pre bloat?

[jang]

I was sitting in the living room last night when Sib came in and was gagging and wanted to go out..she immediately started pulling up grass and eating it..she never did vomit but continued this behavior for about 10 minutes..I brought her back in and in a few minutes she started the same gagging behavior..so back outside...I kept checking her for obvious bloating but found none..when she came back in I gave her a gaviscon and she laid down...she seemed to be breathing a little hard but not too bad..I kept checking on her every 10 minutes or so and she seemed comfortable..and asleep...I was scared and I knew I wanted to take her to the er , but it is 30 minutes away and I had already taken my sleep meds and could not make the drive safely. I called my vet today to inquire about the tacking surgery and did he think I should have taken Sib to the hospital.He siad yes and this could have been a case of "pre bloat" a sign that the real thing is sure to happen..He also told me to give her less dry food and more of the green beans, carrots pumpkins etc..also, chicken and chicken skin..He did not mention raw and this is not an option for me...I don't really know why I am sharing this with you all, other than to mention the pre bloat symptom, and I will surely not hesitate to take Sib next time this happens..As a side note, this is the 3rd time she has experienced these symptoms...Please don't beat me up over my lack of action...I just think that denial is a real thing and I did not want to believe this was for real...Thankfully my vet took the time with me today to futher educate me on the severity of this and should it happen again I will find a way to get her to the er..I am so thankful I did not have to learn a harder lesson than I did..jan

[Bear GSD]

Wow, she gave you quite the scare. I'm glad she's ok and you know the signs and what to look for.

[Sunflowers]

We had this happen and it was just an irritated stomach.
Don't beat yourself up.

[jang]

OMG thank you so much for you kindness and understanding..I feel just terrible ...the vet said there is no way to know for sure what happened but diet is the whole ball game with bloat...he says surgery is very costly and he would not do it except for in an emergency situation...jan

[Sunflowers]

Some vets like to talk about worst case scenario.
I just found the email I sent Robin about Hans's scary episode:


Subject: Re: Hans
Date: 9/4/2012 10:23:17 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time

Robin,

Hans scared us to death yesterday afternoon.

First, he made weird gulping motions for about half an hour, then vomited his snack. Then, he was frantically licking his bed, the floor, looking wild-eyed, panting, salivating, and was very agitated. Went out twice, peed, pooped, pooped again, and then started eating tons of grass.

He calmed down after eating the grass, but was still not himself. I was not able to get to any vets last night. I am still waiting for mine to call me back.
I found this on the board I frequent, and it was exactly what he had:

urgent advice please...."gulping"

My husband went and got him some gas medication, we gave it to him, but he had already had good results from the grass. He never vomited that grass.

Hans still has gastric issues on and off. The vet wanted him to go on Pepcid, but I really don't want to give him powerful drugs. Slippery elm had been doing a great job, but still, if he had an empty stomach, he would vomit bile.

Lately he seemed to be lagging behind on walks and a little stiff when getting up from lying down, so I took him to the new vet here. He prescribed Dasuquin. Also, yesterday I gave him a new toy (JW crackle ball) and he chewed on it a lot after he ate and drank a lot of water.
No idea if it was the meds or the ball chewing and swallowing a lot of saliva and air after just eating that caused what I now believe was an acid reflux attack.

He seems OK now, ate breakfast normally and just pooped the grass.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

[kr16]

You have to have GasX in the house it can save a life. I learned that on this forum and wow it works wonders

[StellaSquash]

Originally Posted by kr16

You have to have GasX in the house it can save a life. I learned that on this forum and wow it works wonders

does it matter which kind of GasX? chewable, tablets? how much do you administer?

[RebelGSD]

An emergency surgery for bloat will be much more expensive than the preventative gastropexy. There is no guarantee that the dog will survive, even with the surgery.

[DunRingill]

Originally Posted by jang

the vet said there is no way to know for sure what happened but diet is the whole ball game with bloat...

Not really true, if they're gonna bloat then they're gonna bloat, and diet doesn't really make a difference. I had a dog that bloated on kibble, and I had a raw fed dog bloat and torsion. All you can do is feed them the best you can, and be observant. Keep Gas-X on hand and give it at the very first sign of discomfort, because if you wait too long it might not be able to get to the dog's stomach.

Dogs that are going into bloat are very restless and don't want to lie down. They often puke up thick slimy foam that looks like shaving cream. Hard to say what was going on with your dog, heck it could have been an upset stomach and nothing to do with bloat. But if it WAS a pre-bloat episode, please be careful and observant, because the dog will likely do a true bloat eventually. Sorry to say this, but that's been my experience.

[RebelGSD]

My dog bloated on water.

A dog can bloat when nobody is home to administer gas-x