Help Needed! Stomach Bloating

[izstigspunks]

On top of all the great advice others have already given you, could you give us a little more info on Abby? How old is your sweety and what other foods has she been on? What oral meds is she on? Conquering allergies is most likely the best thing for her, once that's figured out, everything is almost a breeze. You may find that Blue Buffalo isn't for her, which is very common, even if it's the grain free kind.

Reading other people's experiences on this site, plus the articles, have helped a lot of members lower their vet costs, including myself! We'd love to get to know you and Abby. You sound like a fab mom that wants the best for her. I know the overwhelmed feeling well, but this site has help tremendously. If you have any questions, please let us know.

 

[Davidh]

Well bless you for sticking with her this long, and you have some good advice above on feeding her and her drinking. I would bet her behavior is from the ear infection and I hope she gets rid of it soon and becomes her sweet self again. Please keep us posted.

 

[Trod1]

So sorry you are having so many troubles Katie. Another thought is to limit the amount of water she drinks at a time because it sounds like she is gulping. Don't restrict her overall water intake but just don't let her drink too much at a time. I would try this and see if you see a difference. I hope her medical issues resolve so you can enjoy your new Bully

 

[bullmama]

Excellent advice above!! You sure are a great bully mommie, don't be so hard on yourself. What a lucky girl she is to have you!

I would maybe try using a slow feed bowl as well during eating. All my bullies get full tummys and can rip a good belch when needed. Has her behavior always been this way or is this a new symptom (the bloating?)


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[Sherry]

I'm wondering if her meds are making her very very thirsty. My American bully Jack drinks like this , blows up and even sometimes throws the water back up from drinking so much at a time. He's done this occasionally since we have him, almost 8 years now. Maybe , like you said, could be reading too much into this. I also have two that don't drink very often but sometimes they go crazy and really drink a lot and then they have bigger belly's too. I have 1, Griz who has on occasion eaten so much grass that it looked like he would explode. He didn't , just another belly ache for some reason or another. They burp and fart a lot too. Maybe it just seems like a lot because I have so many? not sure if this means anything to you, but try to relax, if it's going to happen, it will sweetie. Please don't stress yourself out so much. Exhale and do what ever is best and think it all through. and then exhale again. Don't panic, nobody can be good to anybody else if they panic. Hang in here with us and keep us posted. A trip to the vet will ease your mind. At least you'll know what you are dealing with and you will handle things just fine. [MENTION=7116]Kt126126[/MENTION]

 

[Texas Carol]

Just wanted to post again and tell you that EBN is here for you and cares about you
and your family and sweet Abby. I know y'all are stressed, scared & overwhelmed
with what you've been thru w/Abby & bills but please...hang in there, Honey.

I agree with all the excellent advice & wisdom given...change her food, crate her when
you're not there or can't supervise her (cooking dinner, working on computer, etc), slow
feed bowl, restrict water amount given at any ONE time and hopefully, no more Vet visits
or money spent on Vet care and/or meds.

Keeping all this in prayer over y'all

 

[mabel lou]

Have you ever thought of giving her a sippy bottle to drink from? Or just placing a ball in her food bowl or pan to slow her eating down. These are easy inexpensive things you can get cheap or possibly could already have in your home from previous. I will post a pic showing you what I use and why I use the ball in her bowl to slow the process down somewhat for my rescue girl who wants to inhale her food but doesn't want to drink from the sippy so yeah I limit her water in her bowl but I also don't give her any water until her food is gone and then I place the water down. If I do it the other way around she will drink alll the water first and just nibble on the food and mine are kind of home made because I needed something fast so I had a game that had these heavy duty balls in them and decided I will use one of them and it works because they have to move the ball around to get more food. It is very nice as with the water bottle because that saves on the wrinkles getting all wet from drinking and you want her wrinkles to stay as dry as possible so this is how I do my girl. I will come back in a little while and post as it is time to eat for my girls.

