# All the info on Black poop has me so stressed out.



## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

Sigh, so confused and frustrated. 

Zeus went potty several times at night with black stool. He has had both light mixed with dark before. The thing is he has been grabbing mouth-full of dirt every-time we take him outside and also had many homemade beef liver treats for his training class last night. I heard that both can make poop black? Is that true? I was reading that tarry stool is bad or coffee ground stool is bad... sigh I have no idea it just looks like dirt to me... 

Can dirt and liver treats turn even digested food dark? He eats Fromm LBP and that's a pretty light colored food and I found no trace of anything light in his poop. 

Last week he also had a half dark/half light and I took both in the little bottle to the vet for his fecal test during the 3rd set of shots and they did not say anything about it, just the fact that it was clear of parasites. 

I just can't rush him to the vet every 3 days because I am a puppy owner noob! 

My parents find all this funny... They grew up near Russia and raised dogs. There were no pet stores, vets, meds, or anything for dogs. Dogs ate what they ate, they never looked at poop... and if the dog made it past 3 months without getting parvo, than it was fine. We on the other hand rush the dog to the vet for every scratch =)

Any feedback would be great, I will watch his stool. Later today I will call the vet and ask if I can drop a sample? not sure if people do stuff like that, but they would be able to tell if its normal or not? 

He eats, drinks, plays...


----------



## kiya (May 3, 2010)

I have been giving my dogs homemade liver treats on a daily basis. I make them in a cake pan, quarter it, then each dog gets a third of the slice. All poops are a beautiful shade of brown normally. Once in a while it might vary, Lakota usually has darker shades and I can tell when dirt is eaten, we are mostly sand that deffinatly darkens the poop for some reason. Many vets will let you drop off a stool sample with no visit.


----------



## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

Well there is a lot of blood in liver and blood turns stools black.


----------



## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

Thanks Nancy, that's why I wanted to just wait a day. And yep it does look like black compact sand... We are in Florida, our soil has allot of sand. I am going to try my best to keep him away from grabbing dirt today and asked the puppy sitter to take him to grass and right back inside. I will call the vet anyway and ask to drop off a sample. They must thing I am super weird... we call so often =(


----------



## Courtney (Feb 12, 2010)

Rusty got tapeworms when he was around 16 weeks. I believe it was from eating sand the first time we took him to the lake. I caught him a few times with mouth fulls & would try to scoop it out of his mouth. Think there were fleas in the sand. Really try to discourage it. Rusty was a little vacuum when he was a pup.

He's most likely fine but keep an eye out like you are.


----------



## Marnie (Oct 11, 2011)

Puppies go thru that stage where they eat everything. Sticks, stones, dirt, everything. It passes. Hang in there and wait it out. Meanwhile try to keep twist ties, pieces of metal, anything sharp off the floor and out of reach. Black, tary stools mean blood in the upper GI. Red stools or red streaked stools are blood in the lower GI. Liver (lots of blood) would cause black stools or at least very dark stools. If the dog eats well, runs and plays and isn't vomiting blood or anything dramatic, and doesn't have severe diarrhea, don't worry too much


----------



## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

Marnie said:


> Puppies go thru that stage where they eat everything. Sticks, stones, dirt, everything. It passes. Hang in there and wait it out. Meanwhile try to keep twist ties, pieces of metal, anything sharp off the floor and out of reach. Black, tary stools mean blood in the upper GI. Red stools or red streaked stools are blood in the lower GI. Liver (lots of blood) would cause black stools or at least very dark stools. If the dog eats well, runs and plays and isn't vomiting blood or anything dramatic, and doesn't have severe diarrhea, don't worry too much


Thank you <3 

Yes he is our hoover cleaner. We have a tiled section of the house where he is allowed and there is not a speckle on the floor because he will inhale it! I am glad that this passes because I want a dog I can take to the beach, river, hiking, parks... Right now he is a huge hazard to himself... liver treats should be out by now so I will see what happens tonight and if his poo color returns to normal. The only thing that kept him from picking things off the ground was a bully stick... and he inhaled that too and looked at us and his playpen all confused like he had no idea where it went. It looked all white on both ends when he swallowed it. This was few days ago, hope it digested and not causing a problem.


