadosgirl]

Deano, who is 3, started vomiting on Friday and most of it was fresh blood. We brought him to the ER and he was admitted. They put in an IV, did blood work and an ultrasound. So far, most of his blood work is okay. One of his liver tests was off a little, but other liver values were okay. His coagulation time is also a little long. Right now they think it is hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. He will probably come home tomorrow (Sunday). I googled h.g. but it seems like there are lots of possible causes. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. He has been mostly healthy, except for some anal gland issues about 6 months ago- but that cleared up on its own. If you have any experience with this, please let me know. We just finished transitioning him to a new kibble, but we did it gradually over 3 weeks.

[MaryJane]

IMHO, I might think that the new kibble may not agree with him - he might be allergic to an ingredient.

 

My Lucy has what appears to be IBD (no biopsy yet) and we have transitioned her off her old protein which was meat and she is now on fish only. We are thinking that the original cause may have been the seizure medicine that she was on but, we still doing the diet changes and probiotics. HGE might also have some dietary factors.

 

edited to add -- forgot to mention that you might want to get a poop culture to see if it has a bacterial cause.

Edited May 4, 2014 by MaryJane

[TheFullHouse]

My Emmy suffered a bout of HGE. The vet told me they aren't sure what causes it. It could be bacterial. We never knew what caused it but she only had it once.

[Guest IrskasMom]

My little Grand Dog had it and we to ended up at ER Vet over Night. The Cause we don't know either . That Boy eats anything he can find and I blamed that for it.

[Walliered]

Huck had IBD and I had a biopsy to confirm. If I had to do it over, I would never have consented to the surgery, but would have just gone ahead and treated the IBD. There is no curing it, but it can be managed (or this is what I was told). We never really got it under control.

[Guest kar]

scotch had that - happened almost over night. cured that but unfortunately something happened to his back end three weeks later - could not get up and could not be given cortisone because of the recent bleed. No matter how much I asked for it they would not give it. Unfortunately he was in too much pain with his back end and I had to put him down when he could no longer get up. he was on three stomach pills for about three weeks.

[silverfish]

One of mine had it while in kennels. It's a very odd thing because yes, nobody is sure what causes it. It might be bacterial, but they think there is also a stress factor which would fit with our experience. Stress can lower the immune response, so it's entirely possible that one dog can get it and the rest of the household do not - which is a common experience with HGE, and in Renie's case, one dog got it and the rest of the kennel were fine.

 

She started vomiting on the day we were due home. She also had horrible diarrhoea and Claire (the kennel owner) couldn't tell which was which. When I arrived, she'd just had another episode and the kennel floor had two or three piles of .. well, it looked like beetroot slurry it was so bloody. I took her straight to the vet and she was given supportive therapy and was fine within a couple of days.

 

Personally, I think it's unlikely that an allergic response to food would cause such dramatic gastric/bowel bleeding, especially food which you have switched gradually to over a period of time. Allergies don't tend to cause bleeding anyway, not as a rule, although allergies are very strange and unpredictable things. Vomiting and diarrhoea, yes, but not bloody, not immediately. That might happen if it went on for long, but you'd see other signs first, I think.

[kronckew]

Blue had HGE once when hew was young, throwing up with blood in it and very fluid squirting bloody diarrhoea. while he NEVER went inside, he was wanting to go outside every few minutes & left bloody patches all the way to the farm. took him asap to the vet as soon as they opened (he squirted in the street as we crossed over to the vet's office) & doc gave him a shot of a strong anti-biotic and something else to calm his system & put him on a no food for 24 hrs then boiled chicken & rice (and anti-biotic pills) till he was OK. he left another bloody puddle of poo on the sidewalk as we walked back to the car. he did drink a bit to keep hydrated, and he was OK the next day, had loose stools for another day or so, then was OK. doc said it was critical that i got him in to the vets asap as he could have died without treatment. thank god, as i noted, he never, even at his worst, went potty inside (or in the car) in his life.

[tornadosgirl]

Thanks all for the input. Deano came home today. We are feeding him boiled chicken and rice for a few days and slowly re-introducing his regular food. But he seems so much better.

[silverfish]

Great news!