 

[Kt126126]

THANKS Everyone!!!! All your advice is well received. I really appropriate the help!!!

I wanted to update everyone and let you know how things are going. I went home last night and Abby seemed to be her normal self. She was playing, jumping around everything seemed to be fine. I took her for a walk and she even ran after a cat. She ate her food right down. I did place bread in her food just in case she did eat something she shouldn't of. I heard that could help her pass a sharp object.

She took two poo's, both firm, normal colored, and nothing inside. She went without any issues or pain.

I'm going to continue to monitor her for the next few days and see how things go. Does anyone know how fast signs show if she did eat something?

She’s a very fast drinker and eater. And she also wants to eat all the time. She acts like I don't feed her. I talked to the vet about this. Abby was abused and the vet thinks that's why she eats so fast. She told use to feed her twice a day, which we do. I'm very interested in the feeding bowl everyone is talking about. I'm going to purchase one. Do they come in metal? I read you should always feed them with a metal bowl and flat bottom not round.

I saw some comments about giving more info about Abby. Abby is 2 years old. We only know a few thing about Abby before we rescued her. The past owner abused and mated her for money. He soon realized he couldn't afford the C sections. She's had three C sections. The owner couldn't afford the last one so the pup's died inside her and she almost died. That's when the rescue stepped in and took over. The foster mom had her for 5 weeks before we adopted Abby. Abby was brought from Alabama to Philadelphia where we live. We were told on her way up she started to show signs of itching to take her to the vet and they would give us allergy medication.

We received Abby and I made sure to make an appointment for the vet asap. At that time I was feeding her science diet (rescue was feeding her this). Her itching became really bad within two days of us having her. We went to the vet and she put her on steroids for 2 weeks and told me to switch her food to hypoallergenic royal canin food. The steroids worked great, but when we finished two weeks later she was back to itching again. She looked terrible. I went back to the vet she put me back on the steroids. Again same thing happened and this time she cut her eye. I was very upset and not happy with the vet because I just paid over 500 bucks and she was still the same. I then switched vets. Went to the next vet she told me to stop using the dog food and to try a different brand that was grain free and what we should look for in the food. She also put us back on the steroids and talked to us about Atopica. We finally felt like we were on the right path. We looked into tons of food and we saw a lot of good comments and blogs about the Blue Buffalo which we are still on now. However, the vet bills are now up to 1000. A neighbor suggested we go to another vet who is half the price of the vet we just spoke to. This way the Atopica would be cheaper since its very expensive. We made an appointment and went to that vet. He suggest two other medications CPX and I forget the other. They are cheaper and don't have the side effects like Atopica does. He also gave us shampoo and oil to place on food. We did see some changes, but Abby was still itching. At this point Abby started to get sick. I called the vet he said take her off the one medication it could be too strong for her stomach. She was drinking a lot of water and this is when I first noticed the bloating. It looked like she could pop. She burped and everything was fine. Two days later she got sick again and this time there where several big pieces of plastic. I had and still have no idea what she ate. Vet was closed so I just watched her for the rest of the day. You can clearly see she wasn’t well. Next day I took her right to the vet. He said we had to go to the hospital for an ultrasound. 500 dollars later, we found out yes she had a huge mass of plastic in her stomach and she would need surgery within 24 hrs. 3000.00 they wanted. My mom who loves her vet said to take the dog there. I didn’t take her there before because the hours and it’s an hour ride. I called the vet and thank god she was willing to do the surgery for only 1000 dollars. Everything went well. Still not sure what she ate looks like flooring, which we don’t have. Not sure if she picked it up in the yard or if it was there before we got her. That was three weeks ago. A week ago, I requested she be put on Atopica which the vet agreed. Her skin and everything look awesome the medication is doing wonders. After the surgery Abby was really thin because the removed everything. It looks like she gain some weight within the last few weeks. Then yesterday she was acting weird in the morning drank a lot of water and started to bloating again. And like I mentioned she does have an ear infection that seems to be clearing up with the medication. So I just was really nervous because she started to bloat up and act weird. She burped and it went down. It just reminded me of how she was 3 weeks ago. As I mentioned above she seemed okay last night and I’m just going to keep my eye on her for now. Let’s all pray there is nothing wrong and that she is doing well.


