New Here! My boy is having soft palate surgery today!

[Rebecca Giardina]

Hello, Everyone!

I never really thought to join a bulldog forum. I have owned my little (Eh who am I kidding?) Bulldog for almost 4 years.
Currently we live in Japan as my husband is Military, but we actually fly to America THIS MONTH to start our lives. So a little history - GusGus is a 4 year old English Bulldog who we got when he was 11 months old. His breathing has always been SOOO loud and we assumed this was typical Bulldog traits. We use a Japanese Vet so the language barrier has always made most things hard.
We recently raised enough money to get a special flight home to us in October (So he isn't flying in this horrid heat!) and I started finding information about Elongated soft palates. Gus has ALWAYS thrown up his food and water, we bought raised bowls thinking that was the issue and again, put it down to normal traits.
Last night, I showed my Vet pictures from online about this, and she did xrays immediately, checked his blood and realized Gus does indeed need this surgery.
He went from 55lb to 66lb over the last few years due to not even being able to go on walks!! His panting would scare us and we feared the walks would be the death of him!

SO back to topic, HE IS AT THE VET RIGHT NOW! Surgery starts in 2 hours, and they are going to phone us afterwards to tell us how it went.
What should I expect? Is there a typical timeline for how long it takes? He is also having his nostrils widened?
I also had to sign some paperwork saying we accept it isn't their fault if he dies... Is this normal!? My husband and I are on edge at the thought it could go wrong and his throat swells too bad.

Should I go out and buy wet dog food? He has dry food right now and for evenings, we mix it with salt free green beans. This all happened so fast and I am so unprepared!
Have any of you had this surgery on your dog?

Sorry this is so long, I got carried away and rambled.

 

[nycbullymama]

Hello, Everyone!

I never really thought to join a bulldog forum. I have owned my little (Eh who am I kidding?) Bulldog for almost 4 years.
Currently we live in Japan as my husband is Military, but we actually fly to America THIS MONTH to start our lives. So a little history - GusGus is a 4 year old English Bulldog who we got when he was 11 months old. His breathing has always been SOOO loud and we assumed this was typical Bulldog traits. We use a Japanese Vet so the language barrier has always made most things hard.
We recently raised enough money to get a special flight home to us in October (So he isn't flying in this horrid heat!) and I started finding information about Elongated soft palates. Gus has ALWAYS thrown up his food and water, we bought raised bowls thinking that was the issue and again, put it down to normal traits.
Last night, I showed my Vet pictures from online about this, and she did xrays immediately, checked his blood and realized Gus does indeed need this surgery.
He went from 55lb to 66lb over the last few years due to not even being able to go on walks!! His panting would scare us and we feared the walks would be the death of him!

SO back to topic, HE IS AT THE VET RIGHT NOW! Surgery starts in 2 hours, and they are going to phone us afterwards to tell us how it went.
What should I expect? Is there a typical timeline for how long it takes? He is also having his nostrils widened?
I also had to sign some paperwork saying we accept it isn't their fault if he dies... Is this normal!? My husband and I are on edge at the thought it could go wrong and his throat swells too bad.

Should I go out and buy wet dog food? He has dry food right now and for evenings, we mix it with salt free green beans. This all happened so fast and I am so unprepared!
Have any of you had this surgery on your dog?

Sorry this is so long, I got carried away and rambled.

Hi-
I'm just now seeing this post so it's pointless to reply with any info. But I'd like to know how GusGus is doing?
Did the surgery go well?

Keep him quiet and calm for the next two weeks and give him soft food while the palate heals. That's what we were told to do.

 

[2BullyMama]

I have experience as well... Please let us know how he is doing. You can feed bland diet for a few days too

 

[Rebecca Giardina]

Hi-
I'm just now seeing this post so it's pointless to reply with any info. But I'd like to know how GusGus is doing?
Did the surgery go well?

Keep him quiet and calm for the next two weeks and give him soft food while the palate heals. That's what we were told to do.

Sorry it took a while to reply. We got home around 3 hours ago, the Vet called us when we were shopping and said he had woken up but was very sleepy and couldn't stand so we waited for the drugs to wear off!
They showed us some images of his throat and it was so great seeing all the way down his throat! I can't believe we never knew about this whole procedure!

Trying to keep him asleep under the AC, he normally stays calm unless we have people visiting the house, so I am going to ask our friends to stay away for a little, just to help him heal! His breathing sounds so much better, even with a swollen throat!
I bought some tinned dog food, is that okay for his diet over the next 2 weeks? We have a very poor selection of dog food here!

 

[Rebecca Giardina]

I have experience as well... Please let us know how he is doing. You can feed bland diet for a few days too

He's doing great! Still very very sleepy, I am just thrilled the vet sent him home the same day (I read somewhere that they sometimes keep them in?)
My husband asked if I would wake up a few times during the night to check on Gus. He had a little episode of struggling to catch his breath a few minutes ago but he relaxed enough to fall asleep!

