LadyBailey

Our sweet boy Carrier ~ Bold Carrier ~ October 13, 1997 - March 30, 2008 We miss you so much Carrier... not a day goes by without you in our thoughts.

Dear Bev, There are too many Doyle dogs in this section of GT... Although sad, it means that they had an amazing life with you. Thinking of you and your family. Run free sweet boy.

Here is a very long post that I posted back when Carrier was still with us. We lost him to osteo on March 30, 2008. The title of the post is Signs we noticed with Carrier before he was diagnosed with osteo. I hope it helps you somewhat.... in short, if there is something you think is not normal, keep pushing for an answer, get a second, third, fourth opinion - granted that it's not putting Bravo over the edge going to all of these appointments. Sending Bravo good thoughts. Signs we noticed with Carrier

I am so sorry. Run free sweet girl. Carrier will take good care of you now.

Andrea, I am so sorry to hear this. Jeanie has a special place in our hearts because she was one of the greys that we thinking of adopting when we first started looking. We ended up adopting Bailey, I was so happy to hear that you were on GT when you adopted her, so we could see her grow old. Sadly, we know first hand what you are going through. Carrier battled this cruel monster and I know how hard it is to see them go through it. Sending you prayers, hugs, good thoughts, healing energy... I wish there was something I could say to make it better... I know there isn't... just hug her and love her more than you ever could - I know that won't be hard. We had 5 amazing months with Carrier after he was diagnosed.. and in those 5 months, he lived another full lifetime of love and fun. We made sure of that. When he wasn't feeling well, we made sure that he was comfortable and when he was ready to go for a walk or to play, we were ready for him!. Listen to her... she will guide you and help you. Hugs to you and Jeanie.

Our Carrier had heart problems... to this day, i have no idea what they really were, because the vets couldn't really figure it out. In his case, he had a lot going on...he was tripod, with a tumor on his heart, had signs of cardiomyopothy, and a slew of other problems, but like your Bear, he acted like everything was fine. I know that feeling of when something is wrong with them and it's with a major organ. I worried all the time. I don't have much to add in the way of medical help.. just wanted to let you know that I am thinking about you and Bear. hugs.

Good to hear that the xrays were clear.. however, I would still get a second opinion after she is done the anti-inflammatories if she is still limping. Our first vet told us that the xrays were clear for Carrier.... later we found out that they actually weren't. There were signs of lysis of the bone, but she didn't put two and two together. It was pointed out to me when the second opinion vet saw the original xrays. Since we thought the xrays were clean, we went ahead with Anti-inflammatory drugs and also adjustments. In the end we lost about 1.5 months until he was finally diagnosed when we got a second opinion... and the worst part was that the vet was adjusting his shoulder, where he had the cancer!!!!! The pain for him was unreal. I would recommend two options. One, keep her quiet for the week and continue with anti-inflammatories, if she is still limping, get a second opinion from another vet... one that is able/willing to send her xrays to OSU for additional review if they still aren't sure and if Bailey is still limping prominently. The other thing I would recommend is going to see a certified chiropractor -that graduated from this program. Vet Chiro I don't know if our first vet is your current vet... pm me and I can give you scoop on our experience. I hope and pray she is better soon and able to enjoy her vacation.

Tina, I am in shock and so very sorry. I know Carrier is taking good care of him. Sending you a gentle hugs. eva

Sending you all prayers

Dear Heather, I just read about Dempsey. My heart breaks for you. It sounds exactly like what happened with Carrier. One second he was fine and the next he wasn't. I know you are wondering if you did the right thing at the right time. I beat myself up for weeks afterwards thinking that we should have tried another drug or got another opinion... but time was not on our side - we had to make a choice - he was getting worse, fast. Carrier pulled his leg away as the vet was going to give the injection. That still haunts me... was he telling us something? Carrier had a lot of medical things going on... he had cancer, we knew we weren't going to cure him. On top of it, his heart was weak. Had we tried one more thing, how long would he have been with us? All of these questions were tearing me up inside. But as I go through the list of things that he was battling, it also brings me peace to know that he's not battling all of those things anymore. You did the right thing for your boy... right from the beginning when you decided that he was up for the challenge of fighting this awful disease. He fought hard. I am so sorry and wish I could be there to give you a big hug. You are in my thoughts. Run free sweet Dempsey. Find Carrier and live life...together watching down on us. hugs, eva

Nope. Not during the day or as it was happening. And when I took her outside for the first time at 3pm 'ish, I thought that this would be the first thing she would do as she looked nauseous. But that night she didn't even step onto the grass. She stood beside with that look in her eyes, "please help me". That was my first clue that something wasn't right. Sorry that should say "I took her outside for the first time at 3AM 'ish" It was happening in the early morning.

