Inflammatory Bowel Disease or Giardia?

[Christine + Ellie]

Hi all, my 1.5 yr old Mini Goldendoodle has been not feeling well over the past couple of days. It started on Monday when she woke me up at 4:30am when she vomited yellow bile and foam twice. I figured it might have been something she ate so I just gave her pumpkin to eat. Tuesday, she does fine. Energy levels have been fairly the same, just a tad less playing. Wednesday, she wakes me up again at 6am when she starts vomiting twice consecutively the same yellow bile. I start to worry and give her boiled chicken. Take her outside and her 1st poop is somewhat hard and loose (sorry graphic!) and then she poops again and it's very soft with blood. I start to worry. This morning, she wakes me up at 4:30am and vomits bile again. I'm taking her out as soon as I finish this post but I'm concerned she has IBD or Giardia. Help!!

PS - I called the vet and they told me to give her Pepcid AC for the vomiting and to bring in a stool sample - not sure if I should just bring her in.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I think the first step is to determine if it is Giardia, which can be done quickly with the stool sample. If it is that, it's a pretty clear cut treatment. If they rule out Giardia (or any parasite), that's probably when the Vet will want to see her. When Guinness was diagnosed with IBS, it was after everything else was ruled out. There is no definitive test for IBS, it's one of those "rule out" diagnoses. Good luck, and please keep us posted. If it does end up being IBS, we can help you here and in the Food Group. It's clearly not the "end of the world". Guinness's has been well controlled, and he is a very healthy, happy Dood.

[Melissa & Porter]

Your vet's advice makes sense to me. IMO (no med training), you want to make sure food is passing through, the dog is at least 75-100% of normal energy and when you touch the abdomen, she has no signs of discomfort. The stool sample at this point seems like overkill. However, I totally understand if you want to bring her in for piece of mind, and because it is hard to read the dog as to "signs of pain/discomfort" whereas the vet can squeeze and push and know what he or she is seeing.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That doesn't sound like giardia to me. My experience with giardia is that the stools are very frequent (think 8-10 times per day) and look more like oatmeal or wet cement, but no blood.
I personally would bring the dog in for an exam besides the stool specimen. Hope it's nothing serious.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Poor Ellie! Lady Peri says to tell her "get well sista!".

Christine, I would take her in. The blood in the stools may mean she has an infection and/or ate something bad. Go ahead and take her in for an EXAM like Karen says. This will give you piece of mind....take her today.

[LG & Sadie]

Tell tale sign with giardia is often a very mustard color-sorry-very gross......I think blood is more worrisome-I would bring her in right away!

[Linda and Murphy]

Giardia can cause blood but it also has this characteristic odor (bad). Get the stool checked and go from there.

[Natasha]

With Rouser's bout of giardia (we had to treat him twice because it didn't fully clear up the first time), he still had the same poop cycle, but it did look like wet cement (lighter color than normal and looser - smelled bad). He also threw up in the middle of the night.

We took him in the next morning with a stool sample and he had a full exam. I believe our vet also did an additional parasite test (can't quite remember). She said that they normally also do an xray when there are multiple days of bile in the middle of the night to make sure there isn't a blockage, but because we had caught him drinking standing pond water, we were all sure that it was some kind of parasite.

I seem to recall her giving us the option to run a cheaper giardia test - explaining the difference in their success rates. We researched and then opted for the more expensive test (it was just a little more and our research showed that it was MUCH more likely to positively identify giardia. Anyway, you might research those tests and ask your vet to verify which one they will use. I may have posted about that on doodlekisses a few months ago. Maybe you can do a search to cut down on your research time.

Note - Rouser did not ever have blood in his stool. I would definitely take him in for a full exam if I saw that. Just my opinion - go with what your gut tells you.

[Kim]

I agree with all of the other helpful responses you received. My dog has a sensitive stomach as well, but always did. If this is something new, I would definitely have the Vet check. Allie had blood in her stool once (along with mashed potato poop - lol) and I totally freaked out, brought the sample to the vet and they said that they weren't as worried about the blood as they were with the condition of her stool.

[cheryl & oliver]

I live by the motto better safe then sorry...If I am worried about something concerning my dogs it is off th the vet we go...And while they are there they can do a stool specimen without you having to bring one on...Just my advice though...

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Any word Christine? I hope Ellie's okay.

[Christine + Ellie]

Thanks all for your advice. I ended up taking Ellie to the vet... only after posting, she pooped on my floor (specks of blood) and vomited on my new carpet. The vet took her temperature and saw that it was fine. Poked her gums to check her red blood cell count - normal. He decided to keep her for the day and gave her injection for her vomiting and x-ray. Everything turned out fine...x-ray showed nothing. Oh, I forgot to add I gave the vet a stool sample.

This morning I call to ask about her lab results and it showed she was NORMAL. Normal?! So confusing. Although, her appetite is back (i.e. she's begging again, haha). Any case, I don't know what's wrong now. I asked the vet in regards to giardia not always showing up, she said 'yes, bring in a stool sample in a month." So now, I guess she's okay? I don't know. She didn't poop this morning so can't tell if it's still bloody. I guess I'll just keep her on a strict diet...

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

If the vet couldn't find anything wrong then it sounds like it could be the IBS like Jane said Guinness had. I know nothing about it but after reading the replies you have received, IBS is hard to diagnose and if the vet says Ellie is fine, I would go the IBS route and look into changing her diet. Also like Jane said, go to the Food Group and they can help you there. Sometimes DK is better than the vet!!!! There are some real experts here who have been there done that!!! Let us all know how it goes further down the road.