Dog Health Insight

[Judy]

This may seem an odd posting, but it could have saved my dog lots of stress and me, hundreds of dollars.
About three months ago, my great dane mix began vomiting everytime I fed her. Long story short - the vet ran lots of tests and we tried lots of expensive medicines and nothing helped while the dog dropped 15 pounds.
While walking her along the beach on vacation I was approached by a woman who began talking about the dog. When I told her of the dog's plight, the woman said "Elevate her food...when big dogs get older (she's 7) their esophogus can weaken or kink and if they're eating off the ground they're unable to push the food up the throat and into the stomach."
A month after the woman's insight, my dog is keeping down all food, gaining weight and acting much like her old self.
Judy

[Eva]

How strange that the vet never asked how you feed your dog. I thought it was commonly known under vets that elevating the food is better for big dogs.

Eva

[Roady]

Glad your Dane is gaining weight now that your elevating his food bowl. I know of two Great Danes who were born with megaesophagus, both owned by staff at my Vet's hospital. From what I understand most cases of megaesophagus are congenital but it can be associated with other conditions such as hypothyroidism, myasthenia gravis and addison's disease. Make sure you let your vet know about it if your dog doesn't continue to gain weight.

They no longer recommend elevated food bowls for feeding dogs of any size (except those with megaesophagus)because a well known study on gastric torsion (bloat)in dogs at Purdue has show that dogs fed using an elevated food bowl have a significantly great incidence of gastric torsion. Bloat is seen more often in giant and large sized dogs. Basset Hounds, are considered a large breed dog as they have the heaviest bone in relation to size of any breed and they rank 7th in the breeds of dogs most likely to bloat. So I've done tons of reading about it over the years and unfortunately have had many friends who have lost a dog to bloat.

Don't mean to go on about bloat but it's a true medical emergency. If your dog bloats and doesn't receive immediate treatment it will die if the stomach has torsioned. Only treatment in that case is surgery and only has about a 50percent survival rate. The cost of bloat surgery and aftercare is well over $5000 in my area.

So don't use an elevated food bowl unless it's recommended by your veterinarian, as in the case of Judy's Great Dane with the megaesophagus. Keep us updated on how she's doing Judy!

Off my soapbox.

[aabram]

My Lhasa Apso has his food elevated but only because he's fussy and lazy!!!! :rolleyes: But there's still nothing I wouldn't do for him and he's putting on weight whereas before he wasn't, but that was all due to laziness. He knows he's perfectly capable of eating his food himself :rolleyes:

Annabel

[Oak Kitten]

Hmm,

I wonder if any of this is appicable to cats? My 12 year old calico vomits her food quite frequently. I feed all 4 cats in separate locations to prevent them from raiding each other's food bowls. But bunjee always wolfs down her food as fast as she can, and about a third of the time, back up it comes and THEN the other cats eat it. (Yes, I know that's disgusting and probably too much information that you rather not know.)

Anyway, I guess it can't hurt anything to give it a try.

Oak

[Judy]

Oak - "guess it can't hurt to give it a try" was exactly my response...I already had a sick animal. Actually, I have tried it with one of my older, less healthy cats and she seems more comfortable.

Your info is interesting, Roady, and really never have had any trouble with any of my other big dogs through the years. I've always been partial to big dogs and have previously had 2 full danes and a mastiff who all made it into old age without any problems from being fed on ground level.

The dog continues to improve and will try soon to post a picture of her.

Oh, and Annabel - my daughter has a 15 year old Lhasa, and judging by her personality, I'd say your dog's not lazy - he just likes it the way he likes it and all humans should respond accordingly.

Judy

[MARILYN/GEMINI]

Oak......I had a beautiful calico who lived to 18 and a half .......whenever she had eating issues we gave her baby food....you know the small Beechnut ones that cost about 85 cents a jar......just the meat flavors.....beef, chicken, lamb, turkey........it added about another 2 years to my cat's life......P.S...Calicos Rule !!

[aabram]

Oh, and Annabel - my daughter has a 15 year old Lhasa, and judging by her personality, I'd say your dog's not lazy - he just likes it the way he likes it and all humans should respond accordingly.