Nope. Not during the day or as it was happening. And when I took her outside for the first time at 3pm 'ish, I thought that this would be the first thing she would do as she looked nauseous. But that night she didn't even step onto the grass. She stood beside with that look in her eyes, "please help me". That was my first clue that something wasn't right.

Sending prayers for your boy. Our Ella has a short tail and it's pretty sweet when she wags it. We call it "Le Baton"... cuz, that's what it looks like.

Well after having a little scare with her a few days ago, I have Phazyme on hand and will give it to her if I think she is gassing up again. We will feed her three meals a day to make sure she is isn't maxing out her tummy. We will continue to feed from a raised feeder - the jury is still out on this being a cause of bloat. We will make sure that she doesn't drink a lot of water after she eats. Of course not allow her to run etc., follow the simple rules that we know about bloat. We will still feed raw, but for at least a month we will be feeding home cooked bland food. Not sure if we will be adding Raw Meaty Bones back into her diet. We are also going to see a holistic vet with 30 years experience, this Friday. I want to get her opinion on how we can help her heal and also what if anything we need to do for her, now that she doesn't have her spleen. I know they say, people and dogs can live without them, but if there is a supplement that can help her, we will do it for her. She is currently getting acupuncture, massage and chiropractic adjustments for her other reasons, so I hope that these too will help her in her healing from the surgery.

Actually a friend of ours has a dane and she was tacked but it wasn't because she bloated - they did it while she was in surgery for another reason. I spoke with her last night and she made a good point ... Bailey's stomach is smaller now, so she needs to eat smaller meals. Just like everyone suggested here - feeding 3-4 meals. Yesterday Bailey was fine and I made sure that it was a quiet day for her. I fed her small meals throughout the day, but she woke me at 4am and was crying and wanting to go out. So I let her and she went for the grass right away. But then I also heard her tummy making loud sounds, so I gave her some chicken. She ate that and promptly jumped into bed with me and slept until 7 without problems. Today I have been feeding two small meals and she will get another one before bed time. I think what triggered her episode on Sunday was that she was hungry, ate grass and then it snowballed into a massive stomach upset. I am only feeding her cooked chicken with some sweet potatoe and/or pumpkin and she eats it without problem. Her antibiotics are done and I haven't been giving her anything for the last day - no pepcid or sulcrate and she has been fine. Thanks everyone for your tips.

yes, stomach is tacked down.

they were all lucky to have you. Run free Song. You were loved.

Hello, Yesterday afternoon around 4pm Bailey got up and wanted to go outside. She walked around and had a couple pees and ate a few blades of grass. She came in and about an hour later she wanted to go out again, but this time she really wanted to ate grass. I figured she was hungry as it was time for their dinner, so I fed her like normal. She went out and a little more grass... but when she came in, she looked nauseous and was swallowing hard. She had a few good burps and that seemed to help, but then she actually threw up her dinner and all that grass about a hour later - this was at 7pm. I spoke to the e-vet and they said that they could see her and give her something for her tummy, so we took her and they gave her a shot of Cerenia and some sulcrate. We got home at 8:45 and she still didn't look settled and was actually crying and stretching. We decided to see once the meds kicked in if they would help her. She fell asleep from 9:15 to 10:15 and as soon as she rolled over on her side, she jumped up and started swallowing hard and looking nauseous. She burped and then laid down again. I decided to give her a pepcid and she laid down for a bit - but again she got up. It was like she was having acid reflux. She didn't have anything in her tummy, so I gave her some Ensure and she drank that. Finally at midnight she jumped on the couch - with me sleeping on the other one keeping an eye on her. I woke to find her in a roach on the couch this morning. I spoke to our regular vet this morning and they said that I could feed her - so I cooked some chicken. She was sleeping so I didn't want to wake her - so she's only eaten now (1pm). She seems to be keeping it down and she isn't swallowing hard or looking off. She is also sleeping on her side and doesn't seem to have the acid reflux thing going on. For those of you have had gone through the surgery, did your dog bloat again and experience gas? What are you feeding them? Do I need to make any adjustments to her diet? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I have some Phazyme on had as of this morning, as I read in another thread that this could help with what we were dealing with last night.

Nope, nothing about the raised feeder - being good or bad. The other thing is that we feed raw and one of the things we read before we started feeding raw is that the risk of bloat is much less because the food is what it is and doesn't expand like kibble in their tummies... well so much for that theory By the way, her stomach was completely empty when they tubed her.