----------



## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

Beau once grabbed and ate an empty poop bag out of my hand. Glad he is past that age.


----------



## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

That's one thing I am thankful for, no poop eating!!! and I only seen him throw up once and it was grass and tree bark (few weeks back at 11 weeks or so) He tried to eat it back and we grabbed him and crated and cleaned up. Nancy, lol I laughed so hard when I pictured this. The look on your face must of been priceless.


----------



## GatorBytes (Jul 16, 2012)

It's likely the iron in the liver - beef liver is high, according to livingstrong link this is desirable and a sign of good digestion

*Stool Color*

Iron supplements cause the stool to darken. Some people's stools will turn black. This is not a cause for alarm. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, this is actually a desirable consequence of taking iron. If the stool does not turn black, your supplement may not be effectively getting absorbed. This often happens with coated tablets or supplements intended for long-term use. If you are only on a short course of iron, and your stool does not turn black, ask a doctor or pharmacist to recommend another brand or type of supplement


Read more: Does Taking Iron Supplements Turn Your Stool Black? | LIVESTRONG.COM


----------



## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

Thank you GatorBytes, this really makes me feel a ton better, he did have allot of beef liver last night for training. As far as I know it's the safest/natural training treat and he will do back flips for it. He will have nothing, but his food today and I will see what happens and if all returns back to normal color.


----------



## GatorBytes (Jul 16, 2012)

Here is a poop colour consistency link (for people - but gives good info for future issues)

Studying Stools

ps - I wouldn't worry about the anemia/iron issue in the first description as it notes iron suppliments - as long as not tarry stool

My dog gets tons of liver treats (hom-made) and he has mixed poop colour


----------



## Shaolin (Jun 16, 2012)

If it's an upper GI bleed, his poop will smell horrific. Human UGIBs are a smell you never forget and it's #3 on my list of Worst Smells Ever. It also looks...obvious. It really looks like roofing tar and it has no real consistency or form.

Liver treats are good at turning stool colors. Just wait until the dog eats a box of crayons. Been there, done that.


----------



## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

Shaolin said:


> Liver treats are good at turning stool colors. Just wait until the dog eats a box of crayons. Been there, done that.


LOL

Well, his stool never smells like flowers, it always stinks awful to me... but good chance this is all I know when it comes to the smell of it and I will notice a difference easily if it changes. 

Anyways my puppy sitter called and he is doing great, went #2 . The sitter has dogs, she said it was on the softer side, but nothing alarming to her, and the color was not alarming. She mentioned that she would of known if there was a problem =) yay!


----------



## Cheyanna (Aug 18, 2012)

Nothing to worry about. Fiona gets the dark poop when she gets hearts with blood as a treat.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

Well hubby went home and puppy went #2 again and he called me saying he had 2oz of this mucus stuff. I wonder if it's not mucus, if that could be the broken up bully stick? he did swallow around 3-4 inches and could of it taken 3 days to brake down?


----------



## Shaolin (Jun 16, 2012)

I'm glad everything is looking better. Yes...you will definately know. The best way to describe it is the smell of road kill that's been there for a minute. It's an assault on the senses. Our new pup is in OB training, so she gets a lot of liver treats and she's a bit of a hoover, so we've had a rainbow of poo colors in the last week. Do you think you could PM me the e-mail for the homemade liver treats if you have it? I think that would be a nifty recipe to have.


----------



## Mooch (May 23, 2012)

Shaolin said:


> it's #3 on my list of Worst Smells Ever.


Dare I ask what number 1 and 2 are 

I hope your puppy will feel better soon!


----------

