Tummy Troubles

Ever since we moved (almost 2 weeks ago) Tango has had an upset tummy. He has had diarrhea and is eating lots of grass. This morning he threw up on the carpet! :( This was odd because he usually goes to the door if he needs to throw up.

I’m assuming it is due to stress from the move, although I would think he would be settling in by now. Any home remedies that might help make his tummy feel better?

Hi Kathleen, I’m sorry to hear Tango is having trouble. In addition to the stress, I wonder if the change in water is also giving him some trouble. I know you can offer Pepto Bismal, just not sure bout the dosage. I think that would benefit both Tango’s tummy and his digestive tract, but you could also give children’s Kaopectate for the diarrhea.

Anyone else have suggestions?

Hi Kathleen, Kelly may be right about the change in the weather/move unsettling him. Both my dogs eat grass when their tummies don’t feel right, and the vet was kind of ambivalent about the whole thing; basically saying that it’s okay, but don’t let them eat too much.

Is it possible that he got a hairball in his system?  My little one sometimes licks the carpet and then ends up with a hairball in her throat.  We usually try to get her to drink some water, but if she won’t then we let her go outside and eat a little grass. If it gets really bad, she does throw up (but then she feels much better).

With the Pepto, our vet told us it’s a teaspoon (wrap it up in some deli meat) and then give it to them. The key thing though is to figure out if it’s a hairball (in which case no Pepto) or an upset stomach (Pepto can be given). Did he eat anything odd?

Kathleen, you might be able to test if it’s the change in water. Try taking Tango off tap water and give him distilled bottled water instead. You can usually find this at any grocery store. If it is the water, Tango’s problems should straighten out in a few days. If this is the case, you may be able to begin mixing in a small amount of tap water with the bottled water in his bowl and gradually accustom his system to the new water source. Increase the ratio of tap water to bottled water every few days and watch to see how well he tolerates it. This may not be the answer to the situation, but it’s probably worth a try.

Kelly, that’s great advice- I never even thought about that, but the water is different from place to place. We didn’t like the way the water tasted either when we first moved, and actually started to have water delivered because of it; the girls drink that water as well (we figure that if we don’t like the water, they probably won’t either).

Kathleen, is Tango feeling better?

Yes, I learned about water while traveling around the country for dog shows. We always packed our own water bottles for each trip, and the dogs never drank water from anywhere else other than what they were used to getting from home. If you can’t pack your own home water, distilled bottled water is always a good alternative.

My suspicion would be the water as well. If you didn’t have it tested during your home inspection, I would go ahead and get a test run, especially if it is well water. There is a bacteria that can occasionally live in well water and make humans and animals ill.

If that isn’t the issue, then perhaps try bottled water for him for a while and see if that helps. You can get gallon jugs fairly inexpensively at Wal-mart.

Hi Kathleen - The advice from Kelly, Lori and Jackie is all very good. It very well may be the change in the water causing Tango’s tummy troubles. It also still could be from the move - for some dogs moving is a really big adjustment while others seem to take moving (and most other things) in stride without ever getting upset at all.
I hope Tango is feeling better - let us know how he is doing.

Hi Kathleen - I have been thinking about Tango during the night. Is it possible that he is eating a different type of grass (or other outdoor greenery) when he is outside? Or could the grass have been treated with something by the previous owners of the house? Either of those could be making him sick.

My goodness! I didn’t know I had all these responses. My email must be having a temper tantrum again and not giving me the notifications. :( Sorry all; I didn’t mean to ignore you.

Tango seems to be doing better on and off. I do have several gallons of bottled water (left-over hurricane preps from Florida) so I plan to start giving him that and see if it makes a difference.

Terry, he does eat the grass but I don’t think it’s been treated with anything. Neither of them have really had much opportunity to experience grass so this is a new thing for them. They sure do like it.

I had assumed eating the grass was a good thing. People take herbs to help when they are ill; dogs eat grass. At least that’s my way of looking at it. On the up-side, he hasn’t been throwing up anymore (thank goodness), but he still has frequent bouts of diarrhea. I’m surprised whatever it is isn’t bothering Lila. She is perfectly fine.

We are on a well (did I mention that?) and the water here is really good, in my opinion. But it’s possible that the change from yucky, chlorinated city water no pure, fresh mountain water is just throwing off his tummy.

I’m thinking when we go into town next (probably this weekend) I may get him some yogurt. That should help his tummy a little too. I’ll keep everyone posted. (and sorry again for not responding sooner. I thought no one was responding to me! lol)

Kathleen, I was wondering where you were at :-) No worries though, that happens to me sometimes, and I’m like, yo, where’s everybody at? lol.

Anyhoo, I’m so happy that Tango is feeling better- it’s probably the change in water/the move etc that’s got him a bit stressed out. It’s super tight that you’re on a well though, how cool is that?

