Food + Excercise = Dead Dog

[eSPO]

Butch, more people need to be aware of bloat, twisted gut, or whatever you want to call it. Can you explain what bloat is and how you schedule your dogs training to avoid it ? I hate to hear of good dogs dying becuase the owner was not aware of how lethal this can be.

[josebrwn]

I heard somewhere recently that bloat can be caused not so much by having food in the belly but the wrong food and wrong flora in the gut, that it's bacterial in nature. I wonder if a dog getting raw food with yogurt wouldn't be less succeptible to bloat.

[bostonsmom]

Dogs that have "deep chests" are predespositioned to bloating. The veterinary term is Gastric Dilitation and Volvulus" or GDV. Essentially, the dogs stomach rotates between the esophagus (which enters into the stomach) and the small intestine (which exits the stomache). As a veterinary tech, I have seen and heard many theories as to why and how. Primarily we reccommend people do not allow the dogs to run and play post-eating. Some doctors suggest that you feed the dog from an elevated position (such as putting the food up on a couple of cedar blocks so the dog isn't bending down to eat, but is eating in a normal standing and looking forward position)
The most important thing to me as a vet tech is that people know the signs!!!!
If your dog is acting like he wants to vomit but can't
If your dog vomits immediatly after eating or drinking
If your dog seems unusually lethargic
If your dog is panting in a room where he/she shouldn't be
If your dog has a "distention" (bulge) on the left side of the abdomen
when you are looking at them from the spine down.
If your dog has gotten into food on his/her own and eaten more than you would normally allow in a normal feeding
As always....you should have the number for the emergency clinic on hand..

[Juan00]

Bostonsmom,

"Primarily we reccommend people do not allow the dogs to run and play post-eating."

I was just pontificating on the subject of bloat, and I was really curious whether or not it had anything to do with kibble. More specific, kibble blows up in the stomach due to contact with fluids and water. So, with my neophyte intuition, would you think it's accurate to say that dogs who are fed kibble tend to suffer this problem mostly because it literally blows up in their stomach? In other words, I'm thinking, like Jose Brown, that dogs fed on raw wouldn't see this problem as much because the food is already hyrated to begin with. Just curious... :)

[Jennifer089]

http://www.cybercanine.com/bloat.htm

Another good one (actually, better than the first). There are quite a few articles on this site:

http://www.hollyhollowkennels.com/bloatlinks.htm

Jennifer