What is wrong with my pug, health problem/question

The Coffee Shop
1

Hello, Maddie, my little female pug isn’t feeling well. I’m wondering if any of you might be able to give me some insight into the problem. right now I’m going only on a theory…here is the story:

Saturday morning I woke up to fine her chest “heaving” and she was carrying her back hunched, as if it was painful.
She would not eat, which never happens with Maddie (she loves to eat).

So, i missed the bike ride (despite 4 or 5 buds showing up at my house to leave, I sent them on) and take her to the vet.

We did a chest Xray, given her lung lobe torsion situation 1.5 years ago, it was my concern something had gone wrong in the lungs. But the Xray showed no distress.

After the Xray was fine, I then developed a theory that she got a rawhide chew, perhaps one that was gummy and chewed down really well, and swallowed it (in a race against her brother; they get competitive with chews and food). So the problem (obviously not lung distress) was actually GI upset, and having a rawhide in her stomach could be the reason for her not eating, and carrying her back hunched like it hurt.

This theory was based on the event from the prior night, where I had to “scoop” out her mouth prior to going to bed. She had a little rawhide stuck on her tooth, and she was licking and licking, which led me to believe she had swallowed a rawhide.

At the vet on Saturday, based on this rawhide theory, they gave her an injection of pepcid, and she perked up. For the remainder of the day she wanted to rest, but did develop an appetite, and I made her a bland diet–ground beef boiled and skimmed, combined with macaroni noodles. She has been on this food diet since Saturday.

Sunday she was more herself, acting like a firecracker (jumping up, barking, trying to get my sandwich, and jostling with her brother–all in very good spirits).
With her improvement, I thought the rawhide was definitely the problem, it was being digested, and we were on the road to recovery.

But, around 4pm on that same day, Sunday, she developed mucus diarrhea. With that development, I thought she was passing the rawhide. This diarrhea persisted all through the night; I got up with her about 7 times.

At that point, I was not overly concerned about the diarrhea (thinking it was the rawhide coming through) until Monday morning when there was some blood in the loose stool.

The diarrhea persisted, and now she still has mucus loose stool with drops of bright red blood, sometimes a little more blood than others.

So, I’m off to the vet once again. My theory was that the flat rectangle rawhide was chewed and gummy on one side, but the very end was hard on the corners. Since Maddie is a small dog, I thought a corner of the rawhide has scraped her intestinal wall, causing a slight tear and GI bleed.

My breeder says this is possible, or parasites can cause GI bleed. Generally though parasites develop with vomiting; Maddie has had NO vomiting.

Thoughts?

2

Sounds plausible.
I’m as lost as you are JoAnn, but one thing I do is NOT give my dogs rawhide. It is hard for them to digest, and I’ve heard numerous stories about choking and intestinal blockages with them.

Good luck with her.

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ok, just got back from the vet and i was told that the rawhide, by the time it reached GI should have been soft and digested. so that makes sense.

because the blood was bright red, this led my vet to believe her lining was distressed from the event, which caused inflamation and bleeding. Maddie is not on anti-diarrhea medication. so, hopefully this is the ticket. the blood really scared me, but didn’t really concern the vet.

Maddie has lost 1 pound since her appointment on Saturday. So, we’re upping her food, to 5 or 6 meals a day. The poor girl has been through alot, but she is a very tough little cookie.

Tonight i’m going to give her a little spa treatment with a bubble bath, back massage, and then make a special nest to sleep in. She could use the R&R.

one thing for sure; no more rawhides!!!

4

Sounds like she should be OK Joanne. It doesn’t take much to scratch the lining and set up a cascade event of irritation, diarrhea, and spot bleeding. We went through this with my Scottie Christmas Day. Eventually we had her on a broad band anti-parasite/anti-inflamm. Parasites don’t always cause vomiting (depends on the type and the cycle) and cannot always be found in stool samples, again because of the cycle. 5 days of that and easy diet with small feedings and she was just fine. Probably pieces of Christmas tree did her in for that one.

Likewise I don’t ever have rawhide in the house. It is very slow to break down in the gut, and you need to picture what a small intestine looks like - in your pug it is probably no thicker than a pencil (and most of that is muscle), so even what we would think are smallish pieces could be pretty large for that small a tube.

