[Bluebells]

I’m posting this under “General” rather than as a product review, since I can’t be positive the product caused the issue. I believe it did, but everyone can draw their own conclusions

As background, Jax had a wellness visit with his vet on Friday, January 31st. After his exam, the vet went out of her way to enthuse over how “fantastic” he looked in every way (except his eyes, of course, since he’s vision impaired).

One thing we talked about, specifically, was dental chews. She said his teeth looked “pearly white” and I asked her opinion of dental chews as a way of keeping them healthy. My concern was that since Jax is small (a tiny bit over five pounds) and the few chews I tried in the fall became very gummy when chewed, they might impact his digestive tract, so I took them away after a short time. She said that, as long as he was supervised while consuming them, any dental chew that is VOHC approved should break down in a dog’s digestive tract within 24 hours and should pass without any problem.

So, a week after the vet exam, on the evening of Friday, February 5th, I gave him a VOHC approved DentaLife dental chew. He stayed on my lap while consuming it, and he loved it.

All seemed well on Saturday morning & afternoon. Jax didn’t eat much, but he’s never been a morning eater. I also noticed that he only had a small early morning BM, and he skipped his usual mid-morning BM, but he was acting normal.

I didn’t become concerned until he refused his dinner that night, which is very unusual for him. He also refused treats. But he did pass a small but normal looking BM before bedtime.

He slept soundly all Saturday night. On Sunday morning, he refused his regular food and treats and did not have any BMs. He also started passing extremely noxious gas. (Seriously, how can a five pound dog pass such large amounts of noxious gas that it fills the entire house?) He was willing to lap turkey baby food mixed with water, but that’s all he would eat all day.

By Sunday afternoon, I was wavering about whether I needed to take him to an emergency vet. There are two within an hour’s drive from my home, but I’ve never had a good experience with either. And he wasn’t vomiting or having diarrhea or acting distressed, he was just mostly refusing food, not having BMs, and passing noxious gas. I kept feeding him small amounts of the turkey baby food mixed with water, which was the only thing he would eat.

Sunday evening, he passed finally passed a BM, but it wasn’t normal — very soft and, while it didn’t look bloody, it did stain the paper towel I used to pick it up slightly pink. At that point, I decided that if he passed another abnormal BM or vomited, I would head for one of the ER vets. However, he went to sleep and slept soundly all night.

Monday morning, he still wouldn’t eat anything but the watered down baby food. He passed one small but sticky BM, which seemed a little darker brown than normal in color but didn’t stain the paper towel pink. However, by then, I was really worried, so I called his regular vet and took him in, along with that morning’s BM.

He had stopped passing the noxious gas after the Sunday night BM, but I was still concerned about a partial blockage or HGE. The vet agreed that the morning’s BM was “off” in color but there appeared to be little if any blood. She ran blood work, and his hematocrit was low-normal. So she felt he probably had some minor bleeding / irritation of his stomach or upper digestive tract but it wasn’t critical. He came home with antibiotics, probiotics and an anti-nausea medicine in addition to a few cans of “bland” dog food.

Unfortunately, he won’t eat the bland dog food, but yesterday (Tuesday) he decided he would eat boiled chicken and rice (which he rejected Sunday and Monday). He had another “sticky” BM Tuesday morning; then he had small but otherwise normal BMs on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning (this morning). His appetite seems a little improved, although he still leaves his kibble if I try to mix a few pieces in with his baby food or chicken & rice. He’s alert playful, though, and seems to be feeling well.

Sorry if this was overly long and detailed, but I wanted to give a full picture of what happened after the dental chew. It could be a coincidence that this episode happened just after he ate the dental chew, but I’m not willing to take that chance so I’m throwing them out. Everyone else can form their own opinion.