Rectal Bleeding??

Hi Everyone,

Sorry this is sort of long and detailed, but hopefully somebody else on the forum has had an experience with this. About 4-5 weeks ago, I woke to find drops of blood all over the kitchen floor. Nothing major, about 1/2" in diameter and about 4-5 spots. I checked both of our cats over for injury and found nothing. I sort of assumed they caught a mouse or something and the blood was on the floor. A week or so went by and I thought nothing of it until I saw Giraffe sitting on the floor in the kitchen and when he stood up, there was a drop of blood where he was just sitting. He had just gone to the litter box and I could see a little bit of blood around his anus, so I could tell that was where it had come from (not the genitals). It was late so I called the vet the very next day and got a same day appointment. The vet did a thorough exam (which Giraffe did NOT like) and the vet said that he looked healthy, no fever, anal sacs were not infected and he did not feel any polyps during the exam. The fecal test also came back negative- no parasites. Giraffe has been acting completely normal- still plays, eats, drinks just fine. The vet said that since it had just recently started, it could be a small irritation in the colon and that I should watch it for a few weeks and call him if it isn't better. He said it could be colitis but he did not want to medicate Giraffe without giving it time to get better. Also, he said he didn't think it would be cancer because Giraffe is just under 4 years old and he is acting normally.

Well it seemed to be getting better, since I haven't seen blood for about a week and a half now. However, today I went to clean the litter box (That's always Giraffe's cue to use it right after it has been cleaned!) so I watched him use it and saw blood come out with the feces toward the end (the first few pieces were clean, but the last ones had blood on them). His feces is well formed and looks to be about the usual color, other than the blood on the outside of course. He left a few drops of blood on the floor again, still not as bad as the very first time I found blood though. I tried to call the vet today, but there is a huge snow storm so I am assuming they are closed for that today. I am going to call them tomorrow and see what they say, but was hoping that in the meantime someone else would be able to give me their insight from a similar experience.

I looked up the colitis symptoms but he doesn't have a lot of them. Does this sound like it could be colitis or something else?

Edit: Also, the vet said his gums were colored right so he was not anemic and he is not straining while he uses the litter box.

Just how well formed are the stools? Do they look a little too firm? I have one that occasionally gets poos that are a bit too firm and has had a tiny amount of blood left on the stool from it - vet knows and is ok with canned pumpkin+hairball paste being given regularly.

Talk with your vet and see if they feel it could be from minor consitpation/firm stools. Have your vet express his anal glands, just in case. Ask about the possibility of a hemorrhoid?

I will be watching this thread with great interest.....I have been going through this exact thing with my 4 yr. old Kody.

When I first took him to the vet last December the vet said and did exactly what your vet did. But for my own peace of mind they kept him overnight and did bloodwork and an endoscopy. They found essentially nothing. The vet prescribed a low dose of metronidazole and prednisone for 7 or 10 days--I can't remember exactly. It cleared up for a month or so, but it keeps happening occasionly. I have repeatedly called the vet, and he very calmly tells me that since we found nothing with the "colonoscopy" I should not be worried--it is probably just some little "irritation" and not to worry. On 3 or 4 of the occasions he has had me pick up more metronidazole for 7 days--he says it kinda "soothes" whatever the problem is...

I don't know what to say, maybe it is nothing, but it constantly worries me.

I hope you are able to find a solution!

I went through a similar situation with my 6 month old kitty. Of course, I am not a professional and do not know if this is another medical condition. But here is my experience. He threw up oneday and then had soft stool and some bloody stool w/mucus. I took him to the vet and he was deemed healthy. Besides the bloody/soft stool he was playful, energetic and had an appetite. I decided to fast him for oneday to give his GI tract a rest and fed him boiled plain chicken with a little plain white boiled rice the next day (mixed in a food processor). I stopped feeding him Wellness Wet food. Switched to Nutro Kitten and also added a sprinkling of Holistic Solution to one of his meals for the two days after the chicken/rice feedings. http://thepamperedpetmart.com/page/T...listicsolution

The woman at my local Agway recommended that to me and swears by it. I guess her dog has a sensitive stomach as well. It says 1/4 tsp per cup of food but I found a little sprinkle did the trick. (Also on the site, it says that it can be used daily, but I found that just using it those two times was good enough and I'll have it on hand if he ever gets an upset tummy again.)

He has been producing healthy tootsie rolls ever since.
He's back to a diet of nutro kitten wet with a lil nutro kitten dry.

I have to say I was really scared when I saw him producing bloody stool in mucus and I was taking pictures and saving samples just in case. It took a little bit of time and patience on my part, but it finally paid off. I never thought I'd be so happy to see normal cat stool!
Hope your kitty gets well too!
Wishing you and your kitties the best!

I do not recommend Nutro, it's giving him severe gas. I just read about deaths and gas associated with Nutro and a recall this past spring/summer on cat food.

My cat Rocky was having rectal bleeding, he is 5 years old and I did a stool test at the vet. Everything turned out fine and he has no more bleeding, I think it was just constipation or something.