A dog owner from the Netherlands took her Staffordshire bull terrier to an emergency veterinarian appointment, thinking she was suffering a heart failure, but after spending over $600, she found out the pup just needed to pass some gas.
In a viral TikTok video shared in October, under the username @maggiepotamus_ the poster can be seen giving Maggie a lower belly massage, while the pup lies her back on the couch, trying to help relieve her bloated stomach.
“Giving my dog a fart massage after spending 600 euros on an emergency vet visit thinking she was in CHF [congestive heart failure] but it was just gas,” reads a caption shared with the clip.
“It was deeply unpleasant for me, smelly, but I could tell it offered immediate relief for her stomach pain. The massage itself is really similar to the massage you’d give to a gassy or constipated baby,” the poster, 30-year-old Jen Lee from Amsterdam, told Newsweek.
Maggie can be seen lying on the couch as she gets a belly massage from her owner. The poster spent over $600 at the emergency veterinarian, only to find out her dog just needed to pass some gas.
maggiepotamus_
Lee said that, only five days earlier, her pup got diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) during a routine visit at her orthopedic, and was given up to six months to live.
“It was a huge shock because she seems completely healthy save for her back pain,” Lee added. “They let me know that if her respiratory rate was above 30 while resting that I should bring her in because it could signify heart failure.”
So, as soon as she found Maggie breathing rapidly, she called an emergency veterinarian. fearing the worst for her fur-baby.
Thankfully, after some radiographs of her chest, the doctor was confident that the distended stomach and rapid breathing were just due to very painful gas.
“The upset stomach and bloating were likely due to the sudden change in diet. Her DCM diagnosis is believed to be diet-related so I immediately switched her to a cardiac-diet and added supplements and RX heart medication; all of this caused her stomach to get super upset and full of gas.”
DCM is a heart condition that gradually causes the heart muscle to become thin, weak and floppy, losing the ability to pump blood effectively. It usually affects middle-aged and older male dogs, but can also be found in females.
Larger dogs like Doberman pinschers, boxers, Great Danes, German shepherds, Irish wolfhounds, Scottish deerhounds, Newfoundlands, Saint Bernards, and Labrador retrievers are particularly at risk, according to MSD Veterinary Manual.
DCM is the most common cause of heart failure in large dog breeds, and it usually develops slowly before the pup starts showing signs, which include rapid breathing, restless sleep, coughing or gagging, weakness, fainting, decreased appetite, weight loss, swollen belly, and depressed attitude, among others.
Causes of DCM can be chemical (for example, doxorubicin), viral (for example, parvovirus), nutritional (taurine deficiency), genetic (in Doberman pinschers and boxers), or idiopathic.
“Always do your annual vet visit. if the vet hadn’t heard that murmur, we may not have found out about her heart condition until it was too late,” Lee added.
The video quickly went viral on social media and has so far received over 184,500 views and almost 10,000 likes on the platform.
One user, Solaruno, commented: “Terribly dissatisfied that you didn’t post the fart.”
OriginalBrighid posted: “My dog just had an $1100 fart. I need to do this massage daily.”
Kimware7 added: “Same with my beloved red nose pit bull Pugzy! $5000 emergency vet and cardiologist visit … wore a heart monitor vest for 24hrs … told it was most likely CHF … turns out it was gas …”
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