July 18, 2015, the night before we were set to leave for vacation in Maine with our K-9 family, my 4-year sweet fur baby rotated his stomach. If anyone has seen the movie Marley and me, that’s what happened to my boy.   I was frantic and knew time was of the essence.  My heart sank.  There is no definite cause on how it happens but 2 things that he did not have in his favor was he has a large chest cavity, so his stomach just flops around and the 2nd was he is very fearful of loud noises like thunder and fireworks. It happens more so in large dogs and even more in fearful ones.

 

I thought to myself...but all he did was drink water and all of the sudden he started pacing, licking the air which from the past I knew he had a gassy belly. He started whimpering and coming to me as if to say, “help me, mommy, please”. I felt his stomach because in the past I wanted to educate myself on what to look for if a dog has bloat. I felt his stomach and it was hard and extended. On his left side, I felt a lump protruding...my heart sank. 

 

I rushed him to the hospital and he was in critical condition and needed surgery right away. They said he had a 50-50 shot of surviving and even if he did, there were high risks of having heart complications after surgery. 50-50 was good for me and honestly even if she would have said he has 10%, I was taking it because my boy was a fighter!

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All that night, I had my family and dear friends around me, consoling me while my baby was fighting for his life in surgery. The doctor came out after 3 hours to give me to wonderful news that he had made it through the surgery, but the next 24 hours were crucial. The lump I felt was his spleen, which they had to remove because unlike bloat when a dog’s stomach rotates what happens is all of the blood supply is cut off to all the major organs connected to the stomach. His spleen started to die.

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For days after the surgery, I’d go to the hospital and sit on the floor to hand feed him homemade food I prepared for him because he wouldn’t touch any of the dog food they were giving him. Prior to the surgery, I had started home cooking for him because he already had stomach issues with many of the commercial dog foods even the blandest didn't agree with him.  What I didn’t realize was by boiling the food, I was taking all the enzymes out of it and there were very little nutrients left in it.

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The doctor preformed the Gastropexy procedure which is to prevent the stomach from rotating again because once it happens, it is guaranteed to happen again. They took pieces of his stomach and stapled sections to his abdominal wall. The staples are forever a part of his now. While the procedure saved his life, one of the terrible side effects is that he developed colitis/IBS from it which unfortunately could happen post-surgery. He had chronic diarrhea for months accompanied with loud gurgling, painful noises coming from his belly and sometimes there was blood in his stool, it was just terrible. To see him suffering and not knowing how to help him, I felt helpless.

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My vet whom I loved and trusted was dedicated to helping him was at a loss. too.  He keep telling me that it's not the commercial food.  With his approval, I took him to a holistic vet in NJ because from research that I had done, I knew that having his back adjusted could help with releasing trapped gases, it did help some. The holistic vet tried all different types of remedies and none worked to relief his stomach.  The sleepless nights, worrying and so much money spend in vet visits, experimenting with different commercial dog foods and he was still in pain.  He would literally vomit ten minutes after eating.

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In February 2017, in tears and praying to God and the Universe to send me an answer.  Funny thing was I had come across the website once before and said to myself, “Yeah, right, heal him with whole foods!”. I couldn’t have been more wrong.  From the first recommendation she gave me which was so simple like adding pureed organic zucchini and a celery stalk to his meals would help remove the mucous out of his stool, next day no more mucous. Since then she has guiding me every step of the way, was available any day of the week and gave me a step by step diet broken down. All the tools I needed. A tea recipe made with fennel seeds and other natural ingredients you probably have in your kitchen cabinet that immediately subsides the gas in his belly with 2 syringefuls. I give him this just a preventive through-out the day.

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I’m so happy to say to date, he has not had diarrhea not once. She told me his colitis/IBS was reversible and she was right! He is on a well-balanced diet which includes probiotics, enzymes and blue organic micro algae. I take the same supplements he does because she also works with humans. Dogs and humans are similar in many ways. I know hard to believe but true.

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She has inspired me so much that I want to pay it forward.  She’s my mentor on my new venture.  She also works with many different ailments not only colitis and is now passing on her teachings to me. 

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As I am one of her many testimonials on her site, I look forward to filling this page with many happy pet owners as well as the owners themselves.  Chemical drugs only mask the illness, it DOES NOT heal it. It all starts with a strong digestive system