Most of you know that there is never a dull moment in the Williams’ household, and it usually involves at least one of our dogs somehow. Last night, I noticed that Tucker had a bad case of the hiccups after eating his dinner in record time. Usually, he will work it out within a few minutes, and all will be well with the crazy hound. However, last night was a different story. Not only did he not recover from them, but they were getting worse as time went by. The dog who usually puts himself to bed at 9 p.m. was pacing and anxious and very unsettled. He kept whining to go outside but would only go out to eat grass and try to throw up. He started licking the air a lot, and that’s when I got real concerned. After raising my basset hound, Murphy, I was very familiar with the term “bloat.” It’s a condition in which deep-chested dogs get air trapped in their stomach and their stomach begins to turn, which can be fatal.

By this time, it’s 2 a.m. Tucker and I have exhausted all measures to cure his hiccups and uncomfortable state. He runs to get in his bed, then he is back up by my bedside trying to wake me up again. This goes on and on and on all night long. We got a total of 3 hours sleep, and I am exhausted by this point. It’s 7 a.m., and I jump in the shower, since the vet’s office opens at 7:30 a.m. I call and make an urgent appointment, throw Tucker in the car and off we go to see the vet.

Tucker is doing fine now. The vet had to take x-rays, and it showed Tucker did have a lot of air in his stomach, but luckily it was not turning. At this point, there was nothing we could do but let him work the air out of his stomach on his own. The vet suggested a minor surgery to tack his stomach so it would not turn in the future, but with the baby on the way, we did not want to invest that much money in a surgery he did not absolutely have to have right now. We’re glad the crazy hound is ok, but he did give me quite a scare throughout the night. Now, I’m going to reward myself by shopping for a few hours, getting Tucker a special food bowl so he can’t eat so fast anymore, and taking a nice, long nap!