Canine Ulcer Symptoms
Canine ulcers can be as painful for a dog as they are for a human. Many of the causes and symptoms are similar. Diagnosis takes mainly the same route to determine the exact cause and severity. Once your veterinarian is sure of the cause, he can help treat the symptoms and the ulcer.
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Identification
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Canine ulcers are sores on the skin or along the mucous membrane. Usually this is found as a hole along the lining of the intestines or stomach.
Symptoms
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Symptoms of canine ulcers include nonvisual pain such as loss of appetite and stomach pain usually shown by the dog not wanting his belly touched. Visual symptoms can include pale gums, vomiting dark granular substance (which is partially digested blood) or black tar-like stools also caused by blood.
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Causes From Ingestion
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Multiple ingested items can cause canine ulcers or symptoms. These include lead poisoning, mast cell tumors, drugs such as NSAIDS and blood medication, and foreign bodies found in the stomach.
Causes From Illness
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Many canine ulcer symptoms are caused from illness. These include stress, liver disease and uremia (waste in the blood), and bacterial infection.
Diagnosis
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To know if the symptoms are from an ulcer, you need to take the dog to a veterinarian. The veterinarian will do any of the following: blood tests, urinalysis, X-rays, ultrasounds, upper GI study, or endoscopy (where a small video camera is passed down into the stomach with a tube).
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