Just as an FYI - if you are ever in a doggie diarrhea situation and cannot get to an emergency vet (or don’t think it is worth going yet), slippery elm tablets are great. They are a natural mucogen, and help coat the lining of the gut, reducing irritation. You can get them at any health food store, and they cause no problems with dogs. It is an easy way to get them through this without seeing a vet immediately. Give about 20 minutes before feeding. I always keep a stash on stock, and have gotten various of my dogs through minor intestinal distress by withholding food for 24 hours, then starting them on a soft diet with the slippery elm tablets. And the dogs seems to like them as a treat. Obviously, if symptoms don’t subside in another 24-36 hours, see your vet.

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but she is a very tough little cookie.

Tonight i’m going to give her a little spa treatment with a bubble bath, back massage, and then make a special nest to sleep in. She could use the R&R.

HMMMM. You are one funny lady.

My wife used to blow dry the dogs after giving them baths. For some reason this used to drive me crazy, maybe because it used to take her an hour and a half. Especially since we have all of these towels laying around. Then she would complain about how much time it took. So I used to race to get the dogs bathed and towel-dried before she would get around to it just so she wouldn’t waste her time.

I hope Maddie feels better. I know this for sure, if she has a shot…you will give it to her.

Bernie

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thanks Bernie, i think she’ll come through. like your wife, i have given both pugs the hairdryer treatment, they totally love it. it is alot of fun to pet them and everything while drying them. what can i say–we don’t have kids so we really love on our dogs. they sleep in bed with us, get special snacks everyday, and receive lots of TLC. they bring alot of joy into our lives. :slight_smile:

Jim, that is interesting information you’ve shared with me. It is a surprise to hear the pugs’ GI is about the size of a pencil, my gosh, that really puts things into perspective. Thanks for the slippery elm tip, i appreciate it. At this point we are anticipating Maddie to come through just fine, and she will continue bland diet, some medication, and small meals, 5-6 a day.

Right now i’m so happy to be at this point; it was hard to get up with her every episode, not to mention the worry. Saturday i called one of my tri team-mates crying over Maddie, i told him i couldn’t make the ride. She looked so bad i thought Maddie might not live, it was horrible. I’m very thankful she is on the up!!! What would we do without out little firecracker, it is too sad of a thought to even consider. :slight_smile:

thanks everyone!
joanne

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From my father in law, a pug owning veterinarian…

You have a pug??? That’s great news. I knew you’d finally come around. * * As to the illness… I doubt that the rawhide has anything to do with it. Rawhide in the stomach becomes very soft, so I doubt that it would cause lower bowel bleeding ( red blood passed in stool ). Neither does it sound like parasites. Knowing pugs though, it does sound like she has eaten something odd, probably something sharp. A barium series might be a good idea… * * When can we come see the pug? I’m free tonight. How old is she. I bet she’s cute.

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can you post pictures? i suck at it, they come out too tiny.

i would email someone pics to post in exchange for good karma i guess. :slight_smile:

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I don’t have one, he was just trying to be funny. (I sent him your question, without taking out the “intro”).

But he’s pretty good, and his pug, Halle (black and beautiful :), eats stuff all the time and winds up with similar issues…

10

I am glad to hear your baby is ok. My dogs did the same thing. If one finshed before the other, the one who was last in eating has to gulp down food so the others don’t steal it. I am glad everything came out (figurtivly speaking) ok and wish Maddie the best.

11

My younger Puggle chews/eats EVERYTHING!! He finds things I didn’t even know we had anymore! I have had to extract things from both ends on more than one occasion… The older Puggle, on the other hand, only chews on what we give her. Go figure.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that your Pug found a little bit of plastic or wood or some other hard thing that seemed fun to chew on for a while and then, when there was nothing else to do with it, swallowed it. I bet I would be walking around funny if I had a piece of plastic passing through my innards…

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i’m happy to report that Maddie is really getting back to normal now. she is properly murdering her toys, is eager to beat up her brother, and charged the television when some bad singers came on American Idol.

sweet! thanks for the well wishes everyone and the information; it’s helpful and means alot just to have the support, let alone the information. :slight_smile:

13

Glad to hear your pug is doing well. I went to a dog show this past weekend and one of my favourites of the day was this cute little female pug. She was the sweetest thing.

I dont’ give my dogs RawHides anymore. My Lab is a gulper and as soon as he would think he could swollow a big peice of rawhide he would. Not a big problem (he did eat a beer can once with no side effects as well) but dogs are some what stupid some times and I could never forgive myself if he choked on it or it did cause him harm.

Ride on.

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http://www.findoutaboutdogbreeds.com/Pugs_Diet.html

After reading about the pug decided to find some info on pugs…love those little guys. This web site link is an article which has Pugs Dos and Don’ts which might be helpful. Part about rawhide chews and article says not a good idea…