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Question

I have a 3 year old chihuahua who has leaked small watery drops of blood from his rectum on a few occasions. He tries to poop, but noting happens aside from a small clot. He drags his butt on the carpet and has irritated the skin below his anus. He is not sickly, he is not vomiting, he does not appear to be in pain, and he does not have any tenderness. He is current on all of his shots. What could it be?

Submitted: 58 days and 2 hours ago.
Category: Dog
Value: $9
Status: CLOSED
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Optional Information

Pet's Sex: Male
Pet's Age: 3

Already Tried:
He is not acting any different than normal so I haven't done anything but monitor him.

Posted by NancyH 58 days and 2 hours ago.

Answer

This could be due to a problem with the anal glands being impacted or infected which you can read about here

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_anal_sacs.html

This might also be due to a swallowed non food item that he cannot pass and that is irritating the rectum area as well as blocking it leading to the bleeding.

If he is not neutered this could be a problem with the prostate blocking the rectum and the bleeding would be from him being unable to pass stool.

I'd plan a vet check up for him.

Just so you can see the anatomy here is a diagram

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/ClientED/anatomy/dog_ug.aspx#lower%20urinary%20and%20genital%20tract

it doesn't show the anal glands but you can see if the prostate swells the rectum could be blocked.

Hope this helps you!

 

58 days and 2 hours ago.

Reply

I have my chihuahua's (I have 3) anal glands expressed every month. When one of my other chihuahuas had anal gland impaction there was a lot of swelling and tenderness. None of that applies to Duke (dog i'm concerned about). He is neutered. The part that stumps me is that he appears to be fine. I gave him a bath last night and concentrated on cleaning his anus thoroughly and he never flinched. Can he have hemorrhoids? I can't get a vet appointment until monday.

Accepted Answer

Dogs do not really get hemrrhoids but they can have a telescoping of the intestinal tract or if you see a red circle outside the anus a prolapse of the rectum.

If he is not passing stool at all and its been more than a day I'd be concerned enough to see if your vet has an emergency opening to check him over.

But if he is eating for you then you could try some high fiber food such as oatmeal or plain canned pumpkin - a spoon or two - added to his meal.

For the sore area outside the anus you can use neosporin or triple antibitoic ointment on it and that won't hurt him if he licks it.

 

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Expert: NancyH
Pos. Feedback: 99.5 %
Accepts: 
Answered: 9/25/2009

Dog Expert:Rescue, Train,Breed,Care

30+ yrs dog home vet care & nursing, rescue, behavior&training, responsible show breeding, genetics

58 days and 1 hours ago.

Reply

Thank you. There is no redness around the rectum. It's completely normal in appearance. I haven't noticed if he has pooped today because all of the dogs are potty pad trained, but I have not noticed any more blood on the pads or around the house. He is eating normally today. I will try the pumpkin, we keep a few cans around for when they get belly aches. The only redness/soreness seems to be the area where his testicles use to be and that appears to be from dragging his butt on the floor. Thank you for your help. I will monitor him this weekend and if I notice any change in his behavior, eating habits, or excessive bleeding I will most certainly take him to the Vet ER. Thanks again.

Posted by NancyH 58 days ago.

Answer

You had mentioned the rug burn which is why I told you about the ointment Smile

You might try isolating him to see if he is pottying OK maybe give him a private space overnight with his own pee pad?

Hopefully the pumpkin will work!

Thanks for the above accept!

56 days and 23 hours ago.

Reply

I wanted to follow up and let you know what happened. I took Duke to have his anal glands expressed yesterday hoping that may be the problem, and even though there was no external inflamation or redness around his anus (very deceiving) they were very full. (I actually took all four of my dogs to get them done.) Duke was not happy afterward, but we brought him home and gave him a few teaspoons of pumpkin and this morning he pooped normally, a lot, but normal. Thank you for your help. You saved me money that I really didn't have and helped me to not over react. I will definitely use this site in the future. It is easy to over react and expect the worse with our animals, and it was nice to have some balanced input to counter that initial panic. Thanks again.

Posted by NancyH 56 days and 23 hours ago.

Answer

That is great news - glad he is feeling better!

You might try keeping up with some pumpkin for all of them every week for a meal just to see if that will help keep the anal glands cleared with the high fiber poops.

Thanks for updating me!

45 days and 19 hours ago.

Reply

Update to the update- All four of my dogs began to have intermitten bouts of diarrhea within a few days of my initial question. None of them ever got a fever, never lost energy, never stopped drinking water, and never lost their appetites so I spent days trying everything I could to control their diarrhea. I ended up having to take them to the vet. They were all well hydrated and very "normal" so there were few answers they could give me. I provided stool samples for three of them and one came back positive for Giardia. More than likely that is the cause of the diarrhea in all of them. They are on Mitronidazole and Amoxitabs/drops. I had them de-wormed before the results came back to try and cover all bases. I would have never thought to check for standing water or anything like that. Because it has recently started raining here in Washington more than likely one of them probably gulped something they shouldn't have and then passed it on to each other. It ended up costing nearly $400.00 for meds, labs, and visits to the vet. I sure wish it would have been something easier though. Thanks for giving me the initial calm that I needed so that I could get to the bottom of this. Just wanted to let you know the outcome.

Posted by NancyH 45 days and 16 hours ago.

Answer

Giardia can be tough to deal with.

Be sure to disinfect (a drop or two of bleach when you wash them and rinse well) the water bowls.

And as they go out in your yard you can use a hose end applicator to spray 1 part bleach to 30 parts water to disinfect the soil without impacting any plants in the yard.

You can read up on giardia here

http://marvistavet.com/html/giardia.html

thanks for the update - if they had all had upset when we talked I'd have suspected parasites as a possibility because usually if one has them they all do.

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