Blood in dogs stool

Question
I have a almost 2 year female boxer, I took her to the vet a week and a half ago for blood in her stools. She was prescribed antibiotics for 7 days, given hydration under the skin and she also received a antibiotic shot too. She was also put on a prescription diet. The bleeding did stop with the medince and the prescription diet. When I added the dry food with the prescription diet she had a very small amount of blood in her stool again. So I got rid of the dry dog and purchased a new dog food.

The doctor suggested I purchase the dog food they sale at their office but on my budget it is a little price( I also have another boxer to feed). The doctor said "Purina Fit & Trim" would be a good dog food to get. Purina Fit & Trim says it is for weight mataince. My dog is not over weight but he said it is also for sensitive stomachs.

The first poop she took (following day after eating Fit & Trim) it was a good solid poop greenish to color. The following stool had hints of a brick red color and as she continued to your the restroom the entire stool was turned into a brick red. Then it went back to green now it is a reddish brick color.

I don't know if it's blood that has now mixed into her poop or if it's the color from the dog food. The dog food has a lot of red and brown bits. I don't know if I should change the dog food again.

My dog, Vegas, has an other follow up appointment on Sunday again. Please help maybe I can do something else to help my baby.

Thank you for your help,
Karrie

Answer
Your dog might not be overweight now but if you keep her on fit and trim she will be. It has twice as much fat as the average dog food.

What kind of prescription diet was she put on? If you put her on Science Diet for Sensitive Stomachs and feed according to the bag's directions, you will actually save food in the long run.
The reason for this is because when you feed a food like Fit and Trim which is not a balanced food, is full of dyes, fat and fillers, you will buy more food because your dogs will need more to get the same amount of nutrition as they would from HALF the amount of Science Diet.

I liken it to trying to get a pound of steak protein out of a box of saltine crackers. Science Diet is so well balanced and nutrient rich that when you feed according to the bag, which is measured out with an 8 OZ cup, it is less expensive PER feeding then Purina, Iams, Nutro or any other food out there. This nutrient richness also makes the dogs need less food to get that 'pound of protein' because the food is highly digestible. This means less stool, smaller stool, and less expense for you.

A big bag of food will cost you more to start and it takes 3 weeks for the food to start working, but after that you will see that they are doing great on the small amount that you feed. A 40# dog only needs 2 1/4 cups of food a day. That again is measured with an 8 ounce cup. That is about 2 1/2 cups LESS then the bag of Nutro or Iams calls for.

With 5 Small Animal Nutritional expert certificates under my belt I have read hundreds of dog food bags and have figured out the costs and amounts of many foods. I know this works and even on a tight budget you will save money and your dogs will do really great on it.

Changing foods over and over will cause many severe gastric problems for your dogs. If you have a big bag of Fit and Trim donate it to your local shelter and go get a bag of Science Diet Sensitive Stomach. Keep enough of the old food and mix it in slowly over 7 days to switch them over. It will be cheaper to buy it at the vets then at a pet store (the science diet that is).

I can't answer about the color of the stool but it sounds like it is the dyes and garbage in her food. Bright red blood comes from the rectum and inside of the bottom of the colon but dark blood is from higher up. That is the blood you need to worry about.

So that is my recommendation. Your vet was correct and I hope I showed you how it will cost you much less to feed the best food of all.
Let me know how they are doing in a few weeks.