Hey Tracey,
So really the updates from when you saw us (which I can't 100% remember when that was). Benson got sick a total of two times over the course of last February to June. The second time he had pneumonia they told us to put him down- then we met you guys! In July I took Benson to Virginia Tech Animal Hospital for a second opinion on recommendation that they are one of the top vet places in the US. They were amazing although it's a long drive and Benson wasn't a fan of them. They recommended soft palate removal. I decided to have Benson's surgery at the beginning of August- August 11th at Dogs and Cats Referral Hospital in Bowie MD - where we have always gone. Dr. Eileen Snakard performed his surgery. His soft palate was removed, apparently it was too long and also too thick. He didn't need his nasals enlarged but during the surgery the surgeon was nervous since she removed so much palate he would swell so they did a temporary trachestomy during the surgery to keep his airway secure until the swelling went down. It cost him another day there but it did wonders for him! We brought him home after they reversed his trach on Friday. We had a follow up appointment a week later at which point his trach hole had closed on its on as expected and the surgeon removed his sutures from holding up those big wrinkles for the trach :)
Benson has since been fabulous - we transitioned him to Doc Side vet. On his first appointment he had lost about 6 lbs- which is good for him to keep a low weight. We first saw Dr. Joy Gooding on is now added to my christmas card list- I really adore her. We spent two hours there and I got to ask all my neurotic questions and sort of set a "game plan" on how to prevent Benson from further pneumonia outbreaks. We switch his food to no grain, no corn- and are now feeding him Evo and always include other cook foods such as : veggies, boiled chicken, yogurt, sweet potatoes, etc - per Dr. Goodings recommendations. Benson now is a brat and won't eat his food unless chicken is on it!
We also stopped doing lemon- as I told you before- to help prevent gastric reflux and ulcers. In transition, we now give him papaya tablets instead of lemon. I've heard of it for humans but never for dogs. But so far so good.
Benson is alive, well, and kickin. The past few days he sound congested but we have a follow up appointment at Doc Side on Friday. From all the anti-biotics he was on- he got a yeast infection in his ears so we're going back to make sure he's good- but we might also get an xray and see what's going on.
September 5th was Benson's first bday. We met with some friends and their pups and went to Iggies for pizza and celebration.
With such a good bulldog mommy Benson is bound to thrive! Wishing him continued good health!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birfday Benson! I hope you and Monster (and Khloe) can be friends. I started a new blog called Monsters Korner.. please come and say hi when you have time :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda and Monster's Mom for the sweet comments! ShelbyOrndoff@gmail.com and we can plan a play date!
ReplyDeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteWe just met Benson early today near Coopers and Slainte in Fells. We were there with our Bulldog - Tank.
Thanks for letting us know about this blog.
Hopefully we can learn some things and keep Tank healthy and beautiful.
Stephen, Sonja and Tank
Its a blessing on Thanksgiving that I found your blog!
ReplyDeleteI am the proud Momma to Oscar, 17 wks EB. We left the vet yesterday with a case of pneumonia and today he seems so much worse!
They are giving him mucinex and cephalexin, which I am sure haven't kicked in yet.
He is resting, but breathing so labored, its scary.
Can anyone describe the steam treatments? I will try anything I can to help him- off to get the lemons! Has anyone ever used a nebulizer? Our breeder mentioned it yesterday, we shall see.
So sad to see him so helpless and pitiful, help:(
Prayers from us to you,
Cyndy & Oscar
Cyndy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing, and so sorry to hear about Oscar. You can try to help his congestion by just locking yourselves in the bathroom and running all the hot water so it gets nice and steamy. The nebulizer treatments helped Stella alot through her struggles, but the vet usually administered those -I'd call and ask about getting Oscar some treatments, as the vets usually put some medicine in the nebulizer to help loosen things up. Keep with the antibiotics and let him get lots of rest. I'd only try the lemons once he's feeling better - more as a preventative than a treatment once he's already sick. At this point - do whatever your vet tells you - and if you don't like what your vet is doing - call our vet here for some advice - they've been great with Stella - their name is DocSide Vet in Baltimore, MD - on Bank St. They can at least maybe tell you what you should be trying to do to treat him. Many vets just don't know much about bulldogs, so make sure your vet is an expert. Good luck and please let us know how Oscar is doing!
wow we never thought there would be so many issues with owning a bullie. We have 6 boston's and our new 10 week old bullie bo has the same problems stella has. We have spent the last 4 days getting breathing treatments for pnumonia that just popped up. Thanks for all the good advice on the blog.
ReplyDeletehello my name is Dan and we went thru the same thing with our bulldog chyna. She is now 1 1/2 years old and doing great. We were told by our bulldog vet the best thing to do is keep our bulldog very thin and basically stunt her growth which will give us a 50/50 chance of her Trachea growing as she was only 4 months old. So we started to feed her twice a day but switched her to senior food with the low protein only 1/2 cup of food and then mixed in a 1/2 can of cut up green beans as a filler which have no calories. We would give no snacks and yes she thinned down and looked on the small side. We also would give her lemon twice a day with a plastic syringe and benadryl after she spit flem. We did all of this daily until she was 13 months old but the lemon, as her flem was getting less and less by 10 months and at 13 months we had stopped. When we went to our bulldog Vet they took a XRay and he told us she now has a above average Trachea which made us so happy. We then waited 2 months so she gained some weight and then had soft pallet surgery which went well. Today she is healthy but when running around alot will stop and upchuck a little food now and then and her throat gets a little raspy until she settles down and cools off. I can live with that as the Vet said its her volcal chords making noise from surgery so I just get her wet. I hope this helps someone as it worked for us and we are happy.
ReplyDeleteChyna's Dad
Well, Oscar still had pneumonia until about March of this year! We finally tried a new food, thinking he could have a gluten allergy, and VOILA! much better! We put him on Bison & sweet potato Nature's Miracle and its been a blessing!
ReplyDeleteHe is hating this KY heat wave, but happy to be so much better:)
Love to all the bullies:)
Cyndy & Oscar
if there is one thing i suggest to do for your bulldogs when it is hot is to have a floor fan going that they can cool off in front of at all times. Once you do it you will see how handy they are to your bully.
ReplyDeleteYou're such a darling Benson and you deserve all the pampering that you're getting from your parents. I hope one day you'll meet my Roxy, she's an english bulldog too and I bet you two, will jive a lot.
ReplyDelete