Blood in your stool - what does it look like?

Hi all,

I know almost all of us have had blood in our stool, and I was hoping I could get some help with this. I've been having blood with my bowel movements - mostly it's bright red blood in the toilet, but there are also some dark clumps or clots that will be in the toilet as well, or on the t.p. when I wipe.

So my question is - what does it look like when you have blood in your stool? Is it bright red? Is it dark? What does it look like when it is coming from your intestine vs coming from a hemorrhoid?

Help! I'm a bit nervous, I've never had these clump type things before...

I've never had hemerriods...

The blood for me when I first started having blood was dark purple, thick and sticky. After I started getting worse it started appearing as bright red with mucous(so redish pink) After I started treatment it appeared as red like blood you would see from a cut but it only sticks to the stool. When I start to turn and go into flares I'll have the purple again and it's clotted. The clots are basically the scabs that covered the wounds/ulcers whatever they are.

From my understanding, it looks different depending on where the blood comes from. Bright red blood is coming from a source "close to the end," and dark stool or dark blood is from "higher up" in your system. Maybe that's too simplistic, but that's how I know what to tell the doc. I would phone your GI. Take a picture if you have to. I always err on the side of caution with these things.

EDIT: I know that sounds nasty, but I don't mean it to be. If it helps your doc understand better, why not?

When I get blood there is alot off it and the toilet looks like a massacre I also have clots and was told by my dr it can be from blood just sitting in there a while. But I would say still get it checked out if it's something new for you things like that aren't worth the risk. Hope you feel better soon x

Sometimes it's a toilet full of red (so much that I can't see the diarrhea or whether there are clumps of blood). Sometimes it's just pink mucous when I wipe.

Sawdust is right. If its close its red if its black its far away. Apart from that you can tell whats causing it, my bro had black stools and he had a stomach ulcer. Mine were bright red and caused by UC. I thought I had Hemaroids as it stung right on my bum hole, but was told it was just that it was my UC was so close.

Liquids do travel a lot so a little bit of blood seems to go far. Clump type things are normally blood and mucas together, from my experience its not anything to worry about short term but i find the conditioning is worsening (if youve never had it before). Have you got any predfoam to take to see if that helps?

Thanks all. I have an appointment with my GI on Tuesday and I'll talk with her about it. I might just take a photo if I have to!

I have been having bright red blod (quite a bit) for the last week , kinda got me a bit freaked out too. Last time i had bleeding it was maroon coloured. Its weird as i've had bright red blood before but i had a fissure and bm's were painful, this is just blood and non painful bm's ? No diarrhea either but abdo pains , im at my gi next week too (friday) Hope everything goes well

You guys...this sounds even more nervous and scarier than i'd ever thought, i'd faint at the sight of blood (just exaggerating) but honestly, that sounds shockingly scary :nervous: i have had really really oddly dark stools then really bright ones, too scared to check if there's blood.

Thanks for making me nervous lol, so there's a lot for me to expect if it gets worse...?

I have not had blood for a long time. But I seem to remember that dark or black stool is due to blood from higher up in the digestive track.Mine was coming from the ileum areaand was very dark. If it was coming from the anus or through a parianal fistula It seems the blood would be crimson red.

I take pictures now so I can show my Gi. Mine fills the toilet with bright red blood you can't see through it. I also have little tiny clumps of blood with it that's darker. It happens to me about every 6-10 hours. I have a ileostomy and only have 2 inches of colon left to my rectum and it's severly inflamed.

The darker the blood the higher the bleed.
I have never had fresh red blood, just lots of black- lots of blacks specks within as well ...and a metallic smell- nice.