puppies can bloat.

 

Video of a dog bloating

Before anyone jumps all over the people taking the video you need to know a couple things.

1. These people had NO experience with bloat. They were video taping their new foster dog and didn't realize what was happening.

2. The dog in the video DOES SURVIVE!!! He gets the treatment needed and recovers.


The reason why this video is important is because it shows us - in REAL LIFE - the sometimes subtle symptoms of bloat. The pacing, the stomach distending, trying to drink and then vomitting - all classics bloat symptoms but not always so obvious.

For those of us that HAVE had a dog bloat - this video is very difficult to watch without yelling at the screen "GET HIM TO THE VET YOU MORONS!!!". Just know that they DID and the dog is fine and now this is an excellent learning tool for others.

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We had our 11 week old GSD at the vet this week and the vet discussed bloat with us. We are going to do the preventative tacking when he's getting neutered at 6 months. She never pressured us, but gave us all the info we needed to make an informed decision. After reading more about bloat, it seems like a low risk procedure. I'm also very glad now we selected a vet that is only 15 minutes away and has a vet on call 24x7.

 

I spend so much time paying attention to my dogs and bloat.

Just wanted to inform people that cat's can bloat also.

Mine bloated the other day. At first I thought it was roundworms. No, I figured out quick that it was NOT anything like that especially when I pulled back his lips and his gums were solid white. I rushed him to the vet.

They believe he may have cancer or a huge mass in his stomach or a problem with his heart. His x-rays were terrible. His stomach showed a mass of white with most of his organs pushed up along his spine. His heart was very small.

I won't know anything more until later........I just wanted to advise people.....if your cat gets a huge, pot bellied look......please take him to the vet right away.

 

Read this and immediately had a question. Is ice a good substitute for water after heavy exercise? Finn gulps his water after a good play session and I got concerned about the bloat possibility. We switched to ice cubes; three or four at a time until he stops panting heavily. Then he gets a very small amount of water until he is able to drink like normal. Is that a good idea or should he wait to have anything until he has calmed down.

 

yes they can still bloat from ice cubes, I give mine a small amount of water after exercise, and wait about a half hour to an hour, once the heavy panting slows down, then they can drink more

 

Good to know. Thanks!

 

This message is not about bloat with torsion, but about stomach torsion without bloat!!!

About a month ago, Slider (who was 10 on 9/11/12) was diagnosed and operated on for stomach torsion.

I'm NOT an expert, but in my limited experience with stomach bloat and torsion (Echo, JR, Kelly and reading about other dogs that have had bloat/torsion) Slider's symptoms were extremely unusual and I wanted to share this information with other GSD owners.

1. Slider was NOT bloated when I took him to the vet's office.

2. SLIDER'S SYMPTOMS:
His symptoms were vague.
He made a couple weird sounding gaggy noises about 2 hours apart.
He started getting slightly agitated shortly before I decided to call the vet ... he'd get up change position and lie back down, then about 2 or 3 minutes later he'd change position, and again and again.
He had a slight stumbling type gait.
HE REFUSED TO EAT A BABY CARROT (a sure sign any of the Hooligans are sick when they refuse a treat).
His nose felt warmish.
He vomited his breakfast while I was getting ready to take him to the vet.

THERE WAS NO STOMACH DISTENTION, WHITE FOAM VOMITING AGITATION, OR UNUSUAL SPITTING UP that I usually associate with bloat/torsion. I was shocked when the vet showed me his x-ray which had a strange looking crease in his stomach (about in the middle) ... the vet said it was "pre-torsion". Because it was so late in the day, we were immediately sent up to the University of Florida's vet school as an emergency.

When the vets at the University's ER looked at his x-rays they said it was NOT pre-torsion ... it was definitely TORSION.

Emergency surgery saved his life!

Under normal circumstances I would probably have taken a "wait and see" attitude with the vague symptoms Slider was exhibiting. BUT I was 100% certain that Slider was extremely sick, sick enough to require veterinary assistance BECAUSE ALL THE HOOLIGANS ARE PIG-DOGS AND HE REFUSED TO EAT THE BABY CARROT ... that's right, a baby carrot saved my dog's life.

