As some of you may already know, we have four dogs, two of them are Yorkshire Terriers or Yorkies as they are otherwise known. All dog owner will have stories to tell, some of them silly and some of them not so silly.
Our recent story ended up with a trip to the vets, costing us money – I am relieved to say that the dog is fine, but it is money that didn’t need to be spent.
Rascal, the Yorkshire terrier that cannot overeat.
How The Story Started..
A couple of mornings ago I noticed that Rascal, my daughters Yorkie, was acting strange. She is by nature a bossy, arrogant little dog and likes nothing more than to put the other bigger dogs in their place. Usually she starts her day off by dashing out of my daughters bedroom to say good morning to me and making sure that the other dogs remember who’s boss, before heading outside to do her business.
That morning she didn’t, she sort of ambled out of the bedroom, lightly brushing passed the other dogs before heading outside briefly. She then came back inside and wanted to climb up onto my lap while I was drinking my coffee, but she wouldn’t jump up, which wasn’t like her.
At the time I didn’t take much notice, it was only a couple of hours later, when I came back from a run that I really began to notice she wasn’t right. When I was on the floor doing some stretches, she was trying to snuggle into me. I also noticed that her belly was bloated and she wasn’t holding herself like normal, when she walked. She is a proud dog and usually has good posture.
My husband picked her up and she let out a squeak, so we felt her all over to feel if she had injured herself, but we found nothing. As the morning went on I noticed that she wasn’t jumping to sit on the chair where she usually snuggles and she was very restless.
So I phoned the vet and told her about Rascals seemingly bloated belly, her restlessness and the fact that she wasn’t jumping up. The vet said to take her temperature and to give her some medicine for her stomach…Her temperature was fine and a little while after giving her the medicine she let out an almighty belch, which being the lady that she is probably mortified her!
After that she seemed to perk up a bit, so I relaxed. I go on alert when the children or the dogs are ill or off colour, I think it’s a Mum thing.
On My Daughters Return From School…
Rascal, belongs to my daughter, so when she returns from school the little dog is usually very vocal and painfully excited. But not that day. That day she barely greeted her and when my daughter picked her up, Rascal squealed in obvious pain, around her abdomen and ribs. Catherine then told me that Rascal had been very restless in the night.
So I quickly called the vet, who literally lives down the road, which is great and she said to take her down for a check over.
Show A Dog A Lead And All Signs of Illness And Pain Disappear…
On sighting her lead, Rascal made a quick and seemingly full recovery – a bit like when we go to the Doctors or Dentist and we feel better for just being there, except Rascal did not know that she was heading to the vets!
When we got there, Rascal seemed totally fine. But Marion, our vet, gave her a check up anyway and could feel that the dogs stomach was bloated and tense, but her temperature was still normal. She hadn’t eaten anything strange that we were aware of and it is out of her nature to eat everything that she finds on the floor, in fact she always sniffs treats before she decides whether or not she is going to eat it or not.
After half an hour of prodding and poking, the vet was slightly puzzled and decided just to give her a painkiller and a homeopathic injection for her stomach to start with and we were to watch how she went. If there was any worsening in her condition, we were to contact Marion right away, but as she lives down the road, that’s not a problem.
After The Trip To The Vets…
We went home and within half an hour Rascal was looking more like her normal self, which would indicate that the painkiller was taking affect, reducing any pain that she was feeling. Half an hour later again, the little dog grunted and strained and produced a huge solid poo.
She perked right up after that and the next morning she had another hard poo and was back to her old self again. So it seemed as if Rascal had been a little bunged up.
My Son Sheds Some Light On What May Have Caused Her Problem…
Gregs, my son had been responsible for feeding the dogs the evening before. The big dogs and the little dogs are fed separately, so I know that all the dogs are eating the amounts they should. But according to my son, Rascal had been accidentally let out and had finished off the big dogs food – which was a lot!
It seems that the little dog had been greedy and had eaten more food than her stomach could cope with, which had led to the painful bout of constipation. I phoned our vet to inform her of what had gone on and she made a note of it in her files for future reference.
Alphie, the Yorkshire terrier that can’t get enough.
Why The Title ‘Two Yorkies That Cannot Overeat?’…
As I said at the beginning we have two Yorkshire terriers and neither of them can overeat, but both for different reasons.
Rascal cannot overeat as her stomach doesn’t seem to be able to cope with copious amounts of food.
Alphie, our other Yorkie, just cannot overeat! He devours anything and everything, he just cannot get enough food! You would think he didn’t know when his next lot of food was coming if you watched him eat, but the reality of it is that he thinks that if he eats his food quick enough he can eat anything that’s left in the other dogs bowls. Except we don’t allow him to.
So there you have it. A story of greed and what could have been costly consequences of that greed – luckily for us our vet doesn’t overcharge and we just had to pay for the medication.
Feel free to share any amusing pet stories that you may have in the comments below.
Copyright © 2014 Debbie Roberts
© 2014 – 2015, Debbie. All rights reserved.
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dogs • Pet Health • pets • veternary
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