Color is a clue, not a diagnosis. Two things on this page are worth memorizing: black stool and coffee-grounds vomit both mean digested blood, and a dog retching without bringing anything up, or a cat straining without urinating, is an emergency tonight. Everything else is a phone call with a photo.
| What you see | What it usually means | How soon |
|---|---|---|
| Black, tarry, sticky | Digested blood from the stomach or small intestine. Merck: "black, tarry feces may be a sign of bleeding in the stomach or small intestine." Ulcers, some drugs, tumors, swallowed blood. | Same day. Pale gums with it: now. |
| Bright red blood, often with mucus, small frequent amounts, straining | The colon. Colitis, stress, diet change, parasites. Merck: "mucus-laden feces, sometimes containing blood." | Call if it repeats, if the animal is off food or flat, or if it lasts past two or three days. Cornell: black or tarry, vomiting alongside, or no better in 48 to 72 hours means a visit. |
| Gray, pale, clay, putty | Bile is not reaching the gut: bile duct, liver or pancreas. Merck lists "pale stools" with jaundice among the signs of a blocked bile duct. | Soon. With yellow gums, skin or eyes: today. |
| Yellow, greasy, bulky, foul, with a hungry animal losing weight | Fat not being digested. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency produces "large volumes of pale, fatty feces" (VCA). | A visit with a stool sample. Treatable. |
| Mucus, slimy coating | Large bowel irritation. Common with diarrhea of any cause. | As above for red blood. |
| Green | Bile, which can be green, or something green that was eaten. | Watch. Repeated, or with vomiting or lethargy, call. |
Consistency, on a scale. Vets grade stool from 1 to 7. One is hard, dry pellets that take effort. Two, the ideal, is firm but not hard, segmented, and leaves little or nothing on the ground when picked up. Three is a moist log that holds its shape but leaves a mark. Four to six lose their shape step by step, from a soggy log to piles to shapeless spots. Seven is a puddle. A photo of the stool next to the number of the day is a useful thing to show the vet, and My Pet keeps it with the date.
| What you see | What it usually means | How soon |
|---|---|---|
| Pale yellow to light amber, clear | Normal (VCA). | |
| Dark yellow | Concentrated. Usually needs more water, or is dehydrated. | Watch. Persisting with vomiting or diarrhea: call. |
| Very pale or clear, and drinking a lot | The kidneys are not concentrating. Kidney disease, diabetes, an overactive thyroid in cats, Cushing's disease in dogs. Cornell: a low urine concentration "can be one of the earliest indicators of CKD in the cat." | A visit within days. Bring a fresh sample if you can catch one. |
| Orange | Bilirubin: liver disease or red cells breaking down. A little can be normal in very concentrated dog urine. | Soon. With yellow gums or eyes: today. |
| Red, pink, brown | Blood, hemoglobin or muscle pigment. Infection, stones, bladder inflammation, a tumor, toxins, trauma. | Same day. A cat straining with little or no urine: emergency now. |
| What you see | What it usually means | How soon |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow foam, often first thing in the morning | Bile on an empty stomach. "Bile looks yellow or greenish and sometimes has a foamy or mucus-like consistency" (University of Illinois). Once in a while, a late-evening snack fixes it. Repeatedly, it needs looking at. | Call if it happens more than occasionally, or with any other sign. |
| Fresh red blood, or dark grains like coffee grounds | Bleeding in the stomach or gut. Cornell: "make a veterinary appointment if you see blood in the vomit or it contains matter with the consistency of coffee grounds (digested blood)." | Today. |
| Green | Bile, which can be green, or something green that was eaten. | As for yellow. |
| White froth, retching, nothing comes up, belly swelling | In a deep-chested dog this is bloat until proven otherwise. VCA: "GDV is an immediate and life-threatening emergency." | Now. Drive. |
| Undigested food shortly after eating, no retching, no warning | Regurgitation rather than vomiting: an esophagus problem. Cornell: "with regurgitation, there's no warning." | A visit if it repeats. |
| A damp cylinder of hair (cats) | A hairball. Cornell: once every week or two "without any enduring problems" is not uncommon. More often than that is not normal. | Mention it at the next visit; frequent, call. |
The emergency page sorts the signs by how long you have, species by species. If it is a poison question, the calculators give the dose for the weight, and the poison hotlines are on every page.
A photo of the stool, vomit or urine, with the time, is worth more than a description. So is a fresh sample in a clean container if you can get one. Note what they ate, what changed, and how many times. My Pet's change log keeps the note with the date, and puts it on the sheet you hand the vet.