Hi All!
Star (3 year old bullmastiff) has not pooped since Wednesday night. She pooped 3 times on our morning walk, which is unusual, usually she does right after she eats her breakfast and then once on our walk and hour later. They were normal, healthy round balls, no problems. I didn't see her poop on Wed. night but she didn't seem to have any problems.

Thursday morning she threw up her breakfast and when it was time to poop, she assumed the position but nothing would come out. I watched her closely during the day and gave her some grean beans and eggs for dinner (didn't want to give her a bone in case there was something stuck) but she threw that up as well.

Friday I went to the vet, and they said to give her vaseline oil in her food, and it would soften up everything and make it slide out easier. If she hadn't gone to the bathroom by this morning, they said to bring her in. I gave her two bottles of the oil, I've been feeding her a lot of probiotic yogurt and soft foods, and nothing.

Oh - there is no such thing as canned pumpkin here in Estonia. Only pickled pumpkin canned in jars. So my only option seems to be yogurts. I did try the Karo syrup in warm water approach, she wouldn't touch it, so I put it in her kefir. Nothing happened anyway.

After having all that oil in her, when she assumes the position, she'll push and push, and at the very end before she quits, a little liquid will squirt out. Last night it was a mustard yellow liquid, today that liquid is dark brown.

I called the vet that I spoke with yesterday, they said the main doctor isn't working today, so I should take her to the big clinic in town. I called them, they said they only have one doctor working, and they are booked solid all day. She said Star would need to have x-rays done to see if it's really just constipation or if there is a blockage. She said to give her some flax seed - either the actual seeds or the oil. I have some seeds at home so I gave her a spoonful of those in kefir. Nothing. She said that they have time on Monday morning, so if we could just get through the weekend they will do x-rays on Monday. She was very kind, and tried to find another vet in town who would see us, but everyone is either closed today or booked full.

So we are on our own until Monday. Star paces, and every 10 minutes or so "assumes the position", but nothing comes out except for that little squirt. I found some pureed pumpkin in the baby food section today so I gave her one small jar of that with her dinner. She doesn't act like she's extremely uncomfortable, except for the constant feeling that she has to poop, but I can't imagine that she's not in pain. Thursday night we were outside every two hours all night long, but last night she only had to get up once to go out.

I feel so bad for her! I've tried everything - yogurt/kefir, pumpkin baby food (how much of that should I give her, anyway), flax seed, vaseline oil, karo syrup ... I have no more ideas and my poor dog is HUNGRY! She has kept down her food today (all soft) and when she's finished eating she looks at me like, "where's my real food?"

Tomorrow we have to be gone for 5 hours (to church, so we can't take her with us), and I don't know what I am going to do with her. The temperature is supposed to be down to freezing tomorrow so she can't stay outside for 5 hours. If she's sleeping she seems to be okay, but if she's awake she needs to be able to go outside. I really would love it if she would poop tonight so we wouldn't have to worry about her tomorrow.

Any other ideas? If I knew what I was doing I'd put on my rubber gloves and "go on in", but I don't want to cause Star any more pain or discomfort than she already has.

thanks!
Brenda

You could also try 1/2 tsp of Metamucil twice a day but honestly since you've already tried everything else, I wouldn't hold my breath on that working. I know you said that you couldn't see a vet until Monday, but honestly your dog needs to be seen ASAP. The fact that she is vomiting and "squirting" tells me that it is likely an obstruction. She can become dehydrated quickly and this could turn very serious. Try to force liquids if you can..even if it means squirting water into her mouth with a syringe. If it is a blockage you are very likely looking at surgery and it will need to be done quickly. Is it possible to find a vet even if it means you have to travel a bit? I am a little disturbed that the vet wouldn't work you in today since this has the potential to be life threatening...

Brenda if there isn't an emergency vet in that area. Could you either be more insistent that they see her today, like as in hop in the car and go there with her. They did tell you to have her seen if not better by this morning. Possible she could be left there for the day for them to examine her - takes xrays in between appointments, not ideal I know.

If it is impossible for them to see her would they send home sub-c fluids for you to place under the skin to also help with hydration? If there is an obstruction, that really needs to be addressed sooner than Monday. If not fatal a lot of damage could be done to the internal organs/tissues.

Everything is closed already for the weekend - (it's after 6pm here). This is a small country where things just close or aren't heavily staffed over weekends. I was a little bit perturbed that the vet who told me to come back today if Star hadn't passed anything wasn't even working today! She would have known that already - as well as the fact that their office wasn't equipped to help us on a Saturday.

