2 Bloats in 10 Days... 4HEALTH dog Food Warning

[vdsauk]

I don't normally post here... but seeing as not everyone in the world follows me or the von der Sauk FB page... I want to give a warning of caution.... my storie follows below...

So... my loving husband, loving mother, caring neighbor and I are all pretty freaked out from our recent terrify events.

Monte bloated on a Saturday evening. We caught it. We saved him. He's without a spleen and lost many vessels to his stomach but is now making so far a good recovery. He has weeks to go.

10 days later (Sept 20, 2011) my best show female V3 Kally von der Piste Trophe SCHH2 is found dead in the kennel. Kally wasn't someone that loved other female dogs so she wasn't part of our house or garage crew but was with access to our back yard where she got her attention daily.

Monte is a dog that has more stress in his life, he is male, 8.5 years old and in general makes a better 'bloat' canidate.

Kally... found... and we can say with all honesty finding her how we did and with circumstances bloated. She was NOT a stressful dog, nevous, thin, fed at an elevated level, over fed, under fed, excercised before or after eating. She was 7 years old and has NONE of the predispositions for bloat out side of being a German Shepherd dog (aka a deep chested dog).

Having had shepherds for over the last 12 years of my life. And at times having over 20 ADULTS on site, and many times with youngsters having had over 50+ GSDs as well as other large breed dogs on site (rescues and boarding/training clients) I've never experienced BLOAT first hand in my home.

Not only is this driving me mentally crazy, wondering why me, and what did I do, and how come... there is no reason... no logical reason.

So I've started looking with my husband, mother and neighbor all of which are very active in the kennel program. Together we've started becoming concerned because of the ONLY change that was made in the kennel in the last WEEKS!

So... with that being said... what changed?

For a long time we fed Royal Canin GSD Adult and Puppy. (RCGS and RCGSP)
For a long time we also fed Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice. (DNCR)
For a long time we fed Taste of the Wild. (TOTW)
For a long time we fed RAW.

No issues ever presented with these foods.

A few weeks ago (6-8?) we started looking at quality foods but for a lower price. All the young dogs get DNCR only. They do great on it. Never gassy etc. My husbands feeds them (approx 16 young adults).

At the boarding kennel we have some dogs my mother feeds... they get DNCR, RAW, or RCGS... never any issues. 8-18 depending on the boarding kennel....

At the house we feed our puppies (3 10x10's in quarantine)... RAW... then as they get older (8+ weeks) RAW and RCGSP mix..... Then I look after feeding our sport dogs and a lot of the mothers, or expecting mothers, or hard to keep weight on dogs and a few older pups (6-7 months and under)... Until a few weeks ago everyone at the house with the exceptiom of BRONGO, FARIN, MONTE, BUFFY, got a mixture of DNCR, TOTW and RAW.
It wasn't until I moved the TOTW out of the picture when I added in the 4HEALTH...
I slowly worked DNCR almost out of the picture so it was 4HEALTH and RAW.

Monte, Farin, Buffy ate only the NEW food and have for the last weeks... I was trying it out... 35lb bag for like $30 great deal... great ingredients etc... They ate approx 3 cups a day.

Brongo ate TOTW or RCGS


So... what happened... 4HEALTH came into the picture... a consistent diet... they loved the food. MONTE bloats... having had 2 cups 4HEALTH that night and in 30 minutes is already on the way to getting emergency care.

10 days later I fed Kally in the morning only that day 1/2lb raw and 2 cups 4HEALTH.

She didn't have supper that night.

I found her dead in the morning.


THE ONLY change on our place was 4HEALTH....


So... we did some tests.

RCGS floating in a lot of water. Takes 2-3 times longer to absorb it then DNCR and 4HEALTH.

TOTW Absorbs it all but doesn't get overly big. As RCGS absorbs the food it stays fair firm and only gets about twice the size as the kibble it was. Taste of the Wild does the same. But gets mushy more easily as it is smaller kibble.

The digestion rate of RCGS is great!

DNCR gets about twice the size... but doesn't get real foamy or sponge like. And it takes longer...

But 4HEALTH... WOW... 1 cup of kibble almost filled our bowl in the test... and FAST compared to the others. Within a short time I had to add MORE water to it... and then MORE again! It got HUGE! Some pieces went 4-5 times the size of the other pieces...

I've immediately removed ALL my puppies from ALL 4 HEALTH products. We've finished up a bag with some younger dogs (less prone to bloat)...

So... I think I need to let people know... take it or leave it...
If I had to make a bet... I know what killed my dog... and what almost killed my dog.

Soak your dogs food and see what it does... buy smaller bags of foods before you get a big one... do a test... you can always donate it to a shelter or rescue who can feed smaller breed dogs not prone for issues.

Now, we have DNCR and RCGS and RCGSP and Raw here...

4Health looked great....... but it can take a hike... not in my kennel it does NOT belong!

[Germanshepherdlova]

Thanks for the warning.

[onyx'girl]

This is so disturbing and very sad to read. My sympathy to you. I am glad I feed raw and not kibble, I hope this warning is heeded & spread.
So sorry for the loss of your Kally, and hope that Monte makes a smooth recovery.

[msvette2u]

I'm so sorry for your loss.
Were you able to do a necropsy on your female?

Also, I have a question, isn't raw supposed to be fed in a separate meal from kibble (if you're going to do both). I've always heard that but only fed raw once, when I did, it was in the AM and kibble PM.

[Wild Wolf]

Wow... that is terrifying... I am so sorry for your loss and your struggles.

Kibble terrifies me because of how it expands in the stomach... I am so paranoid about bloat. At least raw doesn't expand, and digests quickly in a carnivore's stomach.

So sorry for your loss.. Thank you for sharing this.

[ChancetheGSD]

I totally agree with Onyx! Very tragic, but at least one baby is safe! Fingers crossed for a smooth recovery!

Though RAW doesn't prevent bloating either, a dog can bloat on ANYTHING. One member here had a dog bloat after drinking too much water while doing tracking. Sadly, it's just something we are forced to live with when we own dogs, especially deep chested/bloat prone breeds.

I do however feel that this is a good post regardless. Many people don't consider how much the food they feed swells and to get 4-5x bigger than it's original size is shocking. Especially when members come along saying they feed 2-4 cups of food in ONE sitting!!! Imagine how much food is then expanded into their stomachs!! O_O

[ChancetheGSD]

Originally Posted by msvette2u

I'm so sorry for your loss.
Were you able to do a necropsy on your female?

Also, I have a question, isn't raw supposed to be fed in a separate meal from kibble (if you're going to do both). I've always heard that but only fed raw once, when I did, it was in the AM and kibble PM.

I've never had issues feeding raw and kibble together nor has anyone in my family.

I think bloating is just one of those things that if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. Despite the warnings of don't do this or don't do that, nobody truly knows how to prevent bloating, only how to take a couple of precautions to hopefully prevent it. :/

[Stosh]

I'm so sorry for your tragic losses and I thank you for your post

[GSD84]

So sorry for your loss. We feed royal canin and just the other day some left over bits fell in the water bowl and I was shocked to see how much bigger it got.

[BUBBAGSD]

I am so sorry for your loss..