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My puppy has a hard, purple belly. Is it internal bleeding or GDV?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Shih Tzu | Female | unspayed | 1 year and 8 months old | 15 lbs

My pup had a hard belly and her belly was turning purple and she was looking pale. After he died she had a yellow liquid coming out of her mouth and her belly became soft. Is it possible he had an internal hemorrhage? If so can a pup get one from an impact? Or what I believe is it gdv ? And can you tell me from 1-10 chance of him surviving if went to a hospital immediately i found out about his purpleness and hard belly couple hours before his death. please let me know thank you so much.

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Sara Farmer, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on July 2nd, 2017

Internal hemorrhage is possible but in a young puppy it would usually happen secondary to a blood clotting disease like hemophilia, ingestion of a toxin like rat bait, or a severe infection. Blood loss could happen from intestinal parasites but I wouldn't expect a purple belly. An intussception is an intestinal problem that could cause an obstruction and result in a perforation of stomach or bowel leading to the signs you noted. GDV would be very very unusual in a young puppy, typically larger breed older dogs are affected. If you noticed signs only two hours before he died (and since it sounds like he is a young puppy) I think the likelihood of him surviving regardless of the cause would be pretty low if you had made it to the hospital - I am making a wild guess here without knowing what may have happened but I would say 2-4/10. If this happened recently you may be able to have a necropsy (animal autopsy) performed which might reveal a cause of death - talk to your regular veterinarian or an emergency veterinarian if you are interested.

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    Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS

    Veterinarian

    Published on July 1st, 2017

    I am sorry to hear about your loss. Given the description of the signs you provided, I think an internal hemorrhage could have been responsible for the death. I think the chances to survive were few and a vet consultation would have not improved them much.

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