I guess what I'm trying to say is get to know your dog as much as possible, his habits, his likes, his dislikes, the way he walks, the way he lies down, stands up, etc etc etc ... this information could save his life one day.

 

That's a great animal hospital. I wish we lived closer

 

good to know. when i have my girl fixed in a month or so i think im going to have the vet pin her stomach to her ribs or whatever they do to prevent torsion.

 

I was asked to post this here so maybe others can benefit. This is kind of our story of Havoc's bloat last night. He is home tonight and resting.






Thanks all!

Havoc is okay this morning. Reason why the vet opted for surgery was there was a lot of gas in the intestines and he could not see well, he was afraid of possible insusspecsion (don't know if I spelled that right). They decompressed stomach and got most of the stomach contents out and thankfully did not have to open the stomach itself. He did have torsion, 90 degrees. Also did a gastopexy at my request.

His heart rate was stable through out the surgery, No PVC's which I guess is common.

Reason why I suspected bloat: He was just uncomfortable and could net get comfortable. He had some minimal distention in his abdomen that I would have said was just gas or drank too much water too fast. He was not doing the back arching or pacing, he was panting too heavily tho. I gave 2 Gas X dissolvable strips.

He looked green around the gills so to speak and started to throw up so I let him outside. He produced a small amount. I called the vet. First signs at 6:55 PM, vet called at 7:01 PM. 2 Gas X in just before calling vet. Vet called back at 7:09PM. By then Havoc had thrown up white froth and seemed much better. Talked to vet who said he may be bloating but sounds like we may have stopped it or it was just gas, Recommended giving him a Pepcid and wait, vet called back 15 minutes later to check and Havoc was resting. The Pepcid appeared to work and Havoc actually rested for while. Then he got back up and started crying. Still no distention, back arching, nothing. Just not comfortable and in obvious distress. Gave more Gas X, Vet called again at 8:40PM and he said 'bring him in, better to err on the side of caution' . Met vet at 9:15, xray revealed mild bloat with no sign of torsion but had some gas in the intestines. Called in tech and by 10:15 Hav was in surgery. At midninght he was awake and recovering.

The vet was actually surprised by the bloat as Havoc really did not have any definitive signs, i.e. no distension. I think the Gas X helped and I think had we waited longer it would have fully developed and I might not have a dog today.

As it is he will come home tonight.



I am very thankful for my vet, Dr. Mark Ferrell, and his wonderful tech, Natalie, who left her family at a car show 20 miles away and hauled her butt in to assist in surgery. She is a treasure. Doc is also very savvy, knows I know my animals and if I say I think he needs to come in, then he needs to come in. He also was not going to rest if had some suspicion. I am glad we all acted on the possibility instead of letting it ride for another hour.
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Thanks for the story. I wonder why the vet told you to give pepcid. That does not elevate gas, its for acid reflux and heart burn and may do the reverse effect of what you wanted. GasX has helped my boy when he bloated. That stuff makes you elevate gas. Others make it stop which is what you do not want for bloat.

 

geez ...if this thread doesn't make me paranoid I don't know what thread would. I'm scared to death to even feed roxy or let her drink water at all

 

Same here - I've been making my coworker nuts with my out loud worrying about everything

My first GSD when I was a kid never had problems, but I also remember now that my dad would mix her dry kibble with both some wet food, and a can-ful of water. (I loved when I got to "prepare" her food, like a pup chef).

I don't use elevated bowls for Ruger, though I had some we had used for our BT before we moved. I was going to use them with him, but he was too short to reach them at the time, and managed to chew the plastic leg off it - maybe he was telling me something! I had thought they were the better option until reading more on here.

I've been trying to keep him calm after eating, and not going on our walk to the mailbox at the front of the neighborhood until about an hour after he eats his PM meal. No playing with the other animals or us until after that. In the AM he does get a little rowdy while we get his meal ready - when we get up, wants to say good morning to us & our other 2 dogs, lick my face, follow us everywhere, jump on the BT and try and get her to play ... he's 3 months old, and definitely full of puppy energy.

