I posted in the past about my dobie suffering from terrible sudden pains in her abdomen. The pains come on without warning and are severe, once this happens she shuts down and is reluctant to do anything.

Well, after xrays (twice) and a food switch the last set of xrays showed her full of gas. Sometimes she lets loose and seems to be better but other times she gets the pain. Niether food I have fed seem to produce any different or better result. Currently I'm feeding Merrick and it is made with human grade ingredients and quite frankly some of it actually smells better than the canned human food you would buy at the store. I have no doubt its a good food so I'm reluctant to change. Currently we feed about 1 3/4 cup twice a day, moistened and about 4 days a week she gets a quarter of a can with it.

The vet said that whip worms can cause this condition and can be difficult to detect so we wormed her as a precautionary move. The situation is better but still not where it should be. The solution I now employing is to give a gasx with her food and if she gets an attack I give here another one. The most she has had to have in any day is three pills. It seems to work, once the gasx has had some time the attacks stop and she returns to normal.

Now my question. Is there any supplement I can use (besides gasx) that will help or stop this condition. Faced with the option of switching foods (and the new food might be the same in terms of gas) I am reluctant as I really do believe this product is really good for the dog, not to mention she LOVES it <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

This has been heartbreaking, she is a rescue that was starved almost to death, had heartworm, a was kept outside in a run. Now she is happy, loves to play with the pup, steal his apples, go for walks, go in the car and get all wiggley when we come home. To see her in pain has been tough. Note: the apples are not the problem, she seldom eats them and there is no corralation to the pain and the occasional apple.

Any suggestions, as always is appreciated.

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.....after xrays (twice) and a food switch the last set of xrays showed her full of gas. .......we feed about 1 3/4 cup twice a day, .....we wormed her as a precautionary move. The situation is better but still not where it should be. The solution I now employing is to give a gasx with her food and if she gets an attack I give here another one. ....

I would try a food with no (or at least much less) grain. You can always switch back; you'll know quickly if it helps.

I don't know which recipe you're feeding, but I'd also eliminate soy, milk (lactose), and any gassy vegetables or fruits as snacks.

I'd try smaller and more frequent meals, and also slowing down the eating because gulping food gulps air. You could spread it out on a cookie sheet.

You could also try a raised dish so she isn't bending to eat.

I'd add probiotics and digestive enzymes to the food, and make sure she doesn't overeat (the frequent small meals will help).

And I'd go for a moderate walk after eating, because moving (not running) gets digestion going and moves gas along and out.

I'd think about a switch to raw, but at least to a low-grain (or better, no-grain) food..... and no soy or plain milk. (Some dogs who don't tolerate milk well do great with plain live-culture yogurt.)

Big goals: Not to gulp down air and not to eat foods that produce gas during digestion (like grains and soy). Check the label on whichever recipe you're feeding, because I think Merrick contains several grains in almost every recipe.

I'm not a health professional. Good luck; I do think these steps will help.

Glenn your dog could be a possible gastric Dilation -volvulus(bloat) candidate with all this gas in her stomach take special precautions according to the School of Veterinary Medicine Purdue University of West Lafayette,
Raising the feed bowl could be DETRIMENTAL,I would not do this,it has helped in oesaphagus cases not proven in gas accumulation, This study can be found courtesy of the http://www.Videxgsd.com website go to health realted articles, 16 pages on Gastric problems,
and a very comprehensive one on "GAS" related problems.
The studies are done on multiple breed large breeds show a lowered incidence when fed small meals of mixed meat and vegetables, I would barf a dog like this,if it were mine and not feed any commercial food at all.
A lot of excellent reading about health related problems
to be found here.I do hope you get sorted out when a friends
dog had a similiar problem she tried the above so far so good also any form of stress seems to aggravate it according to the study.

I would also go to a strict BARF diet with this dog, as well as feed small meals, 4-6 times a day and take a walk (not run) after the meals. The walk could be just around the block or even around the yard (mild exercise).

Glenn,

My 8-yr-old rott “Kodi” experienced similar symptoms off and on with what our vet diagnosed as gas pains and chronic diarrhea, we were advised to give him gas-x, anti-diarrhea and pain pills as needed. After a couple of years of this off and on, until suddenly one day this past April he became very unsteady on his hind legs. An x-ray was done and nothing showed up so the vet diagnosed a sever inner-ear infection and put him on a antibiotic, on a Friday night 10 days later he was unable to stand on his back legs at all. We had to wait until Monday morning to get him in for an ultra-sound and a spinal test where die is injected into his spine then viewed under x-ray (can’t think of test name right now). The results showed that he had cancer throughout his body and a tumor on his spine had paralyzed him. Heartbroken, we had him put down.

Unrelated to this, but 2 days later after we put Kodi down, our 9-year-old diabetic rott “Rocky” was diagnosed with heart failure, three weeks later we had to put him down also. I tell you this because we leaned the hard way that with both dogs, the vet had been treating the symptoms and not the cause. You are on the right track, don’t stop until you know for sure what is creating the problem in your dog.

Good luck,

I'm not trying to defend my choice of foods but because of all the kibbles I looked at Merrick seemed to have all the right stuff and none of the wrong. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Additionally it did have more of the good higher in the ingredient listing.

I will try the moderate walk after eating, haven't done that. She gets walked before food time and has a play session in the yard. Most times the play involves extensive running. side note: I show both dogs a pigskin bone and then give it to the pup. They wind up running for what has to be more than a couple of miles before tireing out. If the dobe gets the bone I make her release it and then give her a treat, give it back to the pup and the game starts again. What great exercise.
<img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Anyway, I tried the barf diet with my staffordshire bull terriers and after a couple of months came away thinking it was a major pain in the butt. Didn't see any difference in anything with the dogs but spent what seemed like a huge amount of time preparing the food. I never figured out a minimum hassle way of approaching it. I still have the grinder.

