PS

"Shaky. Anxious. Pacing. Subdued. He did have a bulge in his lower abdomen and blew out a bunch of gas."

Then three hours later:

"Apparently now (my mother just called a second ago) he's panting and walking around and indicating he wants to go for a walk so she's going to take him out. "


This is directed to anyone following this:

There are classic bloat symptoms included there. Thank goodness in this instance the panting the second time was a miscommunication.

But if your dog ever has symptoms like these, please don't wait -- get the dog to the nearest vet immediately, not even stopping to call. A second person in the car can call on the way so the vet is waiting at the door.

None of this is overly dramatic. Bloat is life-threatening and fast.

Matt, please keep us posted. You can't even imagine my relief (and I am sure other readers) that the dog was not bloating. But of course it sounds scary and worrying, and I know I'll be checking the site for any updates.

Things like internal bleeding can cause some of these same symptoms, the pacing and pain.
This dog is old enough for things like splenic masses etc.

A 100 lb dog is hard to examine, palpation of the internal organs impossible.

Wishing for the best outcome --keeping fingers crossed.

Well, we didn't end up taking him down to the Animal Care Center vets last night. We got ready to go but it was very late and going to be a tough trip, and he was sleeping peacefully so we decided to wait and take him on Sunday so he can see his neurologist. I haven't heard anything from my parents about him today so I'm taking that as a good sign. If there was an emergency or he seemed worse, I'm sure I'd have heard something.

I did get an email from her about what foods to feed since she wants to keep it bland and also doesn't want him getting any more gas. She wrote:

"Yesterday, Dr. Robinson told me not to give scrambled eggs to Shiloh because, she said, they cause gas. I had never heard that. In fact, I understood that eggs were very good for dogs and could be fed with each meal.

But Robinson also repeated the same old song about feeding rice and low fat cottage cheese. I know rice is not longer thought of as a good remedy for intestinal problems and we proved that, as far as Shiloh goes, long ago. Dairy doesn't seem that good for dogs either, but I really don't know about that one for sure."

Just got this email from my mom:

"Shiloh rested well. Walked well, ate well this morning. He seems to feel better, but I did detect some gas, so gave him gas pills - sort of as a preventative. Don't want a reoccurence of Tuesday night."

Big old dogs are commonly gassy, it doesn't usually indicate pathology, generally it's a symptom of constipation related to lack of exercise and too much food. Lots of stiff old dogs eat and rest and avoid activity, and that leads to plenty of farting.

Not making a remote diagnosis here ----merely hoping for the best!

Yeah he tends to have gas frequently and his digestive system is generally pretty sensitive. When we first got him, he came to me as a foster in the Summer of 2008 (and my parents adopted him from me) and I was told that he was 9 years old. Supposedly he was approx 4 yrs when the previous owner got him and then she supposedly had him for 5 yrs before he came to me. That'd make him (a 100lb lab) nearly 14 yrs right now. You'd never believe it if you saw him, but even if the people were a few years off on their calculations, he's still over 10. He's healthy and very strong, even with the back injury. He hasn't grayed in his muzzle. The only thing really noticeable is the kind of gimpy way he walks because of the weakness in his backend due to the back injury and paralysis. He usually gets two 20-30 min walks per day, which is about all his back, and rear legs, can handle.

When we first got him, he smelled bad and his eyes were kind of glassy. We suspect he was fed low-quality kibble for a long time and that's why his digestive system is so weak and prone to diharrea now. My parents started feeding him raw and over the course of the next few months, his stinkiness and glassy eyes went away. He recently had a full blood workup and they said he's very healthy - blood panels looked like a young dog.

He's something of a medical miracle. When he had the surgery for the blown disk, the neurologist gave him *at best* a 40% chance of walking again. It was about 4 months before he could even barely work the rear legs to take a step, and a little over a year before he hit his recovery "peak". Now he has some days that are better than others, but he still gets around pretty well. Hopefully this recent thing was just a gas problem brought on by the antacids.

--

Connie - you'd asked why the vet had recommended the prilosec - I think it was just as a preventative. He hadn't shown any issues at that point since it was within an hour after he'd taken the double-dose of rimadyl (that was a week ago, today). She'd called to ask what to do and that's what they told her over the phone.

Here's a video of a dog in the middle stage of bloat. You can see all of the classic symptoms that Connie was talking about. Pacing, panting, can't get comfortable, whining.. etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1WrT2719yo&feature=share

I'm not saying that's Shiloh's problem, but since there's so much talk about bloat, I thought I'd share the video again..

Super interesting video - thanks for posting that Kelly

 Quote: Kelly

Here's a video of a dog in the middle stage of bloat. You can see all of the classic symptoms that Connie was talking about. Pacing, panting, can't get comfortable, whining.. etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1WrT2719yo&feature=share

I'm not saying that's Shiloh's problem, but since there's so much talk about bloat, I thought I'd share the video again..

The more people who see this video, the better.

(NOTE: The dog recovered after he was rushed to the vet. No one knew what was happening while they were filming this. The voiceover was added later. )


BLOAT IS DEADLY. A huge part of the 95% fatality rate is that, as in the video, the owner doesn't understand what s/he is seeing and doesn't get the dog to the vet in time. BLOAT IS FAST AND FATAL unless the dog is rushed to the nearest vet immediately.

I wish every dog owner in the world could see this video .... particularly owners of the bloat-prone breeds so many of us have.