I have known of only one dog,my friends GSD, who suffered bloat, actually full torsion, and did not survive. They fed him and went out for the evening. Upon their return, they found him curled up in a closet, alive, but unresponsive. He was rushed to an emergency clinic, but it was too late.To this day they torture themselves with "if only we didn't go out".

A while back I did some research on bloat because my dog is a large deep chested food gobbler (GSD/Malamute mix) and the concensus seems to be that there is a genetic component. Dogs whose ancesters suffered bloat were more likely to suffer from the condition. Oddly in the few articles that I read, there were no cautions about refraining from exercise before eating, only two hours after eating. So naturally I have always made sure that my dog was exercised before eating. This will stop today. As to the wild wolves, I think the raw diet is probably the answer although I know of no study on this.

I am brand new to this board and just want you all to know that I have read your threads with great fascination. I actually get the whole sharp/nerve thing. I have learned more in the last few days reading your discussions than in the entire time that I have had my dog.

The kicker with all of this is nothing is fool proof. Bloat can come before torsion and torsion can come before bloat.

A club members dog recently had torsion and has(so far) survived the surgery. This dog had not been fed when the torsion occured, but was fed after. The owner had been out swimming and playing with the dogs prior to feeding. With torsion the food is pushed through the twist by the muscles in the throat, but once it reaches the stomach it can not leave causing the actual bloat. This particular dog was fed kibble, but I do not think, at least in the circumstance that kibble was to blame. No food is going to be gas free, and with the stomach already in torsion you have a bad combo.

I do not know if the dogs parents ever bloated, but I don't think so. I will check.

I know a man who lost 2 GSDs within a year or maybe less, from bloat, neither were old dogs. My friend lost her 3 1/2 year old GSD about 2 months ago to bloat after suffering a heart attack after the surgery, he was rushed to the vet right away when he started to act "off". Another woman has recently contacted me about a rescue, she lost her 5 year old GSD to bloat 2 weeks ago. A woman I know online lost her GSD to bloat, I think he was less than two. There have been alot of deaths from this, it's very sad. Seems to be happening alot more often with younger dogs as well.

All this talk of bloat is making me paranoid. My dog's father died of bloat so I watch him very carefully. I think genetics plays a roll as well as diet. From what I hear it occurs more times with kibble than raw.

Auster had GDV (Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus or bloat with torsion) in May and is still alive. She's never had problems before and only survived becuse my mother fed her 1/2 a donut instead of a whole meal (my parents were in the middle of moving).

Her only problems with gas have been after the bloat. The enzymes and bacteria in her stomach died somewhere during the ordeal and she hasn't been able to digest her food without gas unless given supplements. She's gradually getting better (probably because of the supps) but wheat and dairy and kibble are still a big problem.

Originally posted by Karmen Byrd:
I think genetics plays a roll as well as diet. From what I hear it occurs more times with kibble than raw. I think genetics plays a part as well, probably the largest part in my view. The man with the 2 dogs, I'm reasonably certain they were also related to the 3 1/2 year old who also bloated. I doubt if there is a way right now to know if it happens more on kibble and raw, I have read of it on both diets, and I would imagine there are more kibble feeders out there then raw feeders. I find the research focussing on temperament in relation to bloat more interesting than the diet ones, which seem to change regularly. Raise bowls, don't raise bowls, soak kibble, don't soak kibble, you name it.

I have a Doberman who is a total chow hound and bolts her food down as fast as she can. She lives for food. One day though, she refused her breakfast and instead threw up liquid and some little black bits. She spent the day going from place to place, looking for a way to get comfortable. Then she didn't eat dinner. The next morning she looked miserable. I was worried about bloat but she wasn't all swollen like I had read about. All I could think was she was acting like a horse that's collicking. She was taken to the vet by someone else who did not relay my observations so when nothing was found on x-ray and other tests, the vet thought she may have had a virus that was going around with a lot of other dogs at that time. She was given medication and held over night. The next day she was still refusing to eat and occasionally threw up a little liquid. She was scoped. Nothing. We took her home in hopes she would eat something from us but she refused. She looked so miserable and we were getting scared. We brought her back the next day and the following morning quite early, we got a call from the vet. (always a bad sign when a vet calls you early) Another X-ray was done and they found an inflamation on or around her pancreas and so they were going in. I was in tears. 20 minutes later the phone rings again(another bad sign) and all I could think of was what they found was so bad that she'd have to be put to sleep on the spot. Well, it turned out that what she had was a Bezoar. It is a concretion that builds up the digestion system until it becomes a blockage and causing the same thing as bloat. My vet was so excited because in his 27 years of practice, he had only seen one one before. Her bezoar was made up of fecal matter and her hair and the vet said that there's nothing we did to cause it nor is there anything to prevent them but they extremely rare in dogs. They are usually found in animals that chew their cud. Anyhoo, the bezoar was removed and I got back a very happy--and hungry dog who had been very close to death. I have since switched to the BARF diet because I heard from some Mastiff people that the incident rate of bloat disappeared once their dogs switched over to barf. I also think the barf diet might clean out her innards better than kibble could have. BTW, I found out that a dog doesn't need to have a big, swollen tummy to be bloating. If a dog stops eating and looks like they can't get into any kind of a comfortable position, get that dog to a vet. (and tell your vet ALL your observations)

Kitty S.

I gonna add my .02 here as I lost my first Rott to a torsion. It is truly a shitty thing to see. We caught my guy after he was already down. Looked like he swallowed a friggin watermelon. Had the emergency surgery to turn the stomach/intestines back, but he never camo out of the anesthetic. Doc said that the first 24 hours after surgery is the most critical. If they make it past that, you usually have a successfull procedure. I still blame myself for the whole thing as I made him wear one of those satellite dish collars to keep him from chewing out some stiches. He was so freaked out by it and tried all night to get it off. I jsut left him, thinking he would just calm down, but instead, he jsut kept wigging out. By morning, he had worked himself up into such a frenzy, his gi system must have flipped. A real shame, he was a great dog.

Moral of the story, be careful with large breeds and DONT let them roll around on the back after eating or drinking, or feed/water too soon after exertion.

We were at the lake this wekend with our GSD, he's a retriveing maniac and loves to swim. He was playing and swimming and all of a sudden he was blown up like a balloon. I think he sucked down a lot of water and air while fetching the toy in the water. I was worried about him at first, but he showed no signs of pain, lethargy or discomfort. He evetually peed and crapped it all out. At the end of the day, when we got off of the boat, he took a 2 minute (I'm not exagerating) leak! I couldn't believe it, I felt bad for the guy.

I had a female, GSD, Nash vom Kelterhoff that got bloat about 6 months ago. I rushed her to the vet, but it was too late. She only lived 3 hours after I found out something was wrong. The vet said that her stomach must have twisted and perforated. In effect she was poisoned.It does not take long for a dog to die from this.