Diarrhea w/ blood and weight loss

Hello, I have seen multiple vets in the last 2 weeks and I can not seem to get an answer about my dog. she is a 1-2 yr old belgian mal. She has been having bloody loose stool and sometimes diarrhea. She has vomited a few times randomly. She has been on chicken and rice diet for 10 days now, transitioning to science diet perfect digestion. The er vet said she had HGE and kept her for 3 days with fluids and meds. She came home and no improvement. She is acting the same till energetic. She does have stress, very on edge and separation anxiety. Could this just be stressed induced on her part? Labs and fecals all come back normal. How would that be managed?

Hello!  It sounds as though your dog has loose, wet faeces (also called diarrhoea) with blood in.   In might sound like somantics (getting worked up about words), but it's worth explaining that fluids do not make diarrhoea or vomiting better:  they do not treat or cure it.  Rather, they are given to make up for fluid that has been lost from the body as a result of vomiting and diarrhoea ie they actually treat dehydration.  If your dog remains dehydrated or has become dehydrated again, they will need more fluids until they are better.  In extremis, dehydration is a common cause of death in these patients and quite often what makes them lethargic. As well as keeping the patient hydrated until the cause has passed, vets will often try to identify the cause, but this may be of less concern.  Stress alone rarely causes vomiting and diarrhoea but viruses eg Parvo, bacteria, pancreatitis, liver disease, a non-blocking foreign body and cancer may all be possibilities. Sometimes, the cause is never established if the problem passes; however, keeping the patient's circulation working while the symptoms are bad is certainly an important role of the vet. We would strongly recommend reseeing your vet - perhaps as an emergency, depending on how bad things are (they should triage the priority over the phone).

With difficult cases, it is easy for owners to assume that the vet is to blame and go to another vet.  The problem with this is that the second vet may not know where the case is up to; tests may be repeated or end up missed entirely.  Rather,  we would advise accepting that not all cases of vomitting and diarrhoea resolve quickly, especially if the underlying cause is not known;  more time, or clinical tests, are sometimes needed.   If you do change vets, always request a copy of the clinical notes to take with you.

In this case, we would advise returning to the vets with a list of questions, including:. What causes can you rule out, are there any causes that need ruling out immediately (in the UK we will often run a Parvo test early or isolate), What should be ruled out next, how does the case need to be managed from here. Best of luck