Not a Pet story...a pet query
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:34 am
I have a lurcher (don't ask why I have, in my 60s, after years without a pet, a flaming 30 inches at the shoulder lurcher, and not a yorkie or another wee doggie..or no animals at all.....just put it down to a drunken whim.)
His food and water bowls currently reside on the floor (though he mostly drinks out of the toilet bowl)..and he inhales his food as if there is a whole pack of dogs at his shoulder just waiting for him to lift his head and take a breath to get in there and finish his meal for him. When he was a pup, before I got him, he did live with two other dogs, and they had to be separated at feeding times, because the slowest eater never got to finish his own food allocation. Whether his current propensity is because of his early upbringing, i don't know, but he has always been food obsessed...and, as far as I can see never chews, to the extent that I now cut up everything into small pieces for him.
This did, to some extent reduce the vomiting, but not enough for the health of my carpets, so I'm searching for a method of improving his eating habits and thus his digestion, because his vomiting bouts have increased over the last few weeks, and I can't see anything food-wise he gets now that he has not always had. I am torn between getting raised bowls, which are meant to reduce air gulping in large (and older) dogs, or those bowls which are advertised as anti-gulping and have sticky up bits which appear to work in that they will stop him just gobbling the whole bowl down in seconds because he can't just stick his face in and access every part of it without lifting his head and thinking how best to get at it all.
Has anybody ever tried either of the options..and if so, how did they work for your dog? I do intend, at least in the short/medium term to cut him back to dog food only without treats and leftovers, to see if that helps...but when I am sitting in the living room with him sprawled on his spine on the couch with legs in the air, and his stomach is roiling audibly more than mine is,(and i do have definite digestive problems though I know why and what triggers them) it seems to me that I am doing something wrong...but I don't know what.
His food and water bowls currently reside on the floor (though he mostly drinks out of the toilet bowl)..and he inhales his food as if there is a whole pack of dogs at his shoulder just waiting for him to lift his head and take a breath to get in there and finish his meal for him. When he was a pup, before I got him, he did live with two other dogs, and they had to be separated at feeding times, because the slowest eater never got to finish his own food allocation. Whether his current propensity is because of his early upbringing, i don't know, but he has always been food obsessed...and, as far as I can see never chews, to the extent that I now cut up everything into small pieces for him.
This did, to some extent reduce the vomiting, but not enough for the health of my carpets, so I'm searching for a method of improving his eating habits and thus his digestion, because his vomiting bouts have increased over the last few weeks, and I can't see anything food-wise he gets now that he has not always had. I am torn between getting raised bowls, which are meant to reduce air gulping in large (and older) dogs, or those bowls which are advertised as anti-gulping and have sticky up bits which appear to work in that they will stop him just gobbling the whole bowl down in seconds because he can't just stick his face in and access every part of it without lifting his head and thinking how best to get at it all.
Has anybody ever tried either of the options..and if so, how did they work for your dog? I do intend, at least in the short/medium term to cut him back to dog food only without treats and leftovers, to see if that helps...but when I am sitting in the living room with him sprawled on his spine on the couch with legs in the air, and his stomach is roiling audibly more than mine is,(and i do have definite digestive problems though I know why and what triggers them) it seems to me that I am doing something wrong...but I don't know what.