Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Bad Tummy In Dog!


I thought that I would share this with everyone as it turned out well and worked. For those of us with dogs, especially on a farm, this bit of info may be helpful. Yesterday, Miss Mina or as we affectionately call her "the Moo", decided that early in the morning she might taste the soybeans in the field next door. Of course we did not know this until a couple of hours later when she didn't eat her breakfast and proceeded to puke.........alot........and within these piles I cleaned up were what appeared to be beans. Hmmmmmmm.........She then became very listless and suddenly weak in her hind quarters. To the point where we had to carry her up and down the stairs to take her in and out of the house for a potty. Now, me being a nurse and having had so many critters over the years, did the usual checks. I listened to bowel sounds and they were normal, meaning I could her them gurgle in all 4 quadrants of her gut. No pinging sounds, those aren't good. Her belly was soft for the most part, but would occasionally tighten up. I also checked her color, the same way you would check a horse's color, look at the gums and lips, mouth and I also checked for dehydration......not pale, a little sticky and a good capillary refill. Watched her breathing, good, not fast, listened to her heart and checked peripheral pulses all good. I gave her water to drink and put it in front of her every hour or so. And then, this is my own little thing, I gave her a cup of olive oil with just a little milk to make it taste good, thinking that this may grease her up , so to speak, when it came time to poop. She didn't get any worse, however, she wasn't improving, so I called the Vet. I explained what I had done and her condition, adding the assessment I had done. The Vet suggested and this is what I didn't know, to start her on 10mg of Pepcid AC, not Complete, generic=famotidine every 12 hours or twice a day for what was more than likely a bad gut ache. I did not know a dog with a gut ache could actually lose their strength in their hind legs. It took this dog nearly 24 hours to get over this and this morning we were back to 100%. And the olive oil did it's trick. Last night, Stephen and I were very worried that we may need to make a trip to the Vet, but no, didn't need to and now I know how to treat gut ache in dogs. Interesting, I thought.

6 comments:

cheyenne jones said...

Always something to learn! You`ve passed on good info, I shall remember this, although we dont grow soya here. But thanks, my 5 are always picking stuff up!
Especially when out on there daily walks.

Beth said...

Wow! Thanks for the information. As a dog that likes to eat anything and everything, this will really come in handy.

Grey Horse Matters said...

Glad she's doing okay now. We had a lab who once ingested 1 whole hunting sock, he needed to be operated on. Don't you know he did it again the next year and since he couldn't have anymore operations we used lots of mineral oil and voila...ouch...but he passed it along with a pewter chess piece! Unbelievable what they will eat.

Kristen Eleni Shellenbarger said...

Wow..olive oil does the body good. Being Greek, it's consumed A LOT in my house so I'm happy it helped your pup's gut. How scary though...

John and Regina Zdravich said...

Pretty impressive! Sounds like the dog got better healthcare than a lot of people I know (ha!!)! It is good to know what to watch for and do when a critter gets a meal that doesn't agree with them. Our cats are always eating something they shouldn't and puking....

cdncowgirl said...

Hope I don't need this trick but its good to know about. And with Tucker being a puppy and into pretty much everything...