Do you draw water from the well and all? Like in the movies :-) I’m totally trying to be more independent (thinking about gardening and such), so having my own well is like a dream come true.

lol We just turn on the faucet like everyone else. It is nice to have a well because we have no water bill. However, it does require electricity to run the well pump. Thankfully our electric is way cheaper here than it was in Florida.

Eventually we hope to construct a windmill. You can hook it into the electric and if you produce more than you need, the utility buys the excess. So it’s actually possible to get a check from the electric company instead of a bill.

This is a perfect location for wind and solar power. Very sunny and windy almost all the time. So even though a solar/wind system is a bit pricey to set up, it would pay for itself fairly quickly.

I think the well water is so much better than city water. It tastes wonderful and I assumed the dogs would like it better too (no chemicals; just pure, fresh water). Since they are used to city water I guess it makes sense that their bodies might be a little confused. Other than that, yet it is great to have a well. It is possible to get a tube to haul water out of the well if the pump goes out (from a power outage or something).

When we lived in the woods in Arkansas we did have to haul water. There was a spring down the road and we’d keep a big plastic tank in the back of our truck. We would fill the tank at the spring and use that for everything. We would keep a bucket of water by the toilet to flush and keep jugs in the kitchen for washing or drinking. Finally we were able to fill a big tank that was in the ground. That had a pump which would pump the water into the house like normal. We still had to keep the tank filled and therefore had to be careful about our water usage, but it filled our needs.

I wonder if that is part of the reason Tango has gotten so “needy” lately. The stress of moving and not feeling well. He absolutely drives me crazy.  All day he comes to my desk to bug me—like every five minutes! I take him out and then he comes in and lays down. Five minutes later he is back. He’ll get right up close and pant on my arm or try to lay his face on my keyboard. It’s worse than the cat laying across the desk!

Saturday night he kept me up all night—literally. I thought I better take him out because if his tummy is bothering again he may need to go out. He didn’t. Just had the urge to wake me up to stroll outside at 1:30am. :( I was NOT a happy camper. I told him to go lay down and a couple hours later, he was back. I rolled over to ignore him and he went to the other side of the bed.

Sunday night I was fully prepared to lock him in the laundry room if he was going to bug me again. I managed to sleep some but I am so out of it today I had to take a nap. And as I type this he is standing here looking at me and panting and being a pest. I’ll be glad when my husband gets here in a few weeks. I almost liked it better when Tango didn’t like me (he’s a Daddy’s boy).

I know that was a stupid question, but because I grew up in NYC, wells and such really were just something you saw in the movies :-)

My husband told me that well water is the best (which is why I’d love to have one), but he said that there may be microbes in it that Tango is not used to. I thought that was a good point, so I figured I’d better share it with you.

Is Tango starting to settle down a bit more now? When he comes to you do you ask him what is it?  Pharrah does that sometimes. She’ll come over to my desk and just “talk” to me. I usually ask her what’s wrong, and then make her sit, so I can pet her. She usually only does it when she wants affection (or wants to go to the bathroom, or wants a bone, or wants me to open the patio door, or… :-)

No, not a stupid question. It just reminded me of some of the funny questions I used to get when we lived in the tent in the woods. We had some who asked if we bathed in the river. Another was absolutely shocked because they has heard about us and expected us to be dirty, ragged homeless people. We were clean and well dressed and he was just shocked. lol It is possible to live primitively and live well. I should write a book about it.

Tango is still driving me nuts. His tummy seems to be better, but he still wakes me up in the middle of the night every night to go out. It’s really getting old. There is no reason to go outside at 3 in the morning. If I pet him he just keeps pawing at me (which actually hurts because his paws are very rough). If I ignore him he just keeps standing on the bed looking over me. He won’t stop until I take him out. Then he has a happy attack, goes out and then is fine for a few more hours until I’m ready to get up for real.

I’m just getting really annoyed with all of this. If I wanted to be up at all hours of the night, I’d have another baby.

See, I knew that was going to come out bad :-) But you should write a book because it all sounds fascinating. I wonder what is up with Tango? Do you have any idea of why he’s doing this? And he didn’t do this at all back before you guys moved, right?

It didn’t come out bad Jackie. Believe me, I have some interesting questions. I don’t mind. People have no way of understanding what it was like and it is fun to tell the stories of the things we did. And you know what? I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. It would be harder now with all these stupid health issues. They were all just beginning then. But I was so happy and content, even though we had nothing.

Now that I think about it, we may do it all again anyhow. My husband is on his way as I’m typing this. I’m happy that he will be here in a couple of days. I’m a nervous wreck that he has no job yet and I’ll be supporting us. He’ll find something though.

Maybe Tango will behave better when he gets here. He is just being so weird, I don’t know what to think. No, he was never like this in Florida. On the one hand, I’m thinking he just wants to be outside all the time. I don’t blame him. It’s gorgeous outside most of the time (and hot in the house, go figure). On the other hand, to wake me in the middle of the night? It’s just really crazy. I hope he adjusts soon. At least Lila is doing better. I don’t know what I’d do if they both were behaving this way. :(