Don't eat all your food at once

One day in May I was busy around the house. I'd been on the phone and doing all the usual house work type things that seem never to end.


The dogs were being well behaved, Molly lazying around and Henry was very quiet. In fact he was too quiet. This was usually not good news as it meant he was up to no good.


On further investigation I saw him in the yard sniffing about. He didn't seem to be doing anything wrong so I continued with what I was doing.


As I was washing up I looked out of the kitched window and realised he was still sniffing in the same area just outside the store where we keep the washing machine and dogs food etc. This was odd as it was unlike Henry to concentrate on the same thing for very long. Then I realised he seemed to be eating something, now this could mean anything so I decided to go out and investigate.


It took two steps across the yard for me to realised what Henry had been up to. He'd somehow broken into the store and got the sack of dog food down from above the washing machine. What I didn't realise straight away was that he had eaten about a weeks worth of food in one go. I had to measure what was left in the bag to work that one out and that was after I'd wrestled the bag from his jaws.


Well, I decided that no harm had been done and that Henry would just be rather full. Then after the vets had closed for the evening (I'm sure dogs do this on purpose) he started to swell up. Henry is a very skinny dog and now he looked like a skinny dog who had eaten a small football. He was obviously in a bit of discomfort so I decided I should consult the internet for advice.


The internet is never the best place for medical advice, you are either about the die in the next two days or there is absolutely nothing wrong with you and it appears the same for dogs too as the advice I found was that A)there was no need to worry or B) Henry would explode like a balloon full of half digested dog food.


Having had various contents of Henry's stomach all over the living room carpet on several occasions I rather wanted to avoid the second diagnosis so I looked further into what I should actually do. Thankfully there was one piece of very good advice and that was that if the dog has overeaten dry food then remove all access to water as it will make the food swell up inside the dog with the explosion more likely to happen.


Poor Henry was desperate for a drink and followed me around while I watered the plants in the garden, thinking back I realise this was a rather mean thing to do in the circumstances, he was that desperate for a drink that he took to trying to lick the peat in the tubs. Then I remembered that the toilet lid was up, for some bizzarre reason all my dogs have chosen to drink from the toilet and as I made my way to the bathroom Henry seemed to pre-empt me and rushed ahead shoving his head down the pan desperately drinking the water. It was really hard to try and drag him away from it as being a bendy dog he managed to wriggle free and go back to drinking the toilet water.



After the fight for the toilet which I won I then had a rather uncomfortable night of Henry trying to lay down but being so rotund from the amount of food inside him he couldn't actually lay on his side as he wobbled around like a weeble, (remember them?) so he would pace about trying to find a more comfortable position.



After an hour or so he made a bit of progress, he was sick, this was good as it got some of the food out of him so I was rather pleased with him, but then the daft dog decided to eat the sick before I could clear it up - why do dogs do that? The evening was then a routine of Henry being sick and me rushing to clear it awway before he could eat it, sometimes it was a physical struggle to get to the sick first. Something else which was mad and only a dog would do was Henry complained bitterly when he didn't get any dinner! Dogs!

By the morning though all was good, Henry looked much more sleek and less like a dog shaped football and it was clear that he had recovered from his overeating session which saved us from another visit to the vets.

He did demand his breakfast though.....