Yorkie Constipation (Chronic?)

[luann25]

We picked our yorkie puppy 3 weeks ago. He is now 13 weeks old. We started feeding him raw food when he came to our house (Nature's Valley Instinct Raw), a switch from the Blue Buffalo dry kibble the breeder had been feeding him.

Since he's been with us, he won't drink plain water. When we realized this, we started mixing homemade chicken broth with his water and he started drinking more. We are still doing this.

Ever since he came to our house, he has been struggling to poop. He curves his body and presses to go for about 2-5 minutes about 4 times an hour and nothing (or very little) comes out. Upon noticing this, we took him to the vet 2 days after he came to our house.

The vet took an x-ray and noted that his colon was completely full and he was definitely constipated. The vet then performed an enema and not much came out, so a second enema was performed. He pooped a little bit more, so the vet took another x-ray to see if everything was clear, but it was not, so a third enema was performed and he pooped a lot, enough for the vet to let him come home Monday afternoon (the following day).

The vet gave us wet food (Purina Puppy Food) to give him at home, which we did for the next few days with pumpkin puree. Unfortunately, his constipation came back and he still struggled to poop. On Wednesday night, we took our puppy back to the vet and another enema was performed. Not much came out right away, but a veterinary technician massaged his bum and enough poop came out for the vet to let us take him home. She also gave us a recommendation for a laxative to give him (Restoralax).

We tried giving him the laxative at 2 meals, but this seemed to aggravate the problem as his poop became very loose and he continued to struggle with no poop coming out.

After this, we began feeding him Acana Small Breed kibble with 15 ml of water, pumpkin puree and a probiotic supplement.

We also tried running is bum under warm water and noticed that some poop started to come out. We would gently push on either side of his bum and were able to help him excrete a great deal. Right after this, he surprised us when we looked over and there was a 6 inch poop on the floor. He seemed to finally be getting better.

The Monday after the second trip to the emergency vet, we took our puppy to our family vet. The vet gave us sucralfate to help coat his upper colon. We gave him 1 ml daily for 7 days.

During this time, he seemed to be getting better. He still struggled to defecate during the day hunching to go and producing little to nothing, but then would usually produce a large stool in the evenings. His constipation seemed to be a little bit more under control, but then this past Saturday (1.5 weeks after the previous enema), we had another emergency. He was totally constipated and this time blood was coming out of his rectum. We again took him to the emergency pet hospital and they gave him another enema. After this, he had diarrhoea off and on for 2 days and a slight rectal prolapse (which our family vet pushed back in).

The emergency vet gave us medication for pain which we have been giving to him at night. He still does not poop during the day, but has been producing large stool (approximately 6 inches) for the past 3 nights (usually after we run his bum under warm water and/or give him the pain medication).

He still won’t drink a lot of water on his own, but will drink lots of water with homemade chicken broth. This seems to be helping. We’ve also began crushing his kibble up, adding 30 ml of water and still the pumpkin puree and probiotic supplement.

The vets we’ve seen have mentioned things like rectal stricture, motility issues, megacolon, etc., but have not done any diagnostic tests yet. We are at a complete loss and will be seeing a specialist next Monday, but are still so worried about him. I would really appreciate your input because we need all of the help we can get. We just want our puppy to be happy and healthy.

[luann25]

Bump.

[alaskayorkie]

Oh, gosh. Poor you and the sweet pup. I'm at a complete loss. I've never had any experience with constipation like that. I will help you keep bumping this thread. You've given so much good information, surely someone here will have some experience.

It sounds like you're doing everything right with the vets and likely saved the pup's life already. Best of luck.

Only thought: have you called the breeder? they may have a history of an issue in the lineage. Certainly, they would want to know.

One more thing: Changing diet so quickly from kibble to raw could be a problem if you didn't transition slowly.

[luann25]

Thank you so much alaskayorkie. I appreciate that so much, you have no idea.

[Bellabean]

Sounds like you got him just a little young. Don't the mom as help stimulate bowel movements? Not sure, but I thought I read that on here. Sounds like that is what you are doing with the warm water and massage. Sounds like you are doing things right. Good luck.

[Teegy]

No pumpkin, it can constipate your dog, mother dogs actually lick the bum to stimulate the dog to poop so I would say keep on with the warm bum wash. May I make a suggestion of slipper elm bark, you can get capsules at the health food store, sprinkle in the water or on the food, it's good for stomach issues in humans and animals

[Ellie May]

So sorry.

Your bet is absolutely right. There is very likely something wrong with his colon. If there is any way to see the soe ialist sooner that would be good.

[luann25]

Here is a little update. We went to see a specialist today and it seems like our puppy has a rectal stricture.

He is scheduled to undergo a balloon dilatation on Thursday.

If anyone has any experience with this type of procedure, I would really like to hear of your experiences. Our puppy is only 12 weeks old and 2.2 lbs. Has anyone with such a young puppy ever had this procedure?

[Teegy]

Glad you found out. The poor wee sausage. All the best with the procedure