kazzy220
..........
- Jul 31, 2010
- 8,556
- 441
- Country
- England
- Bulldog(s) Names
- Maggie (My Angel Baby 5/31/2012). Daddy (2 years). Linus (1year). Bella (4 years)
Forgive me now for my ignorance (and the length of this thread)!!!! However, Maggie is our first bulldog and we know no other bulldog owners so this has been a complete learning curve - a steep one!!! Also, I am hoping that if I give all facts then the rest of you who read this will be a lot more knowledgeable and be able to give me some advice.
The first thing to understand about Maggie is that she suffered a tiny bit with the typical (now we know this) sensitive stomach which really freaked us out for a while because for two days it was like a scene from the exorcist ... I didn't know it could shoot that far and from both ends ....
.....until we put her on Beneful food which she and the other dogs loved. Although, that's not fair to say Maggie loved Beneful because Maggie just loves anything remotely edible!!!! So for a long time we believed we were in a happy place - sweet healthy bulldog who won our hearts from the moment we saw her.
So we get to September/October time and realise Maggie's jaw is not opening quite as much as it used to although it didn't stop her eating (nothing does - you know how that is with Bulldogs!) Within the week her jaw is completely locked up and we immediately dreaded tetanus and I spent hours on the internet looking it up until the second we had her appointment at the vets. Luckily, although our vet is not considered on any website I've found to be a Bullie expert, she had seen this only once in her career and immediatly ordered special blood tests that were the only ones that could diagnose myositis. It was positive - Maggie had myositis. This is when the body no longer recognizes the muscles that are used to chew with (the masticatory muscles) and attacks them. So the dogs immune system attacks it's own chewing muscles - and basically destroys them so the dog can no longer move it's jaw.
Six months of steroids later we are off the steroids. Hooray!!! Then the throwing up/regurgitation/coughing up phlegm starts .... so we change the food -A LOT - and looking back made her stomach feel even worse. We go back to Beneful and things settle down until Sept/Oct of the next year rolls round and we have another case of Myositis (or the Miley-Cyrus disease as my husband likes to call it). There follows another 6-7 months of steroids. Now this myositis is not related to anything seasonal or allergies etc so I am unsure as to why it has come back at the same time for the last two years.
After the steroids finished the occasional vomiting started again, so we decided not to switch foods because it was disastrous last time (still have the stains on the carpet to prove it - which makes me wonder how much color dyes they put in this stuff!). So we went to Beneful weight loss formula and everything is great - no health problems and no throwing up. Even the two mini schnauzers have stopped their occasional vomiting (now I know that is a bit of a schnauzer trait because I know other schnauzer owners).
Sorry this is so long ............ so here is my dilemma. September and October are rapidly approaching. I discoverd this website in the last couple of weeks and already discovered that I am feeding our hairy little bullie-child a 1* food!!! And although it has cleared up all vomiting/regurgitating I am now looking for something that is going to do that but also a food that will (hopefully) boost her immune system to a degree that we will not be faced with a bullie whose jaw just won't move (terrifying) and something that will not upset her stomach. The vet said that if she gets it again she may have to go on low dose steroids for the rest of her life .. not happy about that!
So if anybody of you know of a really good bulldog-friendly food that super-boosts the immune system that I can VERY slowly introduce to my Maggie, and also any good supplements too ........ I would be eternally grateful. In the meantime, my husband and I sit here and look for any potential signs of the dreaded Miley-Cyrus disease!!!
The first thing to understand about Maggie is that she suffered a tiny bit with the typical (now we know this) sensitive stomach which really freaked us out for a while because for two days it was like a scene from the exorcist ... I didn't know it could shoot that far and from both ends ....
.....until we put her on Beneful food which she and the other dogs loved. Although, that's not fair to say Maggie loved Beneful because Maggie just loves anything remotely edible!!!! So for a long time we believed we were in a happy place - sweet healthy bulldog who won our hearts from the moment we saw her.So we get to September/October time and realise Maggie's jaw is not opening quite as much as it used to although it didn't stop her eating (nothing does - you know how that is with Bulldogs!) Within the week her jaw is completely locked up and we immediately dreaded tetanus and I spent hours on the internet looking it up until the second we had her appointment at the vets. Luckily, although our vet is not considered on any website I've found to be a Bullie expert, she had seen this only once in her career and immediatly ordered special blood tests that were the only ones that could diagnose myositis. It was positive - Maggie had myositis. This is when the body no longer recognizes the muscles that are used to chew with (the masticatory muscles) and attacks them. So the dogs immune system attacks it's own chewing muscles - and basically destroys them so the dog can no longer move it's jaw.
Six months of steroids later we are off the steroids. Hooray!!! Then the throwing up/regurgitation/coughing up phlegm starts .... so we change the food -A LOT - and looking back made her stomach feel even worse. We go back to Beneful and things settle down until Sept/Oct of the next year rolls round and we have another case of Myositis (or the Miley-Cyrus disease as my husband likes to call it). There follows another 6-7 months of steroids. Now this myositis is not related to anything seasonal or allergies etc so I am unsure as to why it has come back at the same time for the last two years.
After the steroids finished the occasional vomiting started again, so we decided not to switch foods because it was disastrous last time (still have the stains on the carpet to prove it - which makes me wonder how much color dyes they put in this stuff!). So we went to Beneful weight loss formula and everything is great - no health problems and no throwing up. Even the two mini schnauzers have stopped their occasional vomiting (now I know that is a bit of a schnauzer trait because I know other schnauzer owners).
Sorry this is so long ............ so here is my dilemma. September and October are rapidly approaching. I discoverd this website in the last couple of weeks and already discovered that I am feeding our hairy little bullie-child a 1* food!!!
And although it has cleared up all vomiting/regurgitating I am now looking for something that is going to do that but also a food that will (hopefully) boost her immune system to a degree that we will not be faced with a bullie whose jaw just won't move (terrifying) and something that will not upset her stomach. The vet said that if she gets it again she may have to go on low dose steroids for the rest of her life .. not happy about that!So if anybody of you know of a really good bulldog-friendly food that super-boosts the immune system that I can VERY slowly introduce to my Maggie, and also any good supplements too ........ I would be eternally grateful. In the meantime, my husband and I sit here and look for any potential signs of the dreaded Miley-Cyrus disease!!!