I'm debating on free feeding him after reading some doing that in here - he pretty much eats until he's full, then goes back and visits his bowl whenever he wants more now if there's some left. When he was on a bland diet of chicken & rice, he'd devour 2 cups in no time. The only downside of free feeding is that he's not fully house-trained yet, so food left out means more poop on the kitchen floor in his pen (and he has no problem pooping on himself in a crate!).

Trying to tell myself I can't worry sick over it - just need to do what I can, watch for the signs, and hope I never have to experience it. I'm thinking about the stomach tacking when he gets fixed, and have looked up some locations here that offer it so I can talk more in depth when we're ready.

 

I have lost 3 dogs to bloat.
My last one, Mickey, went very quickly and we didn't even make it to the emergency clinic.
I am working on getting the rest of my dogs tacked.
We have a bloat kit at home, we are well versed in the symptoms and CPR.
I don't feed or water until they are at a calm, well rested state.

 

Wow - now I'm completely paranoid about this.

Just to clarify, for those that believe in the 2 hour window.....I'm supposed to wait 2 hours after the dog has exercised to feed him? Or am I supposed to wait 2 hours after he's eaten to exercise him?

What is the definition of "vigorous" exercise? If my dog chases a bird around the yard for 2 minutes, do I have to wait an hour to feed him?

What if he runs around the yard for 15 minutes with a ball? Do I have to wait an hour to feed him?

What if he's running around the yard and is thirsty and takes 10 slurps of water? Will he bloat?

 

I lost 2 GSD's in a row to Bloat. Our new vet said avoid big meals. So for the past 5ys our 10 yr old Dieter gets 4 smaller meals per day, and for those 5 yrs. has been trouble free. His dry food is Science Diet "Sensitive Stomach" So far so good.

 

I wanna just post my experience (unfortunately bad one). I have lost my 4 months old GSD due to torsion. I have read lot of materials about torisons and everyone says puppy should not be affected, but they ARE WRONG ! And what is worse, i have no idea what happened, because he has 4 meals per day, cooked meal, high quality granulles, and after meal he was quite relaxed. And then suddenly he stopped eating, lay down, go to another place, then anther, and so on... breathing was faster and he didnt want treat, just drinking lot of water. So i knew its bad and whiles we visited surgery, he was "gone". RIP Jarvis, fokin dissease.

so everyone, DONT wait while something worse will appear, during first symptoms go ASAP to pro! vet. Dont hesistate to do the best for him. I didnt do enough

 

Don't do that to yourself. I have lost 2 to gastric torsion--bloat--even though for many years I have been doing all the things that we are told to do to prevent it. You can't blame yourself, it's self-destructive. The last one I lost, last November--at the vet's, my Rosco lying on the operating table, sections of tissue in his stomach almost black for lack of circulation, I was distraught and asked (I thought to myself), "why do I always have to make these decisions???") My vet came and put her arms around me and said, "Because you love German shepherds..." Like that was comforting, right? I know her very well, I know she had in mind all the deep-chested breeds, she has lost Labs to some of the same things we have to deal with. But the reality is, we can't blame ourselves when we know we have done all we could. We give them the very best lives we can give them, much better than probably 70% of all dogs in this world, and we have to keep in mind that our time with them is always too short. A painful reality, but there it is.

A friend of mine, also a dog lover, put forth a theory, something to think about. She had lost her beloved Rottie, and to this day she keeps his leather collar in a plastic bag because it still smells like him. She feels that we get so close to our dogs, who give us such non-judgmental loyalty and their version of love, whatever you want to call it, because these qualities are so often lacking in human relationships in this world.

Just throwing that out there, I'm not agreeing or disagreeing. I just know that our dogs' lives are way too short.

Susan

 

Virgil bloated a year ago. It's still very hard on me. We took the precautions to prevent against it, he ate his meal at night, per usual, and was just resting. Very early in the morning he wasn't himself, by the time he woke me up it was already too late. His stomach was bloated and had already twisted, it was pressing against his heart causing an arrhythmia. His chances of surviving surgery were almost nonexistant. Losing him was a tremendous and painful loss.

