Vampire Digestive System

[Xitra_Blud]

Since I don't have a vampire to dissect, I guess I'll ask it here.

What would a vampire's digestive system look like and how would it work? In my story, I said that, when a person was changed, their inside rearranged, but I don't know how it would work. Another guy said that vampires did have digestive systems because they're dead but, if that were the case, it wouldn't make sense for them to drink blood at all.

(If you're a moderator reading this and you saw this post in the "resources", sorry, I put it there unintentionally. I somehow accidently clicked the wrong forum when I added a thread.)

 

[Addison]

Hmmm, interesting. Well Vampires do drink blood but in several stories, modern and ancient, they also eat great feasts of boar, beef, venison and such. Not so hot on the veggies and fruit, but definite with the fine drinks. So I'd think, with their diet being mostly liquids and soft foods, that their digestive system would be......fragile, I guess. They probably can't handle hard stuff, one bite of rice could cause serious damage. Their stomachs may process the foods differently, maybe different acids or different stomach structure.

My knowledge of biology is just above basic high school so I'm just guessing. My advice would be to look up the digestive systems of animals with similar diets. Like fruit bats, bugs, humming birds, fish.....you know, animals with liquid and/or soft food diets.

 

[Ireth]

My vampires have a pretty odd digestive system. Solid food, or anything with a consistency greater than liquid honey, is too much for their stomachs to handle, and they'll automatically vomit it out. As far as liquids are concerned, they can digest them, but only blood offers nutritional value. Once consumed, the blood takes about 6 hours to digest, after which the liquid waste is excreted through the vampire's skin. It's a very smelly process, so they have to keep on top of it or they'll stain their clothes. Frequent bathing is also recommended (though not practiced by all, given my vampire story is set in the Middle Ages). As soon as all the waste is excreted, the vampire must hunt again. (An alternate function of this system is a pretty consistent means of telling time. XDD)

 

[Queshire]

I remember hearing once that blood is a rather inefficient food source, even for vampire bats. So I'm going to presueme some magical shenanigans to take over where science fails. In the Dresden Files series one type of vampire posses a blood reservoir in their stomach. If that is slashed and the blood spilled their vampiric abilities are greatly weakened. You could also think up your Vamp's strengths and weaknesses and come up with some bio babble to explain those strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Svrtnsse]

In my setting...

The vampire is an aether (magic) based parasite. It lodges itself on the connection between the victim's physical body and it's soul. The host body dies and the soul slowly (years, decades, more) consumed. The parasite uses magic to maintain and control the body and depending on the exact branch of vampire they may go about it in different ways.
This magic requires the blood of living members of the same species as the host body.

Vampires are technically able to maintain the body fully intact, with all internal organs function as when the host was alive. This may not always be practical or even necessary. On the other end of the scale there are the vampires who just keeps the host together as a vaguely coherent mess of skin and bones (a walking skeleton with whatever skin and flesh has not yet fallen off). This may also not always be very practical.
The middle ground is where the vampire maintains the body's outward appearance but disregards the insides, effectively leaving the host a pretty bag of rotting flesh.

The fully maintained body is able to eat and drink like a normal living member of the species, while the skeletal type isn't (there's no stomach to put the food in). The middle-ground version can put away food but will have to either keep it within the body until it rots and becomes part of the rest of the junk under the skin, or get rid of it via magical means.

 

[Queshire]

@Svrtnsse: That sounds similar to how I do demons. As for Vampires, they're a result of a longevity and supersoldier programs for the knight-kings of an ancient civilization. It primarily works by a magical analogue to nanotech. That civilization is long since dead though and the vampire virus has mutated and spread far from what it was originally. Further complicating matters is stuff that resembles Vampirism but isn't related to the original gene.

 

[Scribble]

One of the better "naturalistic" vampire explanations I've read came from Brian Lumley's Necroscope series.

There is a planet connected to our world via a "grey hole" in the Carpathian mountains. In that world, in vast swamps in a perpetual night have evolved a slug-like creature that infects the host, taking over the biology, enhancing it into a hunting creature - for it feed on the blood of the victim. Over time, the host loses "itself" and becomes more slug-like.

A rare few of them came through the wormhole, which led to an underground river. Thus the vampires dislike of water. And so on. A very entertain series, imho.

In this case, there would be initially two separate digestive systems, eventually merging.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

There are a number of issues with drinking blood. The first is that it's an irritant to the stomach lining. Drink too much, say more than a cupful, and you'll be violently ill. The next is that it lacks, fibre, some vitamins, doesn't or shouldn't have any fat in it, and is relatively low calory. And the big one is that it contains far too much salt and iron, which the body would have to excrete. Normally you can urinate or sweat the salt away, but the iron would normally be excreted through pooh. Anyone who's ever been anaemic and taken an iron suppliment will know that their pooh turns black as they get rid of the excess iron. Unfortunately if you eat no fibre and no large amounts of protein and carbohydrate, you won't be sitting down on the porcelain throne a lot, so what happens to the excess iron I don't know.

The digestive tract of a pure blood drinker would likely be very short and simple. Much of our intestine is concerned with breaking down plant based material which requires a lot of effort. Herbivores like cows have multiple stomachs and endless intestines. Carnivores much shorter less complex systems. But because of the poor nutritional value of blood I would expect a vampire to have a stomach capable of expanding hugely to be able to hold enough blood. And the excess fluid volume being taken in would have to be excreted, which means either they go to the toilet a lot, sweat copiously, or have a humungous bladder.

Cheers, Greg.