A few (3)times she has had exploding ass direah and as bad luck would have it, in the middle of the night. Once was caused by a Louisana Crunch Cake that I won at a bake raffle. We came home, got busy and left the cake on the table, I really wanted to eat that. All that was left was the plastic wrap <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> The other times there was no clear reason for it, it just happened. I highly recommend the Vforce carpet cleaner from Hoover, as does my dobe.

The dog inhales her food, I'm guessing its partly because she was starved and partly because she just likes to eat but gulping the food is an understatement. I could go to 3 feedings but volume wise she isn't getting all that much now at each feeding. She won't be happy with less <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> I will try spreading out the food on a cookie sheet and see if that makes a difference, who knows, it might.

As far as total caloric content fed daily I think I am feeding the right amount as her weight has stabilized at 60lbs. She is very muscular (running, walks, and playing with the pup) and you can still faintly see ribs.

Perhaps I do need to try a different food but wow does she and the pup love the merrick.

Another observation; When she is having the attacks or just letting alot of gas out her stools are much softer. This morning she was loose and last night she got a stuffed frozen Kong as a treat. Stuffed with cream cheese and chicken breast treats. I have went many days without giving her the stuffed kongs and she still has the attacks so I don't think that is responsible but this problem has me extreamly frustrated and confused <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I will try the walks and I guess look for a food with very little or no grain of any type but I think thats going to be hard. Any suggestions for kibbles?

thanks

connie, new research has shown that feeding from a raised bowl causes bloat. don't ever feed from a raised bowl if you own a breed susceptible to bloat.

(megaesophagus is a different issue, not one i know much about, perhaps you have to feed from a raised bowl there.)

i concur with the others that you must get this dog off of all grains. if you don't want to feed raw, there are dehydrated raw foods you can feed, like honest kitchen. but the best diet would be fresh, raw, whole meats like chicken, lamb, pork, turkey, beef, and fish.

this has to be thoroughly researched before you start it, because there is kind of a steep learning curve. there are plenty of threads and articles on this site about this diet.

once you get the hang of it, though, and get your suppliers lined up, feeding raw or BARF as it is sometimes called, is easy and cheap.

it could also be caused by some other, deeper problem. if you have access to a board certified internal medicine vet, you might ask your vet for a referral to him. if he were mine, i'd be taking him to a specialist to get to the bottom of this.

regardless, feeding BARF will cut down on gas dramatically.

Jeez, I've been feeding from a raised bowl from Day One! They're pretty sure about this new twist? Maybe I'll lower the bowl to just a few inches above the floor???

glenn, we cross posted.

your dog sounds like a walking time bomb for bloat. gentle walks are what is prescribed. hard exercise like you are describing within either side of a couple of hours of feeding should be rigorously avoided.

if merrick has grain in it, it is the wrong food. dogs' digestive system have trouble digesting grains. honest kitchen is raw diet dehydrated. innova makes a kibble called "evo" which i feed only on an occasional basis (when traveling for example). the protien content is too high for daily feeding.

i'm sorry to hear you got discouraged feeding BARF. many people (myself included!) start out by making it much more complicated than it has to be.

here's the simple method:

call up your local supermarket, ask for the butcher at their meat counter by name (get to know him!), order a case lot of whole fryers, another case lot of turkey necks, a case of beef hearts, a case of pork necks, and ask him what else he has for sale that is under .99 cents/lb.

have him quarter and wrap the chickens, defrost and pack the turkey necks two to a package, pack the pork necks two to a package, quarter the beef hearts and wrap two pieces to a package.

you head down there when he says the order is in, toss everything into the back of your car, then when you get home, toss it directly into the freezer. you haven't touched the meat. nothing to prepare. you've probably averaged a cost of .50 cents/lb. depending on where you live.

twice a week you move some frozen dog food from the freezer to the refrigerator to defrost. you alternate what you feed. at supper time, simply hand the dog a chicken quarter (or half, if he's big), or a turkey neck, or a pork neck, and let him eat it in the back yard. you don't even have to completely defrost it. in summer especially, my dog gets meat popsicles for dinner all the time.

twice a week you grind up any leftover lettuce or other veggies or some overripened fruit with a raw egg and shell in the blender, mix this up with some cottage cheese or unsweetened plain yogurt, add some kelp powder and some fish oil, and dump it on top of a portion of beef liver, or a can of mackerel, and feed in a bowl.

that's as complicated as it gets.

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I show both dogs a pigskin bone and then give it to the pup. They wind up running for what has to be more than a couple of miles before tireing out. If the dobe gets the bone I make her release it and then give her a treat, give it back to the pup and the game starts again. What great exercise.

rawhide bones are very dangerous and can cause intestinal blockage. can you give them something safer to play with?

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The dog inhales her food, I'm guessing its partly because she was starved and partly because she just likes to eat but gulping the food is an understatement.

that could be the source of her problem right there. if you give her a large piece of meat on bone, she won't be able to gulp. i'm thinking something like a side of beef ribs or brisket. she has to slow down and work for it, which also gets her gastric juices going so her stomach is better prepared for the food when it does hit her gut.

the mushy stools could indicate a parasite problem. have her wormed again. they can be elusive little buggers.

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Jeez, I've been feeding from a raised bowl from Day One! They're pretty sure about this new twist? Maybe I'll lower the bowl to just a few inches above the floor???

absolutely! read the purdue study. there are only two positive correlations found for bloat: body type and a raised feeding bowl. i don't remember the exact number but i think raising the feeding bowl increases the risk by something like 50 percent!

i just read this study two weeks ago and immediately moved my dog's water bowl from the back stoop to the ground!