As some of you know Bailey bloated last week and survived - thank god! Here's the thread Bailey Bloated I am posting this because I want to share with you what her signs were and what we were thinking at the time. I hope our experience helps you in identifying bloat as soon as possible and that you too have a good outcome like we did. Of course we have all read about bloat and we all probably freak when our greys going tearing off around the yard with a full belly.... or we wait hours until they stop panting to feed them. We probably all know the signs - trying to throw up, distended abdomen, looks like they swallowed a watermelon, pacing, panting the list goes on. And we all know the theories on why bloat happens, but of course there is really no rhyme or reason when it does happen. Tuesday was a completely ordinary day. Bailey was 100% her normal self. She was eating fine, drinking normally, playing, resting, sleeping soundly - completely normal. We feed two meals a day. Raw. Raised feeders. She didn't run at all that day. When I kissed her good night,(at 10:20pm) she was perfect. At 2:30am I heard walking. Then she settled, so I let her be. At 3:00 am, she's walking again. He tummy looked a little full, but not really any more than normal - as she was looking a little tubby the last few months - we were trying to get her to lose some weight. But one thing was for sure, she was uncomfortable. She would sit down and then get up right away. She also stuck to me like glue. She wanted to go outside, but didn't do anything. She looked nauseous so I thought she was going to throw up, but she wasn't retching. Then she burped and seemed to be fine. She was panting a lot. Settled for a few minutes and then I called for Tim because I thought - damn it (or other four letter word) I think we are dealing with bloat. Tim came down and Bailey actually jumped on the couch and was fine for about 10 minutes. Then got up and looked nauseous again - walking around like she was preparing to puke - but no retching - her tummy looked somewhat normal still. I actually had the pepto in my hand thinking of giving it to her. Then she sat down on the couch again and fell asleep for about 5 minutes. Tim said, well, let's go back to bed and if she's up again, we'll hear her. Just as he said that, she jumped off the couch and went to the back door. That is when she had her first retch... and off we whisked her to the e-vet. This started at 2:30 at home and by 4:00 the vet had a tube down her throat that was releasing massive amounts of gas. We were lucky because her tummy didn't go into torsion. If there was any advice that I would give after going through this it would be: if your dog is showing any signs even remotely close to what i have described - get them to the vet asap. $200 on xrays to see if they are bloated is way cheaper that emergency surgery and worth every penny if you can save them in time. And although she wasn't showing the text book signs she was bloating and had we waited for those textbook signs, it probably would have been too late. And here is a link to a great article about it written by a well-respected Deerhound breeder. I got this after our situation and boy does it sound exactly like we were going through. Bloat & Torsion

Yes and no. Kinda like the chicken and the egg thing. Although, over the past few months we have thought that Bailey was looking a little "tubular" and figured that she needed to lose some weight. So we slowly cut back her food and made sure she wasn't eating too many treats, getting her exercise etc., But we couldn't for the life of us get her weight down. In fact about a month ago I weighed her at the vet and she was actually heavier! So obviously the "diet" that we had her on was not working. Her blood work was perfect, and she had a perfect physical in May. And wouldn't you know it as soon as she had the spleen removed, she lost that "tubular" look and lost almost 5 pounds. She was 77 pounds before the surgery and is now a perfect 72. We joke that she just had some lipo done - thank god we can joke about it! Anyway, she did indeed bloat, that is a fact. but they don't know if it was because the spleen was enlarged or because the pylorus (exit from the stomach into the small intestines) was blocked. They told us that when they go in to tack the stomach, they will check the spleen and normally if it's enlarged - which in most cases it is, they remove it. Also, I was told that... "Sometimes in bloat it will actually twist on itself, cutting off the blood supply to both the stomach and the spleen. The fact that Bailey just twisted off the pylorus instead of twisting the entire stomach is a really good prognostic indicator and some times these guys can also twist off the blood supply to the spleen and that may have been what happened here at least partially (it could explain why her spleen was so large) or it could be that either cancer of the spleen or a hematoma (blood clot in the spleen) may have been the cause. This will be told by the histopathology of the spleen." And since the spleen came back clean we know it wasn't cancer or a hematoma - so my theory based on what we saw in her "tubular" body is that something was going on with her spleen to cause this and over time she finally bloated.

She feels MUCH better now. Played like crazy with her toy this morning. She bloated last week and when she went in for surgery, they found this massive thing. The vet told me that it was about 3-4 times it's normal size. You drive through Paris and don't stop to say hello when you see her Next time you are in town you should come for a visit.

How could a girl so pretty.... have something so yucky and large in her? close up of right side close up of left side The "chunky" stuff on top are the blood vessels and "things" that held this monster in place. The pathology report came back clean It weighed 1.5 kg and was about 2 x 1 feet. Bailey weighed 35 kg prior to bloating and yesterday weighed in at a lovely 32 kg. She has her tuck back and sweet little waist. She's a big Beckner girl and most people think she's a boy because of her size... but we quickly put them in their place.

Checking in this morning. Hope everything is okay.

What are her other vitals? Check her gum colour, temp of her paws and ears, rate of breathing. Do you have a thermometer?