Irritable growl syndrome?

I wrote to you recently about farting in my young Whippet! Your reply was very helpful, so now I am writing to you again about another digestive problem, which has cropped up unexpectedly. I have had four Whippets over the past 16 years, Willow, Barley, Darcy and Bingley. Willow, but especially Barley, used to suffer from a very noisy stomach first thing in the morning. She would get two or three spells of it during a year, lasting for two or three days. She would sometimes tighten up and whine for a minute, which presumably was a colicky spasm, and eat plenty of grass. The vet was never able to find anything wrong and it wasn’t related to change of diet. We decided it might be emotional, Whippets being rather sensitive little dogs, but we have never solved the problem. The vet gave me Buscopan tabs to give her when she had a bad spell of this. Barley, always a very healthy dog, died aged 15 and a half. Bingley (the farty one!) didn’t experience it until two days ago, much to my frustration. They have a good life, regular walks, regular meals, lots of company, and plenty of training, attention and love. However over Christmas I was housebound with a dreadful cold, he did go for walks but not as often as normal, especially as the ground was too hard and lumpy for the speed of a Whippet free running. The only other thing I can think of is that I also gave them some brown rice instead of biscuit. Your replies are so helpful and hopefully it might help someone else. I would be interested to know if anyone else has experience this, particular with Whippets, it’s very frustrating. Many thanks.
Ruth Pritchard, Blandford, Dorset

Poor Bingley, afflicted by farting and now by colic. It does seem a mystery why some dogs are prone to colic. Some breeds do seem more often affected – Westies and Boxers more than most in my experience - and ‘sensitive natured’ dogs do appear to be more frequently affected too. Certainly factors such as a change of diet or change of exercise pattern can be triggers, as can stress of any kind. However, there is often no rhyme or reason why an individual dog suddenly experiences a colicky bout. The natural remedies and supplements I suggested as a cure for farting will also help to minimise bouts of colic, so Charcoal, Lacto B, Slippery Elm and homoeopathic Carbo veg, given long term, will undoubtedly be beneficial as a preventive.

If a bout does occur, then here are a few things you can do that will usually settle it down very quickly:

• Give the homoeopathic remedies Carbo veg, Colchicum and Colocynth (all in the 30c potency) one tablet of each of the three remedies, together, every ten minutes for an hour, then every hour for three hours.

• Gently massage essential oil of Lavender into the tummy area (where the skin isn’t covered by hair) for five minutes.

• Give one 50mg Oil of Peppermint capsule, followed by another half an hour later

All being well the colic will be soothed and gone before you know it!

Richard Allport, Alternative vet