Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pretty sure "Canine Bloat" took my best dog...

Greyghost sorry for your loss. Just wondering if you used a raised dog bowl as well? My 3.5 year old lab eats one meal a day in the evening and she does eat quick. I mentioned this to my vet when she was a puppy and he was not concerned about it. She does eat slower now, but faster than my other previous labs. I also elevate her food and water, and have for all my dogs because of the stomach twist issue. I am going to start feeding smaller meals twice a day.

I too am very sorry for your loss.

However, dog owners need to be reminded (and this really isn't meant to be directed at you although it will look that way) that "if he's not better by morning I'll take him to the vet" has taken a lot of dogs before their time. It's a mistake we hope we only make once.

What exactly does the dog do/not do that convinces you it is bloat?

I mean, I've had my dogs go off feed for a day or two, had them get diarrhea once in awhile, had them act funky for a few days, and then recover without incident.

How would I know if it is bloat?

Their abdomens swell up noticeably.

You can sometimes get the stomach to untwist by wrapping your arms around them just behind the shoulders, then picking them up until their feet are off the floor and "bouncing" them up and down. Didn't work with my Lab, which is why he was operated on.

Not all bloats are due to a twist so bouncing them as you describe is generally not advisable. You're better off trying to relieve the bloat with either a needle directed into the widest portion of the stomach (with the dog on its side), or a tube passed into the stomach, and then getting them to the vet.

Look up Gastric Dilatation/Volvulus on Wikipedia. Note the highly effective preventive surgery that is available for susceptible breeds.

The surgery prevents stomach twisting/volvulus, not necessarily bloat as not all bloat cases are due to a twist.

bobhanson1,

Thanks for that information--but bouncing my Lab was the advice of my vet.

Sorry to hear about your loss. I know a woman that lost 2 Great Danes to that in a short period of time.

I've had two dogs bloat in 25 years of sled dogs. The first time I was there when Jake ballooned and luckily had some gas x pills and massaged his gut and it released. The second one was a couple years ago, fed the dogs late at night and had a dead dog in the morning. Deep chested, large breed dogs, especially dogs that wolf down their food are prone to it, I was told.

Sorry to hear about yours greyghost...

If you had no other options, then maybe... However, there are better intervention options than bouncing the dog especially since it could actually cause a bloated dog to twist (think of a basketball rolling around in a pool of water as that's how a bloated stomach acts). While I appreciate your vet's opinion, it's a practice that is no longer encouraged in most first aid/casualty care manuals for dogs. I'm a vet as well and have performed emergency care as well as taught first aid/casualty care to hundreds of dog handlers both here and in more sandy places...

The most important thing is as many has already said and was my fault was not recognizing the symptoms and not taking it seriously enough to seek out immediate veterinary advice and help. Secondly I think having multiple choices to self treat when getting to a vet is impossible possibly might help. Not taking these kind of ailments seriously is akin to deliberately killing your loved pet and partner... Thinking that something like this could be put off until the next morning to get her to the vet, and having nothing on hand that might have helped, is something that I'll never forget and will regret for the rest of my life.

Was watching an article on the local news this morning about the toxicity of Sago Palms to pets and humans... just the ingestion of one seed can kill an animal within hours, and yet a lot of people have never heard of this and aren't being warned by home building supplies who sell these plants for both in-home and yard plantings.

Pets pay the price of their owners knowledge Good or Bad!

Phil

Military working dogs get prophylactic gastropexy surgery to prevent GDV. For deep chested dogs it's worth it.

Military dogs do get gastropexied, but they also still get bloat. Gastropexy only prevents the bloat (GD or gastric dilatation) from turning into a twist (GDV or gastric dilatation volvulus). It's worth it on at risk working breeds and probably a lot of hunting dogs, but it will definitely increase the cost of a spay/neuter, especially in males where you need an extra incision and more time.

The other big advantage of getting big dogs gastropexied is that if the spleen develops a tumor(s) or gets otherwise enlarged, it can twist the stomach and cause bloat and/or GDV. The gastropexy will help prevent this which can give you more time to make it to the vet. In the picture below, the spleen on this Great Dane had twisted 7 full times around where it attaches to the stomach cutting off its blood supply (and nearly ripped the gastropexy site off the stomach), but it held just long enough for me to go in and remove the spleen and repair the damage to the stomach wall.

Just to keep it going, hopefully can save some dogs here. Dogs very rarely die from simple gastric dilatation but they virtually always die from actual volvulus (torsion) that isn't very promptly and very aggressively treated. And THAT gets really expensive as you know. Splenic torsion can occur but isn't common ,even with splenomegaly. But the good news on your case is that the pexy held. It only takes a little longer incison to do the pexy at the same time as the spay. And, as you've heard said, incisons heal side to side not end to end. So I still strongly recommend prophylactic pexy on deep chested dogs. It's worth the risk of having somebody accuse me of trying to rip them off. Real gastric torsions are so serious that it's worth the extra effort and somewhat greater cost for at risk breeds.
Oh...good draping on that case. Good job.

Sorry to hear this.

I've been aware of it for decades, and have always divided my dogs' meals up into at least two, and in some cases three, meals a day because of it. Eating one big meal a day is thought to be involved, especially if the dog is active right after eating. Dividing the meals allows you to be less concerned about activity after eating. But, like you say, it has been known to happen regardless of these factors.

I'm also of the opinion that a kibble diet is connected with this issue. I feed my dogs a raw meat, bone, and organ diet partially for this reason. It also produces and maintains superior health over all.

Sorry for your loss. Sucks. Lost my Lab in October. Dog-size hole in my life.

Greyghost, thanks for posting this and starting this discussion. I had never heard of this in dogs before now.