Wind Again!

[Rita Wilson]

Sorry to start another thread about wind/bloating but I'm out of ideas for our Irish Setter Rosco.

 

Roscos Story

A few weeks before Christmas Rosco got into a bag of dog food and ate till he nearly busted. The vet had to empty his stomach and stitch him up. Nearly a week later he bloated out really bad and had to go back to the vets, and he had surgery again, this time they stapled his stomach.

 

Rosco went on a diet of chicken and rice for a few weeks till his stomach could handle the food. He didn't do well on the dried food afterwards so we switched him to RAW. He did great on the raw and we could then start to build him up again with his exercise.

 

Last week Rosco started to have bad wind problems again and needed winded after every feed. It can nearly take an hour sometimes for the wind to go down. He's on 3 feeds a day and he gets his raw food in a mushy texture. He gets a balanced raw nugget which is like baby food really when mashed up.

 

Has anyone any ideas on how I can help him with this wind problem even a few minutes playing in the garden can cause him to get wind. He looks really uncomfortable.

[Rita Wilson]

Sorry to hear abour your loss ((hug))

 

I've been told to avoid grains by the vet and Homeopath as they cause excess gas, along with peas.

Rosco is 16 months old and had his stomach stapled when he was 12 months due to the over eating episode. Rosco is a very confident dog and never shows sign of stress he's very chilled out. Even the vet said he's a calm confident dog. I've noticed excitement at the minute triggers him to bloat out.

 

I contacted a Homeopath today and she is going to send us a wind remedy which should help Rosco. He needs to get it once a day. I can't remember the name of it but she's making a mixture especially for Rosco. I should have it by Friday so I hope it can help him.

The Homeopath also recommened Aloe Vera liquid which should be given to him in small doses in every feed. This will break down any gas and help with digestion. We are going to our nearest helath food store to get this tomorrow night.

It breaks my heart everytime he bloats out as he comes to us to get winded hanging his head down.

[Garrech and Canagan]

Yes I think as Sue said avoid any form of Wheat based product which apart from the Gluten has other problems. Most vegetables can also cause gas not just peas. Beans and Cauliflower to name two others!

I'm not sure that appearing calm necessarily means zero stress. Canagan never looked anxious indeed 90% of the time he looked very laid back!  Is Rosco a big setter? What is his weight? Has he always been enthusiastic about food? Don't forget that excitement is a form of stress. It starts the adrenalin pumping and the good old hormones marching around!

There are many different ideas about what causes the bloating and many different recipies. After a while my head hurt with all the different ideas! I spent hours researching the problem!

Once we had got him into a routine and fed him the recommended diet his bloat attacks decreased. How do you wind him and do you give him anything to help? As I said the Windeeze helped a lot so if you knew that an excitement period was coming up you could give him one before which might help. Certainly he needs to belch as much as possible. A dogs digestion depends on that! Producung the wind is one thing but getting rid of it is more important!

[KC and the boys]

Rita - I'm sorry to hear your story. I hope you'll find some good advice and support here on this site. I'll certainly make doubly sure that Errol will never ever get his head into a kibble bag as I'm sure he will be just as Rosco and eat until he bursts (he's so greedy). Anyway, I've been wondering for some time now: how do you wind an IS? Just in case I ever need to know... I presume you meant you're doing this manually somehow...

 

And since you've menationed Aloe Vera. I'm feeding part Harrington's dry food (and no I don't get a commission) which contains Aloe and it most certainly has reduced the stinky farts (which incidentally have come right back as soon as I mixed in a sample bag of Iams).... so Aloe gets my thumbs up! Hope it does the trick for Rosco, too. 

[Rita Wilson]

Garrech, Rosco is a big setter and he weighs about 30kg. He has always loved food and would eat till he bursts. I've always had fussy setter eaters but Rosco will eat anything.

My head is wrecked aswell as you'll read loads of different advice on the internet. It's great to have a setter forum and get advice from other setter owners. I will get some Windeeze tomorrow night if I can, it would be good to have something as a backup incase the remedy the homeopath gives me doesn't work. I'm really trying to get him into a feeding routine and I'm keeping a diary of what works the best.

Your right getting rid of the wind is the problem, we spent nearly an hour helping Rosco to relieve the wind at the start of the week. It's very stressful for him and for us seeing him like that.

 

KC I've a link to an article to show you how to wind a dog with images, it would be better than me trying to explain. I'll try and find it for you later and post the link up.

 

[Carmel Murphy]

I have heard about these dishes also, but have never seen one! I could do with one for Rosco's mother Cara and his Aunt Abbey, as they eat very quickly also!! But they dont have a gas problem! So far only Milo has ever shown any symptoms!!

[Rita Wilson]

You can get them on http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dog_bowls_feeders/plastic_dog_bo...

[Sherry Miller]

Just to let you know you can also use an angel food cake pan for a feeding bowl...or put some large clean rocks ( and I do mean large) in the bowl so they have to slow down to eat around them.  I have one angel food cake pan where you do not remove the tube part (all one piece) that I used with Molly when she first came home as she was nervous and gobbled her food for first week or so...it slowed her down and now gobbling is not an issue here. I know when you have more than one dog eating at same time it causes different issues than we have here with just our Molly.  Hope that Rosco soon finds what keeps you and especially him happy diet wise.

[Carmel Murphy]

Thanks for that Rita and also to Sherry for the cheap option;o))))

[Garrech and Canagan]

Rita,

We tried one of these bowls with Canagan but it didn't work! It was a total waste of time and money. We also tried an elevated bowl which did help a bit but remember there are differing points of view on this one but if nothing else it saved Elaine's back when hand feeding him which was the only sure fire method of getting him to eat slowly

[Deb Bouttell]

Years ago I had a bitch that bloated once and then had a tendency to blow up after meals,

She had 4 meals a day, I'd make up four tubs in the morning and microwave when needed (she used to turn EVERY time the microwave pinged)!

I frequently gave Carbo Veg 6 after meals, it seemed to help. She died when she was 10- but of cancer not bloat. 

[Rita Wilson]

LOL at her turning everytime the microwave pinged.

 

I got Roscos homeopath remedy today and it contains carbo veg in it. I have to give it to him 3 times a day. He's actually doing very well these last few days. The aloe vera and fennel oil into his food seems to be helping. He's also getting a teaspoon of natural yoghurt. He hasn't bloated once in nearly 2 days and that's good for him.

[Mary Walshe]

Thats great news Rita! Hopefully he will not bloat again. I have learned so much about bloat and torsion by reading this thread, I hope I never see it but it is also good to know what might help to keep a dog from bloating if they were prone to it.