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What Causes Black And Orange Colored Stool?
My 85 yr old mother told me this morning that her stool had been changing colors. Sometimes black & other times orange?? Black I ve heard is blood but the orange I ve never heard of. And what dr. do I make an appt. with? I m totally scared to death & will make her an appt. first thing Monday morning but we re in a rural area & don t want to waste time.
posted on
Wed, 8 Feb 2017
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Fri, 7 Dec 2018
Answered on
Wed, 12 Dec 2018
Last reviewed on
Hello,
As per my clinical experience, black stool indicates bleeding from stomach ulcer (common in old patients with long-term intake of pain killer medicines for joints pain or other stuff) or other causes.
The orange stool can be simply from intake of certain foodstuffs as beetroot or else.
It is recommended to consult her doctor for getting prescription of stool microscopy report via pathologist for further care in this regard.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Take care
Regards,
Dr Purva Patel, General & Family Physician
As per my clinical experience, black stool indicates bleeding from stomach ulcer (common in old patients with long-term intake of pain killer medicines for joints pain or other stuff) or other causes.
The orange stool can be simply from intake of certain foodstuffs as beetroot or else.
It is recommended to consult her doctor for getting prescription of stool microscopy report via pathologist for further care in this regard.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Take care
Regards,
Dr Purva Patel, General & Family Physician
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