Quote Originally Posted by Shelteez2 View Post
Thanks for clarifying that about the pup you had that bloated.
I get what you mean about letting dogs be dogs. I am somewhat concerned with bloat with Ramone. I add water to his food, but I don't let it soak until it's right soggy. I do wait 30 minutes before or after feeding for exercise... but I don't restrict him from moving about. We don't have a yard for him to rip around in anyways. I do feed him from raised dishes...but not always. I occassionally feed him in his crate so he has to eat off the floor in it.
That's awful about the collie breeders you mentioned. Both the "guess we won't be winning the open blue class" and the ones whose dogs didn't make it past 7. My dobe breeder has quite a few dogs in the double digits age wise and has only had a few bloat cases in over 20 years of breeding. I'm going to ask her what she thinks about there being a genetic factor involved.

Well my dogs do get water added to their food... also I add a little canned (like 1/2 can between 5 dogs.. so its not a lot of canned)... but I don't let the food sit and get soggy either.... I mix it all up in one large bucket with a little water and canned.. and scoop it right out to them. Though I don't restrict activity if they want to play they can.. but most often they just chill for a while.... after they eat. They aren't crated or locked up.

I don't think all cases of bloat are genetic... last year a friend of mines 13yr old lab bloated.. they took him in for surgery and found a huge mass in his abdomen.. which they figured caused him to bloat... he was put down tho, they couldn't do anything.... I think dogs who bloat at 8-9-10 yrs old or older... a lot of it could be caused by other underline health issues - cancer, tumors etc.... but when you have a 7 month old, perfectly healthy Collie PUPPY.. that screams out genetic to me!!.... His sire was I think 7yrs old when he died of bloat...

There are dogs behind the sire who bloated at 5-6-7 yrs of age.... 5yrs of age seems to be the key age for a lot of the dogs behind him though... so again, that is weird.... as several of the dogs (but not all) that have bloated in his pedigree, bloated around 5yrs of age....