Well, after (over a period of 2 days) 6 hours at the vet, 4 laxatives, 5 enemas, 4 x-rays, lots and lots of walking and lots of praying, I'm happy to say that the feces is out! I am just so happy and thankful (and exhausted)!

Today's visit began with an x-ray, (Star is getting so good at this that she just lays there peacefully now), and the feces was again stuck in front of the hip bones and completely filled the intestine, so the vet gave her another enema. (Star was also visibly a whole lot calmer today during this than yesterday.) There didn't seem to be much change after the first enema and walking around the yard for about 30 minutes, so he did another one. After this one Star pooped out a log about 2 inches long, which was hard as a rock and had a sharp bone shard in it. (along with a bunch of small pieces of bone, grass, and who knows what.) I picked it up in a bag and took it back inside and gave it to the vet and he couldn't believe something like that would come out of a dog. He decided to do one more enema, and after eliminating that enema water, Star didn't even try to go to the bathroom anymore. She was so tired from all of this, shivering cold from having wet water down her backside, and just wanted to go to the car.
So the vet did an x-ray, with plans of sending us home to do the same routine tonight (oil, laxative, and lots of walking), but the x-ray showed that the main part of the blockage was completely gone - the intestine was clear all except for a piece back under her rib cage! He said that piece would probably take another day for it to come out because of the distance it had to travel. He said if I wanted to give her a bit of oil to lubricate it, I could, but not to really do anything until tomorrow otherwise. He said not to worry if it doesn't come out in the morning, but to give her another laxative, and if it didn't come out by Thursday, then to call him. But that it should come out tomorrow. He said it was a smaller piece and I should feed her normally tonight which will help push it through. He actually wants me to call him either way to let him know that she is okay. He was amazed at the x-ray, I was amazed, and the entire office staff just stood around looking at it with giant grins on their faces. This had become a group effort! (And Star is such a doll and so friendly that everyone had fallen in love with her.)

The vets here aren't usually affectionate with their patients - they are usually a bit distant and "professional", but this vet and all his staff just couldn't stop petting and loving on Star. I really appreciated their manner and the heart they put into their jobs. It's a 24 hour vet and when I asked if they ever get a day off, he said they take a day off when they feel that they need one, but they volunteered to be an emergency center, nobody forced it on them. I could tell he really cared about his job. It's a 40 minute drive to the other side of town but I will happily drive back there anytime.

From now on I will definitely be paying better attention to the consistency of her stool, and be making sure she's getting plenty of water to drink. I will also be doing some research here and trying to find the best food for Star that my husband will also agree on.

Thank you all SO MUCH for your advice and well wishes. Connie, I'll be going back and reading all the links you posted and I'm sure I'll have more questions along the way about food. I know it's said every day, but the advice given here without the "judgment" is appreciated! Unless you live in another country where English language and supplies and food is not readily available, will you fully appreciate the internet and all of the information available!

Happy dance, happy dance, doing the happy poopy dance! (God, I can't believe I just typed that!!! LOL!) In any case, what great news and poor ol' Star has GOT to be sick of all the proceedures! Really glad to hear things are moving in the right direction... literally.

Happy dance is right!

Time for Will's poopy song, to the tune of "Let's Go Surfin' Now" ..... "Let's Go Poopy
Now ...."

Brenda, what you want to avoid is having kibble in there with raw.

Kibble takes about 9-12 hours to digest and raw takes more like 2-4. If you fed the raw in the morning, it would have gone on through by suppertime. Or if you can arrange that the morning kibble is 12 hours before the evening raw, like maybe 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., you will similarly avoid their cohabitation in there.

I would also be careful never to feed the dog raw during an antacid protocol if you ever had to give an antacid for any reason. I would keep that caustic stomach acid doing its job.

And kibble, raw, or anything else, we always want to see logs. Anything else is something to address and investigate.

I didn't see it mentioned here but pumpkin would be something I would consider adding to this dogs diet at least for a little while.

The combination of yogurt if tolerated and plain canned or boiled pumpkin is really helpful for balancing out intestinal problems. I have also never met a dog who didn't love it.

My older girl has some sort of weird carb craving going on so I have added pumpkin to her diet. She is less gassy and I see her having an easier time going potty. (I didn't see a problem until I added the pumpkin and saw her working less to poop)

Hey Connie,

Can you explain (or point to another thread/resource) why logs are good and marbles are bad? Thanks!

Logs help to indicate a normally-operating GI system because they are the shape of the "tube" that they are formed in. Marbles indicate hard dry poops that don't have enough liquid softening them or that have too much calcium (as more bone than needed, but all calcium works similarly) or that have had the normal bacteria that help to keep the poop the right consistency wiped out by an antibiotic .... or any of a dozen reasons. Marbles can even disguise constipation as diarrhea because liquid feces can squeeze around them and come out, leaving that hard dry marble in there. Hard poops are hard to pass because of their hardness and also because of the smallness that doesn't give the peristalsis enough "traction" on it.

This is a huge topic. Many conditions can have indicators in the poop's appearance (shape, color, consistency) and smell. Even if I were a health professional, I could never cover here all the ways that poop can help as a warning system and in a diagnosis.

But logs are the shape of the body part in which the poop formed and which is moving it along .... and normal healthy poop is that shape.