Judy

Thanks, Judy. That's really reassuring. He also prefers Cat Food, which I DON'T give him :rolleyes: I DO have to hand feed him a couple of chunks before he'll eat the rest himself though. As I said before, he knows what he likes. The cats just dive into theirs without a fuss (in a seperate room, of course) :)

Annabel

[Roady]

I don't know much about cats but my best friend is a veterinarian. When I noticed my cat vomiting a lot she said it might be hair balls and to give him a 1/4 pad butter twice a day. Helps and I also switched him to a prescription diet that's easy on GI tract.

I thought my dogs puked a lot but I'm told cats are notorious for being upchuckers.

[Eva]

Cats eat grass sometimes to get the hairballs up. You can buy it in a petstore. In nature it's for free.

Eva

[MARILYN/GEMINI]

And PETRAMAULT(?)....spelling??? .....helps hair balls also.....

[corolla girl]

I just had my 15 year old calico cat put to sleep, because of this exact symptom. I had Xrays done and she was hospitalized for three days numerous medications, which she could not keep down. The vets said there was nothing more I could do for her. I gave her baby food at the end, but she had stopped eating all together. I miss her dearly, but at least I know she is at peace and not suffering anymore.....cg......

[Dee]

My condolences on the loss of your companion, CG.

[MARILYN/GEMINI]

Sorry Corolla Girl....we eventually had to have our Cally put down too....she was a wonderful cat.....

[Eva]

Sorry to hear that. It's so very sad.

Eva

[Oak Kitten]

Sorry for your loss Corolla Girl. Bunjee is still pretty feisty. She is also rather high strung and would prefer that all the other cats would disappear. I think one of the reasons she gets sick so much is because she inhales her food as fast as she can, even though I keep her in a separate room from the other cats. She doesn't want them getting her food.

Oak

[corolla girl]

[B]Thank you Dee, Eva, Oak Kitten, and Marilyn/Gemini for your condolences I really appreciate that. It's amazing how much I miss her, and her antics that
she had. I called her my "fuzzy alarm clock", as she would wake me every morning, because she wanted to be fed.

Oak Kitten, did you know that calicos were named as the state cat of Maryland? It was requested by a little girl, because the colors of the calico is the same as the color of the Maryland flag...... Black, orange and white.....cg :) :) :)

[corolla girl]

Judy,
So glad that your Great Dane recovered from her illness. It is so upsetting when our pets are not acting like themselves.....cg

[aabram]

Hey CG, I was really sorry to hear of your loss. When I last had a cat death, I cried for days :(

[Roady]

Corolla Girl, Sorry to hear about the loss of your calico. It's so hard to put our pets to sleep but I'm thankful we have the ability to prevent/end their pain and suffering.

[corolla girl]

Thank you Roady, and thank you aabram. I appreciate your posts. I'm still feeling sad, but I have my other two kitties, Winston and Tiffany to help me through the grieving process.......cg.......

[aabram]

Thank you Roady, and thank you aabram. I appreciate your posts. I'm still feeling sad, but I have my other two kitties, Winston and Tiffany to help me through the grieving process.......cg.......

That's why I like to have more than one, CG.... when one of them goes I've got another shoulder to cry on :)

Annabel

[corolla girl]

That is so true aabram. The other two kitties have given me alot of comfort through this.

Love your new avatar aabram.....Take care....cg.....:) :) :)

[aabram]

That is so true aabram. The other two kitties have given me alot of comfort through this.

Love your new avatar aabram.....Take care....cg.....:) :) :)

Thanks, cg.... courtesy of my beautiful daughter. I've got another one she drew me for Mother's Day yesterday and I shall post her deviant art link when I can find where I wrote it down!!!! Watch this space or your PMs

Annabel :)

[Oak Kitten]

Well, I started giving Bunjee, my calico baby food, and it seems to be doing the trick. She has not boofed it up, and her fur is looking shiny and smooth. Thanks for the tip!

Oak

[Roady]

Well, I started giving Bunjee, my calico baby food, and it seems to be doing the trick

Oak, glad Bunjee's vomiting has improved with the addition of baby food. Just a suggestion that you read the ingredients on the labels of baby food and make sure there isn't onion salt in there. I guess they add this for flavor but onions and garlic can cause heinz body anemia in dogs. cats and other animals. Some of the symptoms can include, diarrhea, vomiting, asthma attacks, liver damage....even death....

Here's a couple of articles in case any one is interested....Onion and Garlic (http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=1&cat=1935&articleid=2414) and Anemia cause by Onions (http://monkeymaddness.com/articles/onions.html)

I think we've all probably given our pets something with onions or garlic without any problems but they really don't know how much is toxic and it effects are cumulative....