Bloat - Gastric Dilation-Volvulus

[StaffyDaddy]

I posted this because it's scary stuff. Especially for bigger dogs, and larger breed pups. Puppies often get excited and want to play play play and it's important to keep the dog inactive for a reasonable amount of time before and after a meal. I own two American Pitbull Terriers, and while they are a medium dog breed they are deep chested and could be susceptible to bloat. It acts fast, and can be deadly within hours. Like that age old saying "dont swim within one hour of eating.." because it's true.

[KYS]

With my 1st Akita I was paranoid about bloat.
The sire of my male Akita died of Bloat.
My BF friends have a young female GSD that bloated. Lucky they
got her to the vet on time.
The one thing I learned from Vets on the Akita list: is that if your dog does bloat, make sure you have the vet tack the stomach.


Lucky knock on wood my dogs have not experienced and hope never will.

[chermes]

Our standard poodle at 1 year of age ended up in surgery for bloat. It was a huge emergency at 6pm at night with the ER 30 minutes away. Thank fully we knew about the condition and got her there as quickly as possible. The spleen was twisted, but the stomach wasn't. I think the biggest clue as to the condition is the vomiting with nothing coming out. Especially if you know that the pet has just recently eaten .
Pet owners should find out where the closest pet ER is to them, have the phone number accessible and map out the location, before the emergency is at hand, so that you can get there ASAP. We took a wrong turn on the way and used up precious time.
Dogs with deep chests that do the spinnies when excited are highly susceptible
to bloat.

[Spiritwind]

Puppies often get excited and want to play play play and it's important to keep the dog inactive for a reasonable amount of time before and after a meal.

I have had Collies for 15 yrs and have had 2 bloat experiences. Unfortunately both cases were several hours after a meal! The first bloat case was on a 7 month old male Collie. I caught it early on, and took him to the ER vet... he was saved, and was actually only hospitalized for a total of 36 hrs (and $1200) because I caught it so quickly. He was neutered a couple months later. Then, almost exactly one year later his father (who I co-owned but he lived with the other owner) bloated and died at age 7.

Both these dogs bloated more than 5-6 hours after eating. I've know of other dogs who have bloated (Collies, danes and other breeds). Based on what I have seen, I believe MOST (though, certainly not all) bloat cases are genetic. Short of tacking the stomachs before bloat happens (like many Dane people do) if it's going to happen, you cannot prevent it. You might be able to lessen the chance, but you can't prevent it 100%.

JMO...