Another Kinda Gross Reference

Just a nasty reminder of the wonders the lemons work for Stella - here is another picture of a recent spit up she had of phlegm. She usually spits up a few of these before she is feeling all better. Last night I was up with her at 3 a.m. as she was awake and seemed to not be able to rest well. The minute I got out of bed, she jumped down and ran for the stairs to head to the kitchen, wagging her tail faster than you can imagine. She knew I was going to go down and get her a lemon, and she started biting it and licking it immediately - I swear she knows its good for her, and sorry to sound dramatic, but I think they help keep her alive and happy.

Stella Update! Long Grow the Lemon!

Just a quick update to let everyone know we have abandoned our regimen of Benadryl - it just seemed to not really do much in the long run. What DOES work is a constant lemon half as a fun toy that she gets a few good bites on every few days. Seriously, I can't begin to convey how much this simple treatment helps her, and how amazed I am that more vets haven't heard about it for helping difficult breathers. We also have her on a new food that is a simple protein source, and she seems to have much better results with this than the last round. She still vomits up fresh food right after eating when she is getting "phlegmy" - or is too active right after eating, but if she is feeling clear from her lemon treatments and isn't trying to wrestle Rufus or the kittie, she is holding it down pretty well!

Benadryl for Breakfast and Dinner!

After a quick visit with DocSide vets tonight, and reviewing how well Stella was breathing during her treatment for her hives, Dr. K has given us the green light to try keeping Stella on the Benadryl over the next few weeks to see how she does. We will give her approx. 1 gr. per 1 lb. of her weight (38 pounds) twice a day. I will report back on how it does for her. Right now she is snoring away peacefully, happy to have her nails trimmed and be on the path to breathing easy! (we hope).

I hope everyone likes the switch of the blog to a white background - I have a feeling it will be easier to read for everyone.

We love Benadryl!!!

OK - I don't know if its the Benadryl or not, but our bulldog Stella has never been better! She is not puking up after eating or drinking (which she often does, especially if she plays right afterwards), not getting phlegmy, not hacking up phlegm, not getting as out of breath, and in general seeming to be feeling great! Now we are still weaning her off the steroids she was on for the allergic reactions, and tapering down the benadryl doseage, so I will post again in a week or so and report on how she's doing. However, if her problems were partly stemming from some sort of allergy which was causing the excessive phlegm, which then was causing her to have difficulty breathing and may have even been a factor in her pneumonia, well, then I will have to consider discussing long term benadryl options with my vet. If anyone else has had luck with benadryl and their bulldog, let me know!

English Bulldogs LOVE lemons! (or they should)

Ok - so we had read online here and there about "old school" bulldog owners carrying lemon juice with them to squirt into their bulldog's mouths to help clear out the phlegm. The next time we were faced with the reality that Stella had definitely had too much activity and we were already dreading the next morning's trip to the ER - we decided to be proactive. We discussed the old lemon remedy - and decided to give it a try. We cut a fresh lemon in half length wise, dug out the seeds, and started to get Stella interested. For those of you who know English bulldogs, you know that they aren't afraid of much, and when tempted with something, they will generally build up enough courage and determination to lunge at it (at least this is what Stella does). So, after moving the lemon half back and forth in front of her face, saying "get it get it", she lunged for it, and immediately squished up her face and backed away, getting a mouth full of lemon juice. "Good Girl!!!!" we praised her, "You get that lemon!". We kept it up until she decided to make another clumsy lunge for it - grabbing for it with the side of her mouth, eye already squished closed in anticipation of the sour juice.

Stella's first signs of trouble

When we brought Stella home, she was a 13 week old purebred English bulldog puppy who appeared to be very healthy - minus the fleas. It was Nov. 1, 2006 - and we were very excited to welcome her to our family. By the holidays - things had definitely changed. Our healthy puppy was having all sorts of problems.

We started getting nervous when we noticed she was vomiting her food after eating, sometimes a little, sometimes the whole meal. We tried to keep her calm after eating to keep it from happening, but that didn't always work. We also noticed that she was gagging a lot - and spitting up phlem. We chalked it up to the fact that she was a "bulldog", and their anatomy wasn't exactly designed well for the breathing and eating aspects of life. However, it soon became a source of more concern.

Our first vet visit where we began to see the signs of trouble was when we took her in for some routine shots, and the vet asked us if she was having any other problems. We mentioned the vomiting, and she seemed concerned. However, she told us to switch to a milder puppy food (we went to IAMS puppy food) and keep an eye on her. With nothing more to worry about, we headed into the holiday season with a very cute but very barfy puppy.

Right before leaving town, we were again concerned by Stella's constant barfing - so another trip to the vet and this time we saw a different vet, with a different hypothesis. This time, the vet said she thought Stella might have Megaesophagus (a enlargement of one part of the esophagus) and we would have to run some tests to determine if it was the cause. We opted to see how things went over the holidays. Just one more thing to worry about.