 

[2BullyMama]

He's doing great! Still very very sleepy, I am just thrilled the vet sent him home the same day (I read somewhere that they sometimes keep them in?)
My husband asked if I would wake up a few times during the night to check on Gus. He had a little episode of struggling to catch his breath a few minutes ago but he relaxed enough to fall asleep!

Awesome... It all depends on how well they do coming out of anesthesia.... Our first was in hospital for two days our second came home that night. Keep close watch and definitely keep him calm and cool

 

[aprilemari]

Lola had this procedure done too, after a few scares when she just couldn't catch her breath. She could breathe immediately better the day after surgery. We fed her cooked rice and boiled meat for about two weeks, then worked her food back in (she was on kibble at the time). Canned food should work well, but it has less protein, but that also might be good due to his gain of 10 lbs. Thank you for giving GusGus a new lease on life! should never take unlabored breathing for granted Have a safe flight home!

 

[Rebecca Giardina]

I never really thought about the weight issue and protein! I am going to have to look up his regular dog food info! Hopefully when he recovers, we can slowly introduce him to very small walks! We use to try walks and within 30-45 SECONDS, Gus would be panting so bad we had to turn around and go home, and it would take him 2+ hours to calm down.
I just feel so dreadful I assumed this was Bulldog normality. So happy I spent my free time researching this! I expected my husband to be slightly annoyed with the bills, but in the last 2 days, he suddenly developed a big bond with Gus and isn't phased by our savings going into him!

 

[Texas Carol]

I never really thought about the weight issue and protein! I am going to have to look up his regular dog food info! Hopefully when he recovers, we can slowly introduce him to very small walks! We use to try walks and within 30-45 SECONDS, Gus would be panting so bad we had to turn around and go home, and it would take him 2+ hours to calm down.
I just feel so dreadful I assumed this was Bulldog normality. So happy I spent my free time researching this! I expected my husband to be slightly annoyed with the bills, but in the last 2 days, he suddenly developed a big bond with Gus and isn't phased by our savings going into him!

Please waste no time feeling guilty, most of us know nothing of this and
assume it's a normal bully thang. Spend your precious time loving on GusGus
(sister calls her Schnuazer this). Wow, he's so handsome, Hey!...Welcome to
EBN!

I'd feed bland diet for a couple weeks, boiled hamburger, drain well, and rice,
add green beans. The canned foods may give loose stools & aren't nutritious.
His weight is most likely from inactivity. Give kisses 'n hugs to him from us

 

[Manydogs]

I just found this thread! I am so happy that Gus has come through his surgery well. I know it must have been very scary for you,especially with the language barrier.
Best wishes for a speedy, happy recovery for him!

 

[RiiSi]

Good to hear he is doing better. It would be also good if the food you feed is soft and cold, straight from the fridge. Also give him cold fresh water to drink. They usually heel quite quickly and after he fully wakes up from the anesthesia you both can see and hear the difference.
If you want to put him on a diet it is the extra carbs you need to cut, not protein. Most not so good dog foods and even the diet ones are just grain and other fillings that have no nutrient value for the dog. A lot of times they only cause skin and weight problems.
Sending positive and healing thoughts your way....

 

[cefe13]

Just saw this - glad to hear surgery went well! You have got great advice here. Castor went through this last year and I gave him boiled chicken breast plus rice for two weeks or so. Not having people over sounds like a good idea - he will need to sleep a lot the first week.

Wishing GusGus a speedy recovery!

 

[Rebecca Giardina]

So if we do chicken and rice, how much of each would we do per meal?
He used to get 4 cups a day of dry good (2c am 2c pm) but we weaned it down to 3 per vet advice a few weeks ago.
We recently woke up and Gus FINALLY got to eat, but he isn't interested in water still, nor his favorite thing being ice cubes.

 

[2BullyMama]

So if we do chicken and rice, how much of each would we do per meal?
He used to get 4 cups a day of dry good (2c am 2c pm) but we weaned it down to 3 per vet advice a few weeks ago.
We recently woke up and Gus FINALLY got to eat, but he isn't interested in water still, nor his favorite thing being ice cubes.

He may still be hydrated from the IV fluids at hospital... he is eating though, right? I would give small amount of the bland diet... maybe 1/2 cup at first and then 1/2 about an hour later... etc

 

[Rebecca Giardina]

He may still be hydrated from the IV fluids at hospital... he is eating though, right? I would give small amount of the bland diet... maybe 1/2 cup at first and then 1/2 about an hour later... etc

Would we keep it at 3/4 cups over the day? I will have to grab some more ingredients today. We are low on both of these.
And do I shred the chicken?