My husband and I have both been making her drink as much as possible. We understand the possibility of dehydration.

She is not vomiting today, she's kept her food down, but I haven't given her any real solids to throw up. We have thought of every scenario (twisted intestine, did she swallow something - all her bones are accounted for), or is it just really bad constipation. Of course we won't know until x-rays are done, but we do know she hadn't been drinking as much from her water bowl inside last week - we have a small pond out back that she's been drinking from - so we think she could have gotten dehydrated which caused the constipation. Thus we are really forcing her to drink - sometimes she refuses water, so we mix yogurt and water or milk and water together, and she'll drink that.

I will look and see if I can find some Metamucil. We don't usually have the same products here as we do in the States. But it's worth a shot if all I can do is wait anyway.
Thanks!

PS Is round balls (stool) normal for her, that doesn't really sound normal.

I think she needs a vet too. I am stunned at no one working to fit in an x-ray today.

With this length of time and the possibility of blockage (including blockage from impaction of fecal material), I would probably be afraid to administer a soapy-water enema or the single enema sets they sell for dogs on my own. And it sounds way past time for a suppository.

How far to the nearest e-vet? I'm sorry if you already answered that; I was skimming a little. The time involved and the straining and pacing are urgent signs to me of impaction.

Well, she had been on antibiotics for the past month for having lung inflammation, so her stools have been runny and not very firm because of that. She's been off of them for about a week and a half, so when I say round balls (they weren't perfect little balls), but they were firm and rounded and smooth - and came out in 3 rounded chunks. They were the most normal looking than they had in a month, due to the medication.

 Quote: aimee pochron

PS Is round balls (stool) normal for her, that doesn't really sound normal.

I agree with this too, 100%.

Diarrhea and round balls are both problems, and actually can be one problem manifesting in two ways.

Were the poops always round balls?

I'm checking about the emergency vet - never had an emergency before, so I don't even know where it is.

I found a vet who is a 24 hour vet - we went today.

I really liked this guy - had a caring attitude and seemed to know what he was doing - but both Star and I are exhausted! The x-rays showed a huge and long compacted roll of feces - all the way across the x-ray and there's no telling where it ends. (he said that just what we could see in the x-ray was about 14 inches long) The head of it was too big to pass, and everything behind it had just been building up. So it wasn't something non-edible that she ate, although he did see some bone shards in there and after the 2nd x-ray later in the visit, he said it looked like a bony mass all the way down.

To make a long story short (we were there for 2.5 hours - working on getting it broken down - and it was all disgusting!), Star got 2 enemas, and had to walk for a long time after each one, to see if those would have softened it enough to get it moving. It had broken it down just a tiny bit, and the head of it is a lot smaller than it was before the enemas, but still nothing is moving. He had me get some more vaseline oil, and then some laxatives to squirt up there, to try to lubricate it from one end and soften it from the other. He wants to try everything possible before having to do surgery.

He said if this doesn't work, our next option is to put her under anesthesia, and deep massage her stomach and intestines to break it up and work it out. The only thing with that is, with the sharp bone shards in there, that could tear her intestine so it could be very difficult. If that doesn't work, then while she is still under, he'll go ahead and do the surgery to cut it out.

He doesn't know if the bones caused it, but they certainly didn't help any, and recommended that I never give Star any bones ever again in her life. Of course my husband jumped on that bandwagon and we will now be changing her food. (I'll be asking for advice about that later - one thing to get through at a time.) That will be hard, since she's had a chicken drumstick almost every day for the past 3 years. She usually digests them with no problem.

So anyway, we have done the vaseline oil since we have been home and he said to wait a bit and then give her the laxative. Then to feed her just a little bit of food to get her digestive juices going and try and get the feces moving. That's our plan for the evening! Our appointment to do whatever is needed next is at 12.30 tomorrow afternoon.

My husband wants me to ask you all - is there any alternative to surgery? There isn't the technology here in Estonia as there is in the States, but he wanted to know if there isn't something sonic that could break up the feces without having to be so invasive?

He also asked about coffee - does it work in dogs to get things moving like it does for people? (now that the head of it it smaller, the vet said there's no guarantee but a small possibility of her pooping it all out tonight.) I told him that I read somewhere that caffeine is dangerous for dogs, but he wanted to know if just a little bit mixed in milk would be dangerous, or if it would even do the trick.

Thanks!
Brenda