Dog with regular colic?

My vet calls it colic, anyway! Basically Rupert starts pacing and begs to go outside. Once out he chomps grass for a good 10 mins or more, sometimes comes back in (I give him a Zantac tablet like my vet said to) then will often want to go out more. His body seems to heave but he swallows back all the time.

My vets are quite confident its not bloat because his belly is so soft, it occurs so randomly and from how he can recover from it himself. They said if it was bloat he would get very ill very quickly and I would really know about it. They have never seen an episode as they are 10 miles away and they and I don't feel its worth putting him through that car journey when he will be unable to comfort himself and probably better by the time we get there.

He did it a couple times between October and February, once about 8pm, another time or two at about midnight. He was at the vets a couple weeks ago for something else and colicked a couple hours later when we got home, he then colicked at 10am the next day. Last week he was a bit iffy a few times but I wouldn't say it was proper colic.

Then yesterday he colicked at 11pm and again at 2am this morning even after his Zantac the first time.

Vet said if its happening more than once a week he wants him in for stomach x rays, leaning towards wanting that done at this rate.

Has anyone had any experience with this or have any idea what it could be/what I could do to make it better? It really can't be anything in his diet bringing it on etc.

Quite worried about him there is always something wrong. Got an interview later so have to leave him on his own for 3 hours will probably muck up worrying about him

I have never heard of a dog having colic.

In kids colic is a term a lot of doctors use when they basically dont have much of a clue so they just pass it off as colic!!! Otherwise known as wind.

But in dogs I have no idea. Sorry. xx

Could he be hungry?

I know its a bit different but when Kira was on a food she wasnt fond of she would bring up bile, quite regularly too. Maybe this is what he's doing but he not actually sicking it up, and just swallowing it back?

Thanks for your replies

He labelled it colic because its a digestive issue and sounds like an upset, he said. I am more familiar with colic in horses than I am in babies to be honest (it kills many horses, also known as gastric torsion where the gut twists and can split etc) but I think the vet just means a problem in that area?

I don't think it is hunger, the day he had it at 10am he'd been fed at 8am sort of thing. He originally did it at 8.30pm one night after being fed at 6pm. But other times it is midnight so seems to be no correlation?

He is fed on a raw diet now, and two weeks ago was fed on Fish4Dogs and Nature's Harvest. He had been eating that since February 2010 and problems started October 2010. He does the biley sick at 5am or did, so I was giving him more at bedtime but have been able to cut that out now, think it might have been his body clock upset with the clock changes?

He's gone lame now too. Got up off the sofa at 10am and he's like Skippy

He has just sicked up all the grass from last night trying to settle his belly and a tonne of bile. Really, really worried about him have got an appt at 3.30pm tomorrow and wont leave his side until then

fingers crossed he's ok, keep us updated

Change of plan, not off to the vets til Weds now! Want to see a specific vet and thought may as well wait a few days, someone is at the vets 24/7 they do their own emergencies etc so any problems I can take him in before.

hun if its that worrying maybe you should just go. wednesday is a long time away. what if he goes ill at the weekend? and dont use the emergency vets, if its like ours they charged us £160

Thing is if I go today I have to see this other vet who is OK, but I don't think he will do me a referral or give me anything to give him when he colics aside from the Zantac which doesn't seem to be working. I think he will say just take him off raw and see how he goes for a week or two but he was colicking before the raw and I think would be like this even on commercial.

On Weds I can see the vet who recommended a raw diet, seems to think a bit more out the box to give me ideas on what I can do to try help him through the episode and I'm confident he will do me a referral there and then if I ask for one (thinking at the minute of the vet school in Cambridge).

If I have any moments of doubt at all I will ring them up, someone is always there and they staff it themselves. Our other nearest emergency vet is staffed by Vets Now, never answer the damned phone and are only about 0.4miles close than the other one who I have much more confidence in (and who haven't scared the living daylights out of Rupert).

I'm not doing anything all weekend so he's not going to get left on his own at all and the nurse I spoke to said they wouldn't be able to do belly x rays before Monday anyway so I would have to see how he goes over the weekend in that regard anyway, so they can't even do anything til next week. He's a bit of a wimp at the vets and is better with the other vet. Hopefully they will get a cancellation on Mon or Tues so we can go earlier anyway

Right now I think its too easy for us to get brushed off and 'give it another week or two' but really feel the other chap will take me more seriously, he's rung me back at 10pm to give me advice before and everything

£160 is painful! Did you claim on your insurance? I think I will for pretty much anything over £65 this year, it will be going up up up next year I expect anyway as I had a smallish claim in Jan. At least its a lifelong policy now, phew!

Sorry its so long I find it hard to be concise

aww well the very best of luck!

I hope he feels better sooon!

Thanks

He is at the vets 2.30pm tomorrow. His problem right now is he seems to have got into a habit of eating grass from getting the colic so bad and he keeps wanting to go out to eat grass when I don't think he's colicking but because he seems to have done it so much sort of thing?! The other day he ate so much he sicked up loads 18 hours later, enough is enough.

I want something to try and help sort the colic as it happens because zantacs aren't working. Otherwise I want him to have the stomach x rays they mentioned. If they are at all iffy I will ask for a referral to the Queens Vet Hospital at Cambridge, they have a special department for all this type of stuff and luckily with our insurance we're covered up to £7500 and I think its worth digging around to find out what this is.

When he's even a little different to normal I get so worried about him now

Have had it mentioned having an op to stitch his stomach to his abdominal wall like with dogs who bloat could be a possibility if it keeps happening and no solution is found...

Thats fair enough

Poor Rupert, he seems to have the dog version of IBS

haha but he got lucky today, did he love the tuna?

Ha yes that's exactly what my vet said, IBS but we don't know what is causing it! He feels one specific type of food so poor Rupes is off everything at the min! He does love the tuna cake and I can't have no treats for him can I!

We will be getting allergy testing at some point, a nice £300 not covered by insurance surprise surprise

Typical, Bloody arses!

James_Kita wrote:Typical, Bloody arses!

My own fault really. I haven't asked but don't think it will be covered. He had 'ear otitis' the latter meaning irritation from summer 2009 when on a annual policy. Feb 2010 I put him on a life long policy. Vet thinks colic probs are intolerance/allergy related.

My old vets thought ear problems were allergies so insurance company may claim that, but the ears were never diagnosed as being an allergic reaction and haven't flaired up since last summer (Oct and Jan he had infections in one ear at a time, otitis was flair ups of both ears at the same time not an infection).

But yeah, bad doggy Mummy

Don't blame yourself!

Your doing a gd job, you're doing everything you can for Rupert!

There is just ALWAYS something with him though

Poor Fella ^_^

Hi James I split the posts off the bad items to eat thread and merged them onto here as I just realised how much I took it off topic

kk

good job

Whoooooo