Bloat Claims Another Sweet dog

Hi Dukesdad, You did a wonderful job in creating that web site! my hats off to you! Now of coarse i cried!!!

This condition is not found in small breed dogs? I'm wondering because Casey (my mini dacshund) has a large chest.....

Susan

 

Susan,
I everything I have read small breeds do not seem to be at risk. Here is a list of what the Purdue University study determined to be the breeds at greatest risk:
Great Dane
Irish Wolfhound
Bloodhound
Saint Bernard
Weimaraner
Akita
Irish Setter
Standard Poodle
Collie
Rottweiler
Notice that Labs are not on that list but my Lab did experience the condition. I find that Labs and Weimers have a very similar body configuration and Weimers are on the list.

 

Thank you!

 

I know this is an old post but I thought maybe I could add something. First off, let me start by introducing myself. As you can see my screen name is dexter30. I'm from the United States, Pennsylvannia. I currently own a female akita mix named Shanna. I use to also have a large pure bread male akita named Hercules. He was 135 pounds and he too died from bloat at age 8. It happened to him twice. The second time was fatal. The vet informed me that not only does the stomach bloat but it also flips over cutting off blood circulation the the large intestine. Many times even if the stomach is problem is corrected, the intestine tissue is destroyed and the animal can still die. Also, I was told that this mainly happens to large, deep chested breeds.

It has been almost 3 years since I lost hercules and I miss him dearly. Dukesdad, I'm sorry for your loss. I know how hard it is to go through such a thing.

 

Thanks Dexter and I too know how deeply you feel your loss. The bloat occurs because the stomach flips, thus twisting everything together. You are correct in that the fatal damage is mainly caused byblood flow being cut off or restricted. Jake lost his spleen because it was damaged and I got him to the Vet very soon after I noticed he was not acting right. Thats how quickly damage can occur.

 

I know how you feel I lost my Sandy poo, she was a cocker span. and poodle mix aka cocker-poo, in 1996. She started by not eating but when she would drink it all came back up I took her to the vet and he told me that she was bloated, but he was unable to get her tubed. So they did surgery and found her stomache to be twisted ( mainly all of her stomache had gone black ) he came out and told me that she only had a 2% chance of living, I made the hardest choice of my life I told him to let her go (to the rainbow bridge). I could not stand to see her suffer the rest of her life if she lived, I'm sorry if you all think me heartless but I could not see her having to eat every 5 minutes for the rest of her life. My aunt Mary had a dog ( dachy ) that had her stomache to flip also but they got her to the vet in time, they were able to fix it by stitching her stomache in place but she died 2 months later from a heart attack.

 

Now that this topic has been brought up again, something just occured to me so I have a question.

If a dog has bloat, how long would it take them to die if nothing is done for them?

The reason I ask is last christmas my step-father's dog died sort of under mysterious causes. They thought he had eaten something bad out of a dumpster or something (he was always escaping from the yard, etc.) He was sick for maybe two days. His symptoms were just that he didn't really want to eat and he was just very lethargic, didn't want to get up, was throwing up, etc. My idiot stepfather didn't take him to the vet immediately b/c it was christmas and he didn't want to pay the extra $$. Anyways, the dog was an Irish Setter. It has just bothered me b/c I was concerned it may have been something contagious and I don't want my dogs to get sick when I bring them to their house.

 

elizavixen,
The only thing a truly bloated dog can throw up is a bit of foam. because the stomach cannot regurgitate pass the twist. As for how long, from what I have read it only takes a matter of hours, not days for a dog to succumb due to the blood flow blockage to vital organs.
From your decscription, the symptoms your step-fathers dog exhibited do not match up with bloat but it might have been an intestinal problem from ingesting some trash. Those symtoms could also match a fairly wide scope of other diseases as well.

 

Ok. It has just always bothered me not knowing what happened to him. I had never initially even considered bloat. I guess I'll never know.

 

Just wanted to let you know - I came across your page sometime back, after Minnie first came along and I was researching all I could about Great Danes. I printed out the warning signs and highlighted them, so that anyone and everyone (have big family, tons of friends, and my apt. is the meeting ground alot - Minnie almost always has company over!) who feeds her or is around her knows what to look for. No episodes, yet (knock on wood) but just the info's there, on the fridge on bright neon pink paper, puts me at ease!