[Stephent89]

I have a 6 month old lab/ australian shepherd mix. Yesterday morning she had a normal bowel movement without any problems. That evening she tried to go and could only get a little out, because it was hurting her so much. She was yelling so much I decided to take her to the vet. They said that she was probably just a little constipated and gave her lactulose to help loosen everything up and cerenia to help with any pain or nausea. This morning she seemed to be in even more pain when trying to defecate. Howling, running around, and drooling. I took her to the vet again and they observed that her anus was a little red and swollen and that her stool was sandy. They believed this was causing irritation when trying to pass solids. The upped the dose of lactulose and gave her an anti inflammatory. That being said, they couldn?t really give me any reasoning as to why the stool was sandy other than she ate possibly ate sand or it could have been how her body reacted to the larger bone I bought her for the first time yesterday. My question is, has anyone else experienced this kind of reaction to your dog eating a larger bone?

 

[Kathyy]

Yes. Too much bone is hard on dog guts. If you offer a bare bone and a good amount gets eaten then sandy or concrete poop will happen most of the time.

Best to offer a bone with a lot of meat on it and if you see a lot of bone has been eaten then feed something without calcium rather than the usual kibble for the following meal or two. My dogs are fed raw and get a big bone once a week. If I see a lot of bone gone then they get a scrambled egg for dinner but if not much bone was eaten they get the usual grind with chicken bone.

 

[Stephent89]

How long should I expect this to last? I?m continuing her on the medication as the vet said. She told me that we just have to wait and let whatever is causing this to pass from her system. If it is the bone then wait until it is all gone. This started Wednesday evening and is still going today. She continues to welp very loud while using the bathroom and I just hate to see her in so much pain. The vet was clear that she didn?t believe it to be a large piece inside of her, because she doesn?t show any signs of pain other than her anal region. Any thoughts?

 

[Kathyy]

How much bone did she eat? My dogs are generally fine after a couple days if I messed up and offered too much bone. Since she is having trouble still I'd be giving her something with no calcium for meals, not a complete dog food.

I hope all this is is injury to the soft tissues and it will just take time to heal up.

 

[Stephent89]

She ate about half of a approximately 10 inch bone. This was the first bone I have ever bought her. She usually just eats smaller raw hides.

 

[Marvel]

What kind of a bone was it?

 

[CptJack]

I hate to say this but if they didn't, ah, digitally examine her or do an x-ray you may have a situation where something sharp is lodged in her colon/rectum. Stool can pass past it, but causes the dog pain.

Do not ask me how I know this (okay, do. With my dog it was a piece of plastic).

 

[Stephent89]

I?m not sure what kind of bone it was. It was from the pet store.

So what did they do to get the plastic out? Was your dog?s stool normal? My dog?s is a bit gritty and I have found some rock hard pieces that took a lot of effort to break. It wasn?t a piece of bone, because it looked exactly like the rest of the stool. Just extremely hard. Does that sound like that is most likely the cause or do you think it could still be the plastic. I have to admit though...there?s really no way of me knowing if she has had harder pieces in her stool before. It could just be somewhat normal for her and only now that she?s having problems I have discovered these pieces. If that were the case then I could probably rule that out as being the culprit and have a better idea if it is indeed a piece of plastic or something stuck in her. Also, would a sharp piece stuck in her cause her pain when pressing in on her stomach or picking her up? She doesn?t seem to mind any of that. However, if you so much as try to get a good look back there then she freaks out.

 

[Stephent89]

To add to my previous post. My vet said that she really thinks it is not something lodged in her and the most likely cause of the pain is the grittiness of her stool which is causing her anus to be a little inflamed. However, I must say that I am more inclined to believe something is lodged in her. She had a completely normal and pain free bowel movement that morning around 8 and by 5 that evening when she attempted her second bowel movement of the day she was in severe pain. I would think that if it were her gritty stool causing inflammation which in turn caused her pain that it would take longer than 9 hours for this to begin happening, not to mention take a few more bowel movements to cause the irritation rather than it being the very next movement.

 

[CptJack]

She wouldn't have stomach pain or pain being picked up if it was stuck at the... end as opposed to in her stomach or intestines. If she passed something really really hard, it's entirely possible that something got scratched on the way out and really make everything hurt more, too.

Honestly the vet got it out by putting on a love, lubing up a finger, going in and pulling it out, so I mean. Not really elegant! But it worked!

I don't now. On one hand: Trust your vet. On the other, this sounds exactly like our minor weird emergency compounded by constipation but yeah, she was having normal for her stool AROUND the bit of plastic but crying because that plastic was sharp and hurt.

 

[Stephent89]

I just looked around her anal region and although it does not look noticeably swollen it does look a little red and has what looks to be little scabs on part of it. Could this explain the little bit of blood I?ve noticed in some of her stool? It is not a lot of blood at all. Just a little. This makes me think that it could indeed be something other than a foreign object causing her pain when using the bathroom.