I am enquring on behalf of my MIL,  she owns a male staffy Zak he is 8 years old, lives with her elderly Mother and Father (as she had problems with him fighting with his Mum) but she goes and walks and sees to him every day.  He is nutered and has always been a well dog.  I will admit he is overweight due to the treats her Mum and Dad feeds him, she has tried to tell them time and time again but they will not listen.  He has always been anemic (sp), but last Friday he was very quite and not himself his poo was a very dark colour almost black and he was sick once, so she took him to the vets, they could not find a reason why he is poorly, they took bloods, which showed his iron levels were very low.  They gave him and anti biotic, semetadine (sp) for his stomach, and told her to buy him some Iron tablets (human) and give him one a day she has been doing all of these.  Took him back for a check up on Wednesday, they were happy as he had picked up a little.  So told her to carry on and bring him back in 2 weeks.  Yesterday he took a turn for the worst, his poo is now black,  he is still eating but is very weak.  Took him to the vets today, they vet are concerned but were full so were unable to keep him in, they want him back on Monday if he is still the same they will keep him in, they think it might be 1 of 5 things?  We are all very worried about him as he is normally so full of life and he is really not well at all?  Dose anyone have any ideas what he might be suffering from, as they vets are neither use nor orniment?  He is fed a diet of chicken and rice, vet recomended this due to his weight.  He is not hugely overweight, as he is a natrually big lad, but it would not do him any harm to loose a bit.  Thanks for reading,  Look forward to replies and advice. 

Sheli

Black, tarry, sticky poo can be indicative of internal bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract. There can be different causes for that from ulcers to eating something that has caused damage. But, one can't tell from a description on the internet. Talk to your vet on Monday and ask questions until you understand what they think might be wrong.

I hope Zak is OK and starts improving.

Lori is correct this could possibly be one of the reasons for black faeces in dogs, has your vet asked for a sample at all to examine?  He should! On the much lighter side it could also be the food, some foods can produce black faeces and that may even be the case here, but for the fact he is not himself there is something not right. Hookworm is also a possiblity, and anemia is one of the signs along with black faeces, if he is becoming weak get your vet busy or not to get him seen immediately and get a move on with the tests to rule out any internal problems, and start him on the correct treatment, make sure he has plenty of water to drink, chicken and rice is good if he will take it, otherwise even some goats milk with egg yolk down him will give him the energy he needs, just try to get him to take something.

There are an awful lot of bugs and virus's going around at the moment, so your vets possiblity of 5 things is about right, but if he is weak push for things to move along. I hope he will be diagnosed soon, and be back to his usual self, if he should become worse and your worried get him to a vet sooner than Monday.

Also just to to keep in mind and not to rule out, that iron tablets as in humans do also cause very dark/black faeces so it may also be an after effect from the tablets he has been taking.

Thanks for replying, the vet has not asked for a Poo sample at all.  I have just rang my MIL and told her everything.  He was a bit brighter tonight, she is going to try him on the egg/goats milk in the morning.  He has had chicken rice, and a small amount of liver.  She is going to stop with the iron tablets, as when I mentioned that they might be causing the black poo, she recalls that the black poo started after she gave him them.  If he does not get worse he is at the vets 10am monday morning, he is not aloud anything to eat after 9 sunday she might be doing more tests or a scan by the shound of it. 

Does anyone know of a suppliment for anemic dogs?

Thanks again I will let you know how he gets on at the vets.

Hi Shelwil
your MIL shouldn't stop giving him the iron tabs because they turn his poo black--that doesn't matter, it's just what happens with iron. His poo may be black because he is loosing blood somewhere from his intestine as previously posted or because of the iron. If the vet tests the poo for faecal blood which is very easily done then he would soon know which it was (the 'black' from taking iron is not due to bleeding)
Good luck on monday

Aww poor Zak - I hope you find out what is making him poorly soon.

On a side note, chicken and rice is not a balanced diet to be feeding long term regardless of the dog's weight - not sure why the vet has recommended this :rolleyes: He should be eating a complete food, or a more balanced home prepared diet, just less of it and perhaps bulked out with lower calorie foods (vegetables, etc).

Like one of the other replies, I would insist on treatment/test asap vets busy or not.  I ended up having to bring my extremely sick staffy home on Christmas Eve last year after he had just undergone a blood transfusion for internal bleeding.  I was not happy about doing this, as I knew he was extremely ill but the vet was closing for Christmas and suggested he would be better off at home!  He passed away within an hour and 1/2 of us getting him home.  I still wonder now if it hadn't of been the "festive season" and I hadn't had to shunt him around from vets to vets if he'd still be with us today. 

I suspect it could be either ulcerative colitis or his spleen may be leaking blood, I had both of these conditions with my staffy.  Either of these could be life threatening, and if he is aything like my Staffy, who only showed signs of being ill when he was on deaths door my advice would be to keep a very close eye on him and if he deteriorates any more take him to the emergency vets, who I am sure will be able to find space.

Keep us informed about his progress,  I will be thinking about him tonight and hope he recovers soon.

Julie (& Fagin at Rainbow Bridge).

Have passed on all the infomation everyone has given, and well wishes, thanks again, I will let you know how she get on with him tomorrow. 

Sad news I am afraid.

The scan showed a large tumour on his bowels, the vet has given her steriods, and advised her to take him home and enjoy what time he has left.  We are all gutted.  The vet said it could be days or weeks.  Poor lad. 

Oooh dear, I am so sorry,this is so hard but at least when you know, you can just (or they can) just treat him to lots of TLC, and know they have done the best they can by him.
Karen

I'm so sorry to read this Sheli.  I didn't comment on the thread previously because I didn't feel I had anything to add that had not been covered already.  Poor boy :(  and his family :(

Thinking of you all Sheli.  It's not a huge consolation I know, but in some ways at least your MIL has time to prepare herself and make an extra special fuss of Zak in the time ahead.   Not many loving owners get that and it may help a little in the future towards bringing Zak's owner some comfort from this tragedy.

Teri x 

Oh bless him. At least now you know (once I've been able to name something it always makes it seem less scary if that makes sense).

Thinking of you all x

How terribly sad, the poor boy. Not the news I had hoped for either. Send him a hug from me.

I'm so sorry to hear the sad news I had hoped it would be good news, but unfortunately Zak's symptoms sounded very similar to Fagin's before we lost him.

It will be hard when the time comes, but at least now they know they can spend some quality time with him and say their goodbyes.  

I am sure Fagin will be waiting at Rainbow Bridge along with all his other friends to welcome Zak, he won't be alone and will be free from pain and healthy again.

Please keep us updated on how he's doing.

Big hugs to Zak.

Julie

Thank you all for you kind words, were are all gutted,  I have been with my o/h 9 years so have known Zak since he was a puppy,  and used to dog sit him when the MIL went on holiday.

I will pass on all your messages on to my MILand my o/h grandma and granda who Zak lives with, they are going to miss him so much as they have ill health and he keeps them company. 

I will let you all know how he is doing.

Thanks
Sheli

Very sorry to hear this very sad outcome. Heartfelt wishes.

Very sad news. I'm sorry to hear that Zak has a tumour.

Really sorry to hear this - heartbreaking...

Maxine