The first year or so of Beanie’s life was punctuated by frequent outings to the vet. She got tummy bugs, kennel cough, induced vomiting to force her to give up a complete, still-wrapped packet of sausages, and ultimately ended up getting surgery to remove some plastic material she insisted on swallowing. Things calmed down a bit after that, and for the last couple of years she’s really only seen the vet for her regular checkup and vaccination jabs.
Clearly some kind of worrying illness was long overdue, so about a week ago she skipped her twice-daily poo regimen one day, then more than made up for it the next by attempting to go seven times or so. Each time she went she released only small amounts of something resembling a McDonald’s chocolate milkshake. Naturally we started thinking “blockage”, and Beanie fed this worry by producing a UVO (Unidentified Vomited Object) one morning. Still, she was in all other respects her normal self, so we played the waiting game for another day or so. By the time we finally made an appointment with the vet we were intensely sleep-deprived, because Beanie was needing to go on the hour, every hour from about 2am through to 7am. Each time she signalled it was pootime one of us went out into the garden with her, armed with the 1 million candle power rechargeable torch I’d bought from HomeBase during a sale last year. Susan had been doubtful that we really needed another torch, but deep down inside I had a man’s intuition that those 1 million candles would be useful for something, and now here was the perfect application: nocturnal poo examination! But I digress. At the vet, we received the welcome news that in all likelihood Beanie’s problem was simple diarrhoea and not some partial blockage that would require surgery. We came home armed with a probiotic/gut calming preparation called “Pro-Kolin” and a course of antibiotics.
We tried the Pro-Kolin stuff first for a couple of days, and having seen no significant improvement, started Beanie on the antibiotics. They worked fast, and by day two – which happened to be Susan’s birthday – the diarrhoea had stopped. What we needed now was for Beanie to have a healthy regular movement, and Susan joked that the best birthday present Beanie could give her mum would be a huge solid poo. Well, Beanie ended up delivering the present a day late, but it was an awfully big, well-wrapped present when it finally arrived. Filled with the joy of her successful bowel emptying, Beanie spent the morning cavorting round the garden with her toys:
She received an embarrassing big hug and kiss from her Mum..
Please Mum, not in front of the camera!
.. and an ear nibble from her brother, though in fairness that only happened after she repeatedly yanked his tail like it was her rabbit-skin tugger:
So, Beanie’s back to full health, leaving us tired and shagged out like a Norwegian Blue parrot, or like Biggles, come to think of it:
Help! My sister’s well again!
Have you tried giving your Beags bio-yogurt for upset tummies? A dog walker fried who’s also a nurse had a labrador who was constantly at the vets because she ate every piece of rubbish she found on her walk. She told me that the enzymes in the yogurt works just as well on doggy tummies as it does on human ones and she’s right! If ours get the runs we give them a large spoonful three times a day and usually after a couple of days it does the trick. If it continues after that, of course the vet is required, but it’s worth trying and avoids the expense of the vet!!
Julie & Mike Gill, Derby
Yeah that’s a good idea and we did try it but unfortunately this time it didn’t do the trick.
I’m going to give Beanie bio-yohurt for a few days now she’s finished her antibiotics though, to help replace all the good gut bacteria she’s lost.