My 1st dog, Minnie - UPDATE ON LUCY

Great photos--thanis for the smiles!

Hard thing to let a friend go. But you had some years with her to charish. Thanks Jean, for the pics!

She was a good lookin dog, my first was a boxer named Star Bell. Ur pup reminds me of her with that white chest.

That stomach twist is real bad.

Thanks, Pinto. You'll find that there are a lot of dog lovers on this forum! Yes, I'd love to see Dusty, please do post some photos of her. The way that you acquired her is special, it was just meant to be. She sounds like a wonderful companion.

Had a scare yesterday - my one remaining dog, Lucy, chased a cat that was in "her" yard. She forgets that she is 7 1/2 years old, and can not move like she once used to without consequences. When a cat gets in the yard, she goes "pitbull stupid", and takes off after it, paying no heed to solid objects in her way, like, oh, brick walls? Chain link fences? When the cat goes over the fence, she runs into it. If it wasn't so dangerous, it would be kind of comical.

Anyway, by bedtime, she was really hurting, limping on her front left, walking very stiffly, and panting. Her body posture said "ouch" and her eyes were hugely dilated. Even though she's
a tough pitbull (which don't normally show pain), I could tell she was stressed and in a lot of pain. We took her to the emergency clinic (been there twice before with two different dogs) at about 10:30 pm, didn't get home until 1:15 am. They did not take x-rays, but took a "wait and see" attitude. An examination showed no signs of problems in her abdomen (no torsion, thank God), hopefully, it is just soft tissue damage to her shoulder and her neck, that will gradually go away with forced immobility. The worst case scenario could be a pinched nerve or slipped disk in her back, requiring surgery. They also think may may have a partially torn ACL on her left rear, but that didn't just happen. She was not putting that foot down a few months back, but has recovered the use of it. Will have to work on taking the extra 10 lbs she's carrying around off of her, that will help.

They took some blood to do a mini panel, to make sure it was safe for an NSAID, and there was one little issue (she had a high ALKP level - liver function, I think) that will have to get looked into later. She was also dehydrated, so they injected fluids subcutaneously into the back of her neck, made her neck all puffed up! They gave her a pain shot while there, and sent me home with Tramadol and Meloxicam (the NSAID). She was resting comfortably, but now she is sighing and crying a little. Time for more pain meds!

Will let you all know how it goes. Jean

I really enjoyed this Jean. Minnie must have been a real sweetheart. I have never heard of the stomach flip before, is it an uncommon ailment?

Beef, sorry it took so long to get back to you. Haven't been able to spend much time here lately.

Gastric torsion in dogs, also known as bloat, twisted stomach, gastric dilatation-volvulus or GDV, is one of the most serious emergencies. It strikes seemingly without warning in dogs of any age, but most commonly in deep chested breeds. There are a lot of symptoms, most of them behavioral, but the most noticeable (visually) is the progressive abdominal swelling. Simply put, when the dog's stomach has food in it, and then some type of motion flips that stomach, it twists, pinching off at both ends like a sausage. This cuts the blood flow to the organ, and it almost immediately starts to die. In Minnie's case, we were going out for the evening, and so we gave her some dog treats (Gaine's burgers, now AKA by us as dog killers). At the time, we lived in a mobile home. We had given her the treats outside, and afterwards, she ran towards the front door, turned to go up the front steps, and her back legs slipped out from under her. This was enough to flip her stomach. We were not aware of the problem until we came home much later that night and found her bloated. By then it was too late, the damage had been done. We made a trip to an emergency vet, and they ended up putting her to sleep.

Although it's not limited to deep chested dogs, they seem to be the most affected. If you have a dog that fits that description, don't ever feed it one large meal a day - always give it several smaller meals throughout the day. And try to limit their exercise after eating.

My sister has a large (125 lb) Brazilian Fila, that also had this happen. Fortunately, my sister was so tuned into her dog that she recognized the symptoms by the dogs behavior, and took her immediately to the emergency vet. They were surprised that she had picked up on it, as they couldn't even tell it had happened until they examined her. This limited the damage caused by lack of blood flow. She had a successful surgery, and they tacked her stomach down to the bottom of her abdominal cavity to keep it from happening again. This happened at least three years ago, the dog is ten now, with no recurrences.

UPDATE ON LUCY - After being on pain meds for a week now, and trying to limit her activity, she is doing much better. She still seems a little sore and stiff, but she is now putting her front left leg down on the ground. I had mentioned that when we took her to emergency that they had said she was dehydrated, and had to give her subcutaneous fluids to rehydrate her before they felt it was safe to give her the pain meds. I believe I found the reason she was dehydrated, although not until a couple days later. Don't make the same mistake I did, and assume that if she has fresh water available, that she will drink as needed. It turns out that she wasn't drinking water because the pain in her shoulder and neck were not allowing her to bend down to drink it! My husband had asked me if I had seen her drinking, and I said no - DOH! I offered her a bowl of water, holding it up in the air so she didn't have to bend down, and she slurped it up. The vet had also told me that I could encourage her to drink more by putting a little bit of low sodium chicken broth in the water. This works very well. So it looks like she does not have any issues with discs in her back, or pinched nerves, and hopefully, she is on the road to recovery.

Pinto, I'm still waiting to see photos of your dog! Jean