BLOAT true medical emergency: a must read for GSD owners

[fkeeley]

Thank you all! My vet said for me to moist the dry food (the old food he's going to be back on after the transitional food has NO citric acid). Now, I don't know whether I should or not moist the food. Anyone???? Help!!!
I did a test and got a food with citric acid and one without (and his "old food" that I no longer use). I put water, same amount, on all. The one w/ citric acid made a noise like fermentation. The others didn't. The food he's going back to (the one he was on before this all happened) was the one slower to absorb the water. The one I had changed him to (that i'm discontinuing) was just as fast absorbing water as the one with citric acid. What i was trying to do is see which food would have the most increase in size after putting it in water. Very interesting test!

Please if anyone can answer about moist or not moist food I'd really appreciate it.
He's doing ok, but he still has gas. The vet said he'll have it probably for the rest of his life. I'm just so scared!

[Elaine]

The point here is that there is no real answer for you. There is no concrete evidence that moistening dry food or whether food contains citric acid has any effect at all on bloat. This is a decision you will have to make by yourself.

I know that you are terrified of your dog bloating again and I don't blame you one bit, but there isn't any real way to prevent it. If there were, we would be all over it and there would be a whole lot fewer dogs bloating.

Has your vet talked to you about the stomach tacking? Have you thought about switching dog foods so your dog is less gassy? Not all foods do well with all dogs so it might be worth trying something else.

[debbiebrown]

you also might want to consider a home made diet.
more digestable.
debbie

[fkeeley]

My vet and I decided to go back to his "old" dog food, the one he seldom had gas. I've always been very careful about feeding him 2x per day, etc, but now i'm more careful. I'll try his "old" food first and see how things shape up. If he's still passing too much gas, i'll try something else. Again, never had a problem until we switched foods, modified a few things, so hopefully going back to the "old days" will help prevent it.

[Elaine]

Also, make sure you read the Purdue study that someone was kind enough to paste above here somewhere. This is the only published research that I know of on bloat so any other ideas of what might prevent it is all guess work.

I honestly don't know if just getting rid of your dog's gassiness will totally prevent another reoccurence or not, it certainly won't hurt.

[marjorie]

The Purdue Study didnt have even ONE German Shepherd in it. Personally, I believe ita all genetics. If a dog is pre-disposed to bloat, it will bloat, no matter what you do. If its not pre-disposed to bloat, it wont, no matter what you do..

[hanslieb]

I have been researching Bloat for a while, and I have yet to see a GSD mentioned in various studies...(?)...so, why do so many of our GSD's succumb to Bloat?... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/11_confused.gif[/img]

Yes, it scares you, me, and all of us...we have a large deep-chested breed...a pre-desposition, for Bloat...but, why are our dog's getting Bloat so much?...I wish, together, we could analize all our information, based on personal expieriences, with this horrible occurance which has taken many of our beloved "children", and try to figure out, why we have such a worrisome dilema, on our hands...

I know I am thinking way out of the norm, (and, please forgive me), but I wish there was a way for us to stop Bloat, and get some answers!!!...(sorry for all the venting)..I just care alot about our beautiful breed, and want us all to live happily with our Shepherd's, without worrying that this horrible event, may take away their wonderful lives, with us...

We all worry about Bloat so much, and why it happens?.. I wish we could do our own research, to prevent such a life-threatening event from happening....Thank's for listening....I pray for you, and all....

[Qyn]

Sometimes it is better for us to be slightly scared that it may happen so we DO watch for the signs - this allows us to take quick action. There are a lot of triggers and some dogs will bloat no matter what you do and others will not bloat despite doing all the supposed things you should avoid doing. So much contradicting advice will not help where awareness and quick action will help and often save lives. Good luck and hopefully the actions you have decided to do will stop a reoccurence.

[Dohhhhh]

My Cheyenne bloated...had to have the emergency surgery to correct it. I give my dogs Gas-x with meals and before exercise expecially on hot days. I also do not feed an hour before or hour after exercise. I also stopped using raised feed dishes.

This is NOT medical advice. This is what "I" do with "my" dogs.

[lfbaragona]

I can't say this strongly enough: get a gastropexy done on your dog and NOW. If you've slogged thru all the Purdue research and the many journal articles in JAVMA on GDV, you've seen that dogs that experience one episode of GDV have an 80% chance of another episode. The gastropexy (stomach tacking) cannot stop your dog from bloating, but it will keep the stomach from torsioning, which is the most dangerous part of bloat. It gives you much more time to deal with the emergency, a MUCH greater liklihood of being able to relieve the pressure by passing a stomach tube (which is often impossible if they torsion), and of course gives your dog a much higher chance of survival if you're not there to help him out when it happens again. I had a prophylactic (preventative) gastropexy done on my dog last spring, and in the last 6 wks, he's had TWELVE episodes of bloat and easily survived all of them, no doubt due to the gastropexy. By comparison, a friend's GSD bloated and the vet didn't do the tack, said to wait and do it later when he was healthier and not so stressed....he bloated 8 days later and died. Don't wait.

Lee Baragona