We have two German Shepherds and have been warned about torsion (bloat). Apparently it can kill a dog from shock or heart stoppage within less than an hour and occurs in deep chested dogs. We talked to our vet about it and he said that it is fairly common in shepherds and explained what causes it and gave us 18 gauge needles to use if we are somewhere we can't get to a vet fast. The vet suggested we feed small meals to the dogs over the course of the day, don't let them gulp water, etc. What I want to know is if anyone has had experience with this and what advice you can offer. Thanks.

-- Dee (www.bdforce@theriver.com), August 09, 2001

Answers

Bloat causes a dog's stomach to swell up due to gas or fluid. Symptoms include dry heaves, attempts to vomit or defecate, restlessness, pale gums, abdominal distention or evidence of abdominal pain. It is a life-threatening emergency.

A dog who can vomit probably does not have bloat (which is essentially a twisted stomach).

This condition usually affects large, deep-chested dogs like German Shepards and Labs. We were warned about it when we were training our Loki, our yellow lab. We were advised to feed him small meals several times a day rather than less frequent large ones. I think that as long as you do this, your dogs should be fine.

More information (and some excellent links)can be found at this site.

-- Bethany (farewell@tropicalstorm.com), August 09, 2001.

Bethany has the right idea. I have seen many different breeds die of this(great danes, Rottwielers etc.). Any large breed is at risk. Sometimes if the obstruction is not complete(the stomach is not completely twisted, passing a flexible plastic tube down into the area will temporarily ease things until surgery can be done. It is an effective surgery but it isn't very often that the Veterinarian gets the dog soon enough to get it under anesthetic and save it's life. Usually shock sets in so fast that unless the owner is in tune enough to catch the early signs it's too late.

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), August 09, 2001.

Thanks for the link, Bethany. I recently adopted a German Shepherd from the Humane Society, and I have been taking some measures against bloat, but not as thoroughly as outlined at that site. I'll change my methods now.

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), August 09, 2001.

Thankyou, Bethany, for that site. I'm going to cut/paste the info and put in big letters and shover under hubby's nose. I've told him many times...DO NOT run the dog after a meal! But they'll go out in the backyard, and he'll be throwing the ball for Tanka, our German shepherd, male, just under 2 years old.

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), August 10, 2001.

Thanks so much for posting this! I have a male yellow lab who's 4 years old and so in the prime category for this problem and I've never heard of it. He's on one meal of kibble a day which will change after reading this! Bubba is my "surrogate child" so to lose him, especially to something like improper feeding and care, would be a terrible blow.

Also, I should mention that we lost an English setter earlier this year to a bowel obstruction caused by her chewing the ends off of one of those knotted rope toys. "Death rope" we call them now when we see them in the store. It was hubby's dog and he was inconsolable for a long time about losing her.

-- Susan (smtroxel@socket.net), August 10, 2001.

I've heard that mixed breed dogs (mutts, actually) are less susceptible to breed-related problems. Does the same hold true for this, of does the fact that they are still shepard-y or lab-y indicate a need to watch them even if they're not pure?

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 10, 2001.

Dear Dee, thanks for your info. but I guess we've been lucky with all our large dogs(labs,sheps)we always leave feed out all time. So they only eat when they want and usually a bite now and them. This could be an idea for you leave their feed out all the time. At first they will eat alot but as soon as they get used to seeing it out they will slow down. Ours 2 labs run loose and they go through about 25lbs of feed every week to 10 days. The only problem we've had is in the winter when I believe some type of wild dogs(coyotes) visit the feed and we can go through 25lbs in 3 days. Which dosen't happen often. I hope this helps you.

-- Wynema Passmore (nemad_72039@yahoo.com), August 11, 2001.

Yes, I my self lost a blood hound to this. We had her for 8 years with no problem. We went on a weekend get away and placed her in a kennel same one she always went to. This time we picked her up and she was so happy to see us. Took her home and fed her not knowing she had already eaten at the kennel before we picked her up. She got bloat the vet said that he could operate but there was only a 10% chance of her making it. We decided to let her sleep. Worst christmas ever. Any way they call it the happiness killer, because when dogs are excited like she was in seeing us and they have already eaten or they are to hyped up if you feed them bloat will often occur. She was a champion dog beautiful strawberry blond hair.. Do not feed large dogs after a brisk walk, if they eat make them quite or rest for at least 45 min after no feeding when hyper and no mixing wet with dry dog food, give one and next time you can give the other but not together for the same meal. Bo~Rou our beautiful hound was the best spoild baby you could ask for we miss her,,,,please remember quite time at dinner before and after for your dog,,because if you don't it could be quite for life.

-- Rachel Roberts (addison4u@yahoo.com), August 13, 2001.

We raise, breed and show Great Danes which are a breed that are definitely susceptible to bloat. We feed them twice a day and they do not run around an hour before eating or an hour after eating. Luckily in the eighteen years we have been raising danes we have never had one bloat. Unfortunately, we have friends who have. There is some evidence now in studies that the predisposition to bloat may be genetically related. Given how often it happens in Great Danes and the fact that our breeder that we got our foundation bitches from who has been in danes for thirty-five years never had a case of bloat either, I tend to believe it is genetically connected. Also, stress is a factor. This would explain the person who mentioned they had just picked their dog up from the kennel. Since we are in the dog show world, we hear of dogs bloating quite frequently and it is related to being in the stressful environment of a dog show. My husband has even witnessed one handler running her great dane around the ring and when it backed away from her was dragging it along and someone from the sidelines had to yell at her that the dog was bloating. Luckily there were experienced people ringside who tubed the dog and saved it's life. They were prepared because they had a tube with them at the show site. Even the onsite veterinarian didn't have that with them. Unfortunately, if you don't react within a half hour to forty-five minutes of the onset of symptoms, you cannot save the dog. The stomach twists (torsion) and cuts off its own blood supply so the tissue dies. Any of the deep chested breeds are susceptible to bloat including basset hounds even though they are a relatively small breed. I believe that limiting the amount of stress in your dog's life helps to prevent it. Also the general nervousness of the dog and his ability to take changes in stride contribut to that. Having said all this. Don't beat yourself up if your dog bloats because few people recognize the symptoms as they occur because they just write them off as something else until it is too late to react. Unless you are doing something really stressful to the dog which you shouldn't be, I wouldn't blame yourself. It is just one of those things. It happens very quickly and unless you are awake at the time (many dogs bloat at night) and recognize the symptoms and either get them to a vet immediately or tube them yourself (which means obviously you have to have a tube handy), you are not likely to save the dog. Also, even saving the dog by having the surgery doesn't have a very good success rate either and it is VERY expensive (several thousand dollars for a great dane). The post operative time is when most of the dogs succumb to heart attacks anyway because the bloat is so hard on their hearts. From my exposure to bloat in the dane world, the ones that survive are usually only the ones that were tubed immediately. And even if you tube them and save them this time, you could still miss it the next. There is one thing you can do to prevent the torsioning though and that is to have their stomachs tacked to prevent it. They can still bloat but the stomach won't twist and thereby saves their life. This is sometimes done in the show world once a dog is finished with the show ring and is ready for breeding. (Show dogs should not have any kind of cosmetic surgery) The breeder does this to ensure the longer life of their breeding stock in which they have some pretty hefty bucks invested. I don't agree with the practice as I feel it is just encouraging the breeding of the genetic tendency. Hope this info helps.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), August 13, 2001.