Help solve the puzzle. I need ideas.

[silly24boxer]

Vet is trying to figure this out too. So we are looking for ideas. Gauge eats three meals a day. Cannidae and homecooked chicken, oatmeal and sweet potatoe. He has no gas unless I feed him turkey. He doesn't drink alot of water he is a very active dog. We walk him before we feed him in the am and also at lunch and a long one after supper. He has had bloat problems before we think and has had to have his stomach tacked to his ribs. During the surgery both vets notice that he had no stomach muscles left but everything else was great. They biopsied his stomach and that was good too. He goes to the bathroom 4-6 times a day but for some reason needs to run around to work it up kind of speak. Gauge was doing really good after surgery but in the last 4 days he has had the stomach pain back 2xs. It happens only in the am after eating about a handful of his breakfast. Gauge stops eating pins his ears back and runs away from the food and lays down. I grab his collar pull him up and get him moving again and it goes away. He eats his normal meal and runs around like normal again with no issues for the rest of the day. He eats out of a fast break bowl.(to reduce bloat). Please toss some ideas at me to help figure this out.

Thanks Darlene

 

[bigboychief]

Have you tried withholding his breakfast until later in the day? I'm sure it's no comparison, but my husband can't eat breakfast before 8 or 9 am or he gets sick to his stomach!

 

[silly24boxer]

Today I tried walking him and feeding him 3/4 cups of canidea out of my pocket slowly. I then fed him the rest of his meal at home and so far so good no pain. I will try this again tommorrow. All I need to do is figure out how to handle him in the am and I will have it made. I think it has something to do with an empty stomach, swallowing air and not completely emptying his bowels. Anymore ideas would be great.

 

[gmacleod]

I suspect you're going to just have to go through a long period of trial and error to figure out what works and doesn't work. At this point, you seem to have proven that turkey is something of a trigger and that exercise in the morning is helpful.

Even though he's had his stomach tacked - technically all that is going to do is prevent torsion from occuring (I say "all" and it sounds like only - but obviously, it's torsion that has the potential to be fatal). What I'm trying to get at though, is that it will stop the stomach twisting, but it wouldn't actually prevent the earlier stages of bloat, and it wouldn't prevent the stomach trying to twist. So some pain isn't exactly unexpected if that occurs.

One of the big problems, of course, is that nobody actually knows what causes bloat. There are, of course, the Purdue Studies that identified a number of factors that increase the risk of bloat. Whilst not strictly identification of cause, possibly taking another look through the information that's come out of those studies to see if you can get a few more hints as to what may reduce the incidence of his problems.

One of the things I would wonder about is whether excluding carbs (especially grains) from his diet might help. Grains do have the tendancy to ferment in the gut, which creates gas. They're not the only possible cause of gas, of course (and it sounds as though turkey may be having exactly that effect for him), but they're a fairly major cause of gas. Possibly exluding those from the diet would help. And likewise, exercise prior to feeding in the morning makes a bit of sense. That should get the digestive system moving and any gases built up overnight expelled prior to feeding. These are all just thoughts, of course. I'm afraid that it is likely to come down to trial and error on your part to discover what actually works and what doesn't.

 

[silly24boxer]

I would like to change Gauge over to a grainless kibble but he is only 13 months. I was trying too wait until 18month. I still want to do homecooked for him. I used to do the raw diet with lady my old boxer that passed away from cushings. I wanted to do raw with Gauge to but I am afraid too. He has too many stomach issues to deal with. Can I change his food now? He is 63lbs and I do not think he is going to grow any taller. Which one would you recommand is the easiest on the stomach?

 

[gmacleod]

Weeell - for easy on the stomach, I'd actually recommend trying raw. Even pre-made ground raw. Or next best, anything that's not dehydrated (i.e. I think the homecooking beats the kibble).

I can understand your nervousness though. With a dog that finely balanced, it can't be too pleasant wondering if any change is going to make things better or make it worse.

If you want to try grainless kibble without heading too far into the high protein range though, there's a new one out from Fromm in their Four Star range that looks reasonably good. It's about 30% protein. I don't think it quite matches the EVO's of this world, but it does have the advantage of lower protein if you want to avoid that for another few months. It doesn't have fat content high on the ingredient list either (which is one of the factors the Purdue Studies identified as a factor increasing the risk of bloat).

 

[silly24boxer]

Keeping breakfast in my pocket worked again. Weird that if I feed him on the go he is great. Any ideas why this works!!!
Really thinking about switching him to raw but I am concerned about the bone issue with this boxer. My old female didn't have any problems with raw. Maybe I am just scared to try it with Gauge because he had issues at a young age.

 

[gmacleod]

No idea why it works - unless perhaps it's just that the movement helps to move any gas along his gut. Walking helps with horses and bloat also, so there's some consistency there.

If you don't want to feed bone, there is always the option of either feeding ground bone (a consumer grinder is good enough for chicken bones at least), or replacing the bone content with eggshell. Eggshell is pretty much a pure calcium source. OK, it doesn't have all the nutrients that bone has, but it will cover off the essential calcium component. Some possibilities, anyway.

 

[silly24boxer]

Still feeding in the am while walking

I am still feeding in the am while walking. This morning I was thinking could it be the height I am feeding him at???? All the other times he eats, from a brake fast bowl( stop bloat) on the floor but when I walk him in the morning while feeding his head is level not bend down. It is when I feed him in the am in the bowl on the floor that he would have the stomach issues.

Dar

 

[gmacleod]

Well, I guess it's a possibility (though elevated feeding is a factor studies have found to increase rather than decrease the risk of bloat). You'd have to separate it from the walking though, to get any idea of whether or not the height has any role here.

Since it's a morning-only phenomena though, and the only differentiating factor between breakfast and any other meal seems to be inactivity overnight (i.e. sleep), I'd be more inclined to imagine that it is the walking activity that is helping.