I do want to mention I do crate Abby when I’m not around for a few hours. However, when I’m at work I place the crate in a brick room open so she can use the doggy door to go outside. Our yard is fenced in. This is the only place she could of picked something up that might of blew into the yard. I’m now going to reduce the area she can go outside by putting a doggy fence up right outside the door. I’m also strongly considering a muzzle. This way I’ll know for sure she didn’t eat anything! Give us both piece of mind

Again thank you all for your help and suggestion. Sorry for the rushed letter, I’m at work and need to hurry.

Thanks again.

 

[Sherry]

thank you so much for the update, I was waiting for this very post. whew, glad to hear things are better. keep us posted please

 

[Baconator]

THANKS Everyone!!!! All your advice is well received. I really appropriate the help!!!

I wanted to update everyone and let you know how things are going. I went home last night and Abby seemed to be her normal self. She was playing, jumping around everything seemed to be fine. I took her for a walk and she even ran after a cat. She ate her food right down. I did place bread in her food just in case she did eat something she shouldn't of. I heard that could help her pass a sharp object.

She took two poo's, both firm, normal colored, and nothing inside. She went without any issues or pain.

I'm going to continue to monitor her for the next few days and see how things go. Does anyone know how fast signs show if she did eat something?

She’s a very fast drinker and eater. And she also wants to eat all the time. She acts like I don't feed her. I talked to the vet about this. Abby was abused and the vet thinks that's why she eats so fast. She told use to feed her twice a day, which we do. I'm very interested in the feeding bowl everyone is talking about. I'm going to purchase one. Do they come in metal? I read you should always feed them with a metal bowl and flat bottom not round.

I saw some comments about giving more info about Abby. Abby is 2 years old. We only know a few thing about Abby before we rescued her. The past owner abused and mated her for money. He soon realized he couldn't afford the C sections. She's had three C sections. The owner couldn't afford the last one so the pup's died inside her and she almost died. That's when the rescue stepped in and took over. The foster mom had her for 5 weeks before we adopted Abby. Abby was brought from Alabama to Philadelphia where we live. We were told on her way up she started to show signs of itching to take her to the vet and they would give us allergy medication.

We received Abby and I made sure to make an appointment for the vet asap. At that time I was feeding her science diet (rescue was feeding her this). Her itching became really bad within two days of us having her. We went to the vet and she put her on steroids for 2 weeks and told me to switch her food to hypoallergenic royal canin food. The steroids worked great, but when we finished two weeks later she was back to itching again. She looked terrible. I went back to the vet she put me back on the steroids. Again same thing happened and this time she cut her eye. I was very upset and not happy with the vet because I just paid over 500 bucks and she was still the same. I then switched vets. Went to the next vet she told me to stop using the dog food and to try a different brand that was grain free and what we should look for in the food. She also put us back on the steroids and talked to us about Atopica. We finally felt like we were on the right path. We looked into tons of food and we saw a lot of good comments and blogs about the Blue Buffalo which we are still on now. However, the vet bills are now up to 1000. A neighbor suggested we go to another vet who is half the price of the vet we just spoke to. This way the Atopica would be cheaper since its very expensive. We made an appointment and went to that vet. He suggest two other medications CPX and I forget the other. They are cheaper and don't have the side effects like Atopica does. He also gave us shampoo and oil to place on food. We did see some changes, but Abby was still itching. At this point Abby started to get sick. I called the vet he said take her off the one medication it could be too strong for her stomach. She was drinking a lot of water and this is when I first noticed the bloating. It looked like she could pop. She burped and everything was fine. Two days later she got sick again and this time there where several big pieces of plastic. I had and still have no idea what she ate. Vet was closed so I just watched her for the rest of the day. You can clearly see she wasn’t well. Next day I took her right to the vet. He said we had to go to the hospital for an ultrasound. 500 dollars later, we found out yes she had a huge mass of plastic in her stomach and she would need surgery within 24 hrs. 3000.00 they wanted. My mom who loves her vet said to take the dog there. I didn’t take her there before because the hours and it’s an hour ride. I called the vet and thank god she was willing to do the surgery for only 1000 dollars. Everything went well. Still not sure what she ate looks like flooring, which we don’t have. Not sure if she picked it up in the yard or if it was there before we got her. That was three weeks ago. A week ago, I requested she be put on Atopica which the vet agreed. Her skin and everything look awesome the medication is doing wonders. After the surgery Abby was really thin because the removed everything. It looks like she gain some weight within the last few weeks. Then yesterday she was acting weird in the morning drank a lot of water and started to bloating again. And like I mentioned she does have an ear infection that seems to be clearing up with the medication. So I just was really nervous because she started to bloat up and act weird. She burped and it went down. It just reminded me of how she was 3 weeks ago. As I mentioned above she seemed okay last night and I’m just going to keep my eye on her for now. Let’s all pray there is nothing wrong and that she is doing well.