So basically, I'm not sure there's any 'real' way to prevent bloat. I think there are precautions but honestly, I've seen owners take absolutely none and have a dog that would be 'at risk' for it and that dog never bloats.

I had a friend who's lab bloated just by swimming in the pool. Apparently they ingested too much water...

Having a bloat kit is probably the best way to go on top of being cautious. I have one now.

 

I absolutely believe what arycrest says.

I guess what I'm trying to say is get to know your dog as much as possible, his habits, his likes, his dislikes, the way he walks, the way he lies down, stands up, etc etc etc ... this information could save his life one day.

This saved my 2 year old Golden's life back in the day. He went outside, laid down on the deck and didn't want to come back in. We went immediately to the ER. He had a torsion caused by eating most of a Christmas can of popcorn.

 

My gsd just went through the same thing! Had a lot of gas inboard her stomach, her stomach didn't turn or twist but probably was close! Ever since we have had issues: threw up her food three times this week. Took her to the vet he did another X-Ray showed gas but everything else looked normal... Thank god... But put her on special food to help with digestion.... I'm worried this will keep happening... Any suggestions?

 

First thing get GasX and keep it on hand. Get the tabs that dissolve on the tongue.

Tell us what your feeding now or and what you were feeding. Food and amounts

 

So she was eating 4Health, from tractor supply: grain free (1.5-2 cups) and 1/3 of a can of there wet food, twice a day. We originally started her on taste of the wild and had no problems. I think after she is off the special vet diet (EN Something or other) I will put her back on the taste of wild. I have gas x tabs on the house now, so If I see her having a bigger belly I will give her 2 tabs


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Nothing out of the ordinary. I think those foods are the same, both made by Diamond. Check out the ingredients and see.
Not sure those vet foods are worth even bothering with. I never trust vets and food.

Good luck keep an careful eye on her. My boy has had that a few times as well.

 

We just lost our 3.5 year old boy Baron to mesenteric torsion last week. He was fine Friday then Saturday morning he wasn't himself, kept laying in spots he never laid in then was having trouble getting up so we knew something was wrong.

I had gotten him to the vet and after then got him open his intestines had already started to die off and parts of his stomach and colon. He was given little shot to make it even through surgery so we couldn't let him suffer.

He was a thin narrow boy that was very long and had a very deep chest. He also battled IBS and just had a tough time with being skinny and gaining weight.

I agree with a lot of what was said to be aware of your dogs habits and not to waste time when you know something isn't right. The suddenness of it all is unreal and if you happen to be unsuccessful it's one of the hardest things to go through.

 

I am so sorry to hear about your Baron, mesenteric torsion is so deadly. I'm not sure if this is still true today, but about 14 or 15 years ago my JR survived mesenteric torsion and the vet told me that the fatality rate was about 97% ... I'm not sure if it's still that high today or if they have better diagnostic techniques than they had back then. JR was lucky, my vet couldn't figure out what was wrong so she wanted to do exploratory surgery ... that saved his life.

 

I'm glad to hear he had survived through that. Someone was watching over him that day. Our surgeon didn't tell us statistics, but from the limited amount I've seen online all I see is near 100% even with surgery.

Baron would've needed more then the allowable amount of intestines removed then they would've liked to remove to even had a shot. He was in bad shape when they got to him, including needing removal of parts of his colon and stomach. He would've had dying/dead tissue still which they explained could rupture anytime.

I feel so guilty that we didn't save him. He was only 73lbs at this time and he was very skinny. He has IBS and was so active he never put on weight after being sick as a puppy. We had him tested regularly for all kinds of issues but they never found any underlying cause of not gaining weight. So to have lost more of his digestive tract the surgeon said he would've lost more weight.

 

PLEASE ... PLEASE ... PLEASE ... DON'T FEEL GUILTY!!! I had a friend tell me once that when you put a dog down, you take his pain and make it your own ... you did what you and your vet felt was right for Baron, it's a tough call to make, and you'll always have second doubts but in your mind you'll always know you did the right thing for your boy!!!

