Tummy Troubles?

[Guest SweetFinish]

We adopted two greyhounds, Angie and Nefertari, and Neffie really doesn't have an issue with not eating (she can be a pig sometimes) but Angie occasionally will not eat. We've been through this before where she won't eat her breakfast, but usually at suppertime, she eats it. This morning, she didn't eat her breakfast, so I thought for sure that she would eat her supper. I was wrong. The poor baby has laid around all day with a gurgly tummy and accompanied by horrible gas. She has been known to eat random stuff at night like paper towels and such...but I don't see any remnants of anything she could have gotten into. Does anyone have issues with greyhound tummy troubles? I mean, they are on Blue Buffalo food (the fish and sweet potato one), so I would hope that isn't the problem. It doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally she goes through the stomach issue thing. What could be causing this????

[Guest Stripeyfan]

Yup, we have tummy troubles here! Kelly has IBD and recently went through something very like this. First thing to check is when she was last wormed – parasites can cause intermittent tummy troubles (due to the life cycle of the worms/larvae), including gas/gurgly tummy/diarrhea etc. It may be worth taking a poop sample to your vet just in case, although bear in mind hookworm in particular don't always show up, so you may need to test (and then worm) a few times.

 

Another thing that can cause this, if there aren't any worms, is excess stomach acid. When Kelly was having this problem - which also made him not want to eat – I made a paste out of slippery elm bark powder and water and syringed it into his mouth. An hour later the gurgles had stopped and he wanted to eat.

 

Hope your girl feels better soon!