I do want to mention I do crate Abby when I’m not around for a few hours. However, when I’m at work I place the crate in a brick room open so she can use the doggy door to go outside. Our yard is fenced in. This is the only place she could of picked something up that might of blew into the yard. I’m now going to reduce the area she can go outside by putting a doggy fence up right outside the door. I’m also strongly considering a muzzle. This way I’ll know for sure she didn’t eat anything! Give us both piece of mind

Again thank you all for your help and suggestion. Sorry for the rushed letter, I’m at work and need to hurry.

Thanks again.

We have a setup similar to what you are talking to we got the outside kennel from costco online and it wasn't too expensive, I'll pm you the link.

This is the outside pen


and this is the inside pen


sorry the pics are great they are screen shots from the two webcams because I'm at work

Glad Abby is feeling better

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

All good news. And the pen situation looks perfect. The more you can contain where she is the better. I wouldn't muzzle her. Bully's have lots of issues with breathing and their noses, I would limit her movement instead of letting her have access to areas unattended with a muzzle.

From experience, they can have stuff in them that they've eaten for a surprisingly long time. Please read the article here about the Dangers of hat they swallow! You will read about some pretty amazing things.

Also..the slow feed bowls are pictured here in an article about bloat. We have had better luck with a slow feed ball instead. It is available on Amazon and ours is called The Pacer Ball.

Now. Steroids cause excess thirst and they can't satisfy that thirst. After reading about all her troubles, it's amazing she is dong as well as she is. Give her time. She has sure had a rough road and she has to learn how to love and trust. I know you will be a success! And you will be repaid in ways much more than you can imagine.

Keep up the good work...

 

[Kt126126]

Thank you. I read the articles very helpful. She doesn't show any of those signs other then bloating after eating so I'll keep a good eye on her. Also I'm going to look into the ball and fence tonight and set that up asap. Great info thanks again!

 

[cali baker]

Thank you for updating us on Abby! I just read it. I'm so glad she's feeling better. You are such a dedicated momma and she's very blessed to have you. She sounds like such a blessing herself and a sweet girl. Take things step by step...i know it can be so overwhelming at times especially w/all the health issues and the vet bills.
We're all here for you

 

[Kt126126]

Hello,

I just wanted to update everyone, one last time on Abby's stomach issues. She's doing just fine and happy as can be. I think she just eats and drinks really fast so I've applied a few of the methods suggested and they seem to be helping. Thanks again everyone I appreciate the help!

 

[cali~jenn]

Missed this one but I am glad she is feeling better and the bloat seems to be nothing. Hang in there, these babies can be a stress but are so worth the love they give! Sounds like she is lucky to have been adopted by you.