pitbullmamaliz wrote:Does he possibly have that disease, meta-esophageal something or other?
ma67cpe wrote:In response to the questions:
Feed him 2x daily
His bowl is on the floor
Not too much, not a whole bowl at one time
Thats a good idea about feeding him on a box/stool...i will definitely be trying this. He ate yesterday at 11am and vomited at 3:30 & 5pm. I fed him this morning at 9:30 and again about 30 minutes ago and he hasn't vomited yet. Talked to the vet and she told me to put him on a weight management formula food because it's higher in fiber. I've been giving him Purina One Chicken & Rice or Sensitive Systems formula. Now I need to find a new food.
Salmon (natural source of glucosamine), brewers rice, pearled barley, oat meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), fish meal (natural source of glucosamine), salmon meal (source of salmon oil), animal digest, calcium phosphate, salt, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, Vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.
Marinepits wrote:How many times a day do you feed him? Do you use a raised bowl or is his bowl directly on the floor? When he drinks, does he gulp down a LOT of water all at once?
Since he seems to be doing well in every other way, I would suggest feeding him several small meals throughout the day and using a raised food bowl -- raise it up to about mid-chest height so he doesn't have to bend all the way to the floor. You can use a box or a stool if you don't want to buy one.
When he drinks, have him use a raised bowl and limit how much he takes in at once. You can do this by only partially filling his bowl. Also, don't let him drink directly after he eats. Be careful when limiting his water because you don't want him to become dehydrated. To test if he's dehydrated, take a handful of his skin on the back of his neck and raise it up until the skin is tight, then let it go. If the skin slowly snaps right back into place, he's hydrated. If the skin stays raised up, then he's dehydrated and you should adjust his water intake accordingly.
Dog_Shrink wrote:First off feeding out of elevated feeders has proven by Purdue Universitie's Dr. Glickman (and crew) that feeding out of an elevated feeder increased chances of bloat by 110 %
Dog_Shrink wrote:Something else I'm surprised no one thought of is if this might be an occasional food allergy issue?
Dr. Glickman commented that the supposed claim that raised food bowls are correlated with increased incidence in torsion/bloat may just mean that this allows a dog to swallow more food (and air?) more quickly than if they were on the floor.
An article on the Foster and Smith Pet Education site, “Interpret Findings of a New Study on Bloat (Gastric Dilatation/Volvulus - GDV) with Caution”, December 2000, at: <http://www.peteducation.com:80/article.cfm?cls>, starting with a subheading, “The Question of Raised Food Bowls” circulated among fanciers. An excerpt: “In this study, when analyzing the association between the rate of GDV and the height of the food bowl some questions arise. First, the study found that large breed dogs whose food bowls are not elevated have the lowest risk of GDV. A confusing finding is that large breed dogs who have their bowl raised more than 1 foot have the next lowest risk, and those who have their food bowl raised somewhere between the floor and one foot have the highest risk. So, the risk of GDV is not proportional to the height of the food bowl. If height of the food bowl is important, why doesn’t the risk steadily increase, the higher the food bowl is raised? Secondly, it appears that the researchers did not consider the height of the animal in relationship to the height of the bowl when looking for an association between food bowl height and prevalence of GDV. It would be of interest to compare the height of the bowl to the height of the dog, since dogs in this study varied widely in height due to breed differences and age (some were only 6 months old).
“The third question is, ‘Why weren’t similar findings obtained in giant breed dogs?’ In giant breeds, dogs with food bowls raised less than one foot had the same incidence of GDV as those dogs who did not have their dishes raised at all. Finally, it is unclear if the researchers also analyzed whether the elevated feeders were being used because other medical problems were present or if the elevated feeders could influence other factors such as the speed of eating. Could these medical problems or other factors, rather than the elevated feeders, have contributed to the increase in GDV in this group?
One other item that was brought to light on a “VetMed” e-mail discussion list, was that there is no proven advantage to raised feeders, and that the Foster and Smith company which runs the Pet Education website sells many types of elevated feeders.
iluvk9 wrote:Vet put him on Reglan (Metoclopramide) for a few months, gradually backing off. Seems it was a type of reflux problem.
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