Quote Originally Posted by Shelteez2 View Post
I thought with bloat that you weren't supposed to let the dogs tummy get too empty either?? At least that's what my dobe breeder says. She always makes sure the dogs get 2 meals a day and never go more than 12 hours without food.
The puppy that bloated, bloated about 10 hrs after he ate... so basicly empty stomach.. he bloated thru the middle of the night/early morning, while sleeping in his crate..... when he had the surgery the surgeon basicly told me if its gonna happen, it will and you won't prevent it.. you can try to reduce the risk, but in the end, if its gonna happen it will.... and I personally feel its strongly genetic (not all cases of course.. but A LOT) and runs in certain lines.... and in some pedigrees (which is the case of the father and son that I had that bloated).... you can look back at the pedigree and in almost every generation name a dog or in some cases several dogs who either bloated or produced it.... and breeders ignore this or try to make up excuses as to why it happened..... and then continue on breeding dogs with strong bloat backgrounds to other dogs with strong bloat backgrounds..

I only feed my dogs once a day... except for puppies of course. After my first dog bloated, well actually before.. I was paranoid about bloat and would feed the dogs late at night and crate them after they ate... so they weren't running around and playing to rough with a full stomach.

But now I feel like you have to let the dogs be dogs... I feed once a day, if they want to play and run and have a good time after they eat... they can. You can't treat them like they are going to break, especially when you breed because you need to know about health problems.... because I refuse to breed a dog who bloats... that is one of the reason I bought Zack (Robin's Zack) a few years back..... I got Zack after my puppy bloated but before the puppies sire bloated... I got Zack for several reasons, but the main reason was because the bloodlines behind Zack are not only beautiful, they are known to be healthy, long lived dogs! I mean Zack's great grandsire was showing at the Collie club of america national specialty show this past spring, in the vetran class at just over 14yrs old!... he was slow, but he was showing! Zack is behind EVERY dog I own, including my current litter of puppies...

I remember at the 2005 CCA (the year paris and zack both go class placements)... there was a rough blue bitch who bloated at the national.... and died. What did the owner say... just "Well I guess we aren't going to win the open blue class this year" How sad is this???? It shouldn't be all about winning...

I visited some other breeders 5-6 years ago... just kennel hopping really.... they were fairly close to where I lived at the time so me and another breeder friend of mine went to look at their dogs. This was before I had anything that bloated.... these breeders were really looking forward to the CCA national specialty that year.. because they FINALLY had a vetran to show... they said this right to us... "Our dogs don't usually make it that long"... the first age group for vetrans is 7-11.... your dogs don't usually make it to 7yrs old???? again... thats pretty sad!!

Ok... this got longer than expected.... JMHO about bloat....