 

first off, i'm a one handed typer due to a recent wrist surgery. my gsd, Kaspar, had surgery for a twisted stomach due to bloat just a few months ago. he was saved with no permanent damage and his stomach was tacked to his abdominal wall to prevent re-occurance.

I had just started my tractor to knock down some blackberry thickets and I noticed Kaspar was lying nose down over by a woodpile. I went over and he was laying in a puddle of bile that he had thrown up. I managed to get him up and over to the water bowl. He did have a drink but was gasping and gulping. Not a good sign. I took him to the vet right away and she recognized the symptons of bloat and confirmed the condition with an xray. I took him straight to a vet ER and he was in surgery within a half an hour. He is 100% now and doing fine. He was a very lucky boy and we're glad he is still here with us. Very sorry to those who have lost their K9 family members to this illness.

 

I have heard several different opinions regarding elevated food bowls. A professional dog trainer recommended it to reduced the risk of bloating. Other people said that elevating the food actually increase the risk of bloating. Any comments or personal experiences to share? Thanks

 

Bloat or something else?

Hello,
This last weekend my fiance and I were left very confused by our 5 month GSD Emma.

I'll explain:

Saturday we took Emma to go play fetch. We probably spent a good 30 minutes of playing and Emma always goes all out. Once she finally was getting tired we headed back inside. Knowing about GVD due to my sister's rott dying from it I knew some of the things not to do. I just blanked but when we got back we fed her. She ate all her food. She then pretty quickly after she proceeded to throw every last bit of it up. So we waited a bit and fed her a little more -same thing. Lost all of it. At this point I started to get concerned because she was also retching. A lot. I actually thought she got something stuck in her throat due to losing her dinner. She also at one point drank a whole lot of water. This all lasted from probably 6-11. Around 7 is the time I started suspecting bloat and I did not know it was as serious as it was until researching.

This is where it was strange. She was retching, but also vomiting. She vomited 4 times. One of those times it looked a bit like the 'mucous' type vomit said to come with bloat..but there wasn't much so it was difficult to tell. From what I've heard..they can't vomit with GVD. She also went potty just fine. Her stomach was not tight but she did seem uncomfortable if I pressed on it. She seemed herself but there was 'something' a bit off. She did seem uncomfortable but she never hunched over of walked stiff. She wanted up on the couch by us so we let her come up and she laid down and fell asleep for awhile. When she'd wake up..more retching but fewer and farther in between. She was drooling a bit more than normal. Her heart rate and breathing are usually fast seeing as she's a puppy so I wasn't able to tell if that was abnormal. As time progressed the retching became less frequent and about and hour or so before bedtime I fed her a package sized cup of yogurt. No more retching or throwing up and acted tired but normal the rest of the night.

Next morning she was her normal self. She was more tired than normal but that's understandable because she had a pretty rough day previously. She played and jumped up on us and did all her normal routine things. Same thing with this morning acted normal. I didn't end up contacting the vet. I understand how serious bloat is but I was also afraid that if she didn't have bloat but showed all these signs that we would end up paying an arm and a leg...which we really can't afford. Pet insurance is a definite at this point. One unknown variable thrown into this whole ordeal is that when playing fetch she stopped and seemed to eat something off the ground and wouldn't stop putting her nose in the 'spot'. I went over there and the grass was a lighter color green as in something had been there but she apparently ate it. Could have been a mushroom, could have been a dead bird -idk. That also was a thought of what might have caused the issue.

That being said, what do you guys think? Was it bloat; and if so I didn't think dogs could live through this without medical attention? If it was bloat, does this mean she has an increased chance of getting it again despite the fact she had zero treatment/complications? To say the least, I've definitely learned from my mistakes on this one..the scary way.

Thanks

 

Bloat doesn't kill, its what comes next may kill because of the bloating, torsion, GDV. Buy some GasX that can be real helpful when bloat happens. My dog used to bloat up and GasX was amazing. When he bloated his stomach got huge and was sticking out, very obvious. I guess the non obvious can be worse,

Prevention of Gastric Dilatation Volvulus or Bloat in Dogs