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Bloated painful belly and not eating

831 views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  ReadingMama 
#1 ·
Mac refused his food today and I can tell he's not feeling well. At first I thought it was because we're switching his food over from Canidae to Innova (we're at a 50-50 ratio now.) But he ate some canned Natural Balance and then later threw it up. His belly is bloated and firm and when the vet pushed on it Mac yelped and tried to bite him.

Mac pooped some yellowish soft poop earlier. I looked at it and among the flies there were tiny white things "gliding" over the poop. They were smaller than I'd expect worms to be (about the size of a poppy seed). Do flies lay live babies? Ick. I took a poop sample to the vet and he did a fecal and nothing showed up. He prescibed a couple pills for tapeworms anyway. He also gave him a shot for the nausea.

It's almost 5pm and Mac still hasn't eaten anything. He won't even take his little bit of cheese with his pain medicine in it. What do you think this sounds like?
 
#3 ·
I am not sure what breed you have (and am only assuming it is even a dog since you didn't specify) but my first instinct is to worry about bloat. Did you vet do a thorough work up? Were x-rays taken?

I had a scare with my dog and bloat a little over a year ago. I woke up to him dry heaving with a firm belly. Of course it was 4am, so I had to take him the the emergency vet clinic (many $$). They did x-rays and his whole system was basically full of food. They were concerned that his stomach would twist, so they kept him for the day for observation.

While he was there he had a bout of (sorry... TMI) explosive diahrea. Afterwards he felt much, much better.

I ended up giving him, or all things, Pepcid AC for a little over a week afterwards. Fortunately we haven't had another incident since.

I hope Mac feels better soon.
 
#4 ·
He's a Jack Russell that we rescued last October. The vet said he thought it was just a little stomach ache from switching foods (although I did it slowly.) He didn't do x-rays or blood work--just a urinalysis and a fecal and a exam.

It's been over 24 hours since Mac ate anything and 36 hours since he's kept food down. He did drink water for the first time last night at 4am. He's peeing normally and he's pooped a couple times. Could he poop if he had an obstruction?

I think I'll take him to the vet again today since he's still not eating or drinking. Our regular vet is closed so we have to go to a different one.
 
#5 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by ReadingMama View Post
He's a Jack Russell that we rescued last October. The vet said he thought it was just a little stomach ache from switching foods (although I did it slowly.) He didn't do x-rays or blood work--just a urinalysis and a fecal and a exam.

It's been over 24 hours since Mac ate anything and 36 hours since he's kept food down. He did drink water for the first time last night at 4am. He's peeing normally and he's pooped a couple times. Could he poop if he had an obstruction?

I think I'll take him to the vet again today since he's still not eating or drinking. Our regular vet is closed so we have to go to a different one.
Well, what has me worried is the combination of the following symptoms--bloated, firm and painful belly, vomiting and now refusing to eat.

The animal can sometimes poop...it really depends on where in the intestinal tract the blockage is.

Switching foods sure there could be some sort if irritation, but I'd be expecting something like diarrhea more. The lack of eating worries me. How is he acting?

Mac is geriatric too, right? He could have other stuff going on that isn't related to this too. As you know already geriatric animals have more stuff that goes wrong.

Anyhow,
to you.
 
#6 ·
We spent 4 hours at a walk-in vet clinic yesterday. (Not because our appointment was complicated, but because the clinic was so crowded.) His belly was less bloated and much less painful yesterday than the day before, so the vet wanted to do blood work before thinking about an x-ray. She was thinking that kidney toxins could be building up in the blood or that Mac could have a liver problem.

His blood work came back with everything in normal limits except that he has a low white blood count and a few other things were on the low end of the spectrum related to that. The vet thought he picked up a bacterial infection, possibly from eating cat poop from the front yard, and that since he's on continous steroids his immune system can't keep up. He also has tiny worms on his poop(!) that the vet said is probably tapeworm, so he has medicine for that. (I've never had a dog with worms! How could he get them? He's on Heartguard and Frontline.) He's on an antibiotic now and he's eating canned food and drinking water. He wants nothing to do with the new Innova dry food, but my other dog likes it just as much as Canidae.
 
#7 ·
I've heard that dogs can get worms from eating the poop from cats that are infected...also other intestinal issues like giardia, coccidia etc.

Is there a way to keep him from eating it?
 
#9 ·
Regarding keeping him from cat poop, we just can't let him out in the front yard anymore. People in our neighborhood have outside cats and they poop in our bushes. We never see a cat in the backyard.

He's back to normal now. He will eat canned food, but he wants nothing to do with the Innova we switched over too. He just leaves it for my other dog to eat. I'm not sure if I should just keep feeding him canned food and supplementing with regular food or whether I should mix it with a different dry food.
 
#11 ·
Thanks! We were really afraid it was his kidneys failing or something (especially since we don't really know how old he is). Mac's blood work showed normal values for his kidneys, surprisingly. So that's good.

I don't know that I can afford canned food only. If he eats a can of the premium food a day, it'll be about $2 a day or $60 a month. A $30 bag of premium dry food lasts us about 6 weeks, so it'd be more than doubling our pet food budget. Could I feed both canned and real food (I can't do raw meat--it's an aversion issue for me!)? Like this morning he had his canned food and plain cooked oatmeal (for fiber) flavored with a fish oil capsule!
: And both my dogs like raw fruit and veggies. Maybe I should check out a make your own dog food book at the library. My vet recommended fish for the omega 3s--yay, just what Mac's breath needs!!!

I gave him his wormer today. What should I expect now?
 
#12 ·
Ugh, Mac went out in the front because I was trying to get my grandpa (who uses a walker with assistance) out the front door and he ran right over to the neighbors and picked up a turd. I grabbed him and said drop it and he reached around and bit me and ate the turd! Little butthole!
AND he got poop on my hands, so I'm paranoid. And I'm doubly paranoid because I just gave him the wormer for tapeworms. If that poop was infected, is he protected from tapeworms because of the wormer I just gave him? Is he protected from the other kinds of worms because of Heartgard?
 
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