A healthy bowel with NHV Maris

"Barney, a Corgi/Pittie mix, was found on the streets of LA starving (see attached photos after he had had his surgery). He was brought to a rescue that immediately took him to their veterinarian who at first thought he was a really old dog they were bringing in to put down. But when the doctor looked at his teeth, he realized Barney was maybe only 3 to 5 years old!

After some x-rays, the vet discovered a blockage which meant Barney couldn’t keep any food down. Most likely this was caused by the healed broken pelvis he had which literally pushes on his colon, making the passing of his stool a bit challenging if he doesn’t eat and drink properly. Living on the streets he was eating whatever he could find and most likely not drinking enough. His nickname at the vet’s office was “Skeletor!” Fortunately, the vet did an amazing job of removing a portion of his intestines, so Barney was able to eat and his colon began working again.

We adopted him in June of 2009, just 2 months after his surgery, and Barney has been a delight ever since. (We call him a Corgi Bull.) We’ve always had to be mindful of his diet, and it’s only in the last year or so that we’ve had some issues of constipation. At one point it was really bad so he was taking a prescription laxative.

It really got challenging last Autumn when Barney woke up with senior vestibular disease, which is basically a case of vertigo. He of course couldn’t eat and the only food we could eventually get down him was a cheap grocery store wet food. That definitely caused constipation, so we eventually weaned him back to his regular food, but off and on his constipation flared, and I did not want to continually have to reach for the Lactulose. That’s when a friend thankfully mentioned NHV’s Maris. We tried a regular dose for about 10 to 12 days and saw no change, so after consulting NHV, we doubled the dose almost 2 weeks ago, and so far so good – truly a relief! I know Barney definitely feels better with that smile on his face, and so do we!"

- Valerie