To those who have lost a dog to bloat or had that terrible experience of having their dog bloat and survive.

I've had two dogs experience bloat. Both survived, but it was very very tramatic on the dogs and me. We have a terrific emerg. care clinic about 45 min drive away. Both times it happend after usual Vet hrs and one was on Sunday. Both dogs were 8 yrs, came from the same kennel with close blood lines, American bred. The surgery is very expensive and there are still no guarantees. The first bill I got was for $2800. My male's surgery and care was $5500. Fortunately I could afford this and they both lived. But, these two incidences happened about 1 yr apart. It was about too much for me to handle emotionally.

One dog, my large female survived, had the stomach sewn to the abdominal wall, and lived three more years with no further prob. My male,bloated twice before he had 1/2 his stomach removed due to atrophy.His stomach was also sewn to the abdominal wall. He had to remain in intensive cardiac care for one week and received blood. He lived two more years.

I've done extensive research on this bloat. It can happen to any dog, at any time, but the Ger. Shep, Basset Hound, Irish Setter are all more prone than most other breeds. The following things should be done and the chances of a repeat bloat are reduced.
1. If surgery is done to untwist the stomach, have the Vet sew the stomach onto the abdominal wall. Most dogs who do not have this done experience another bloat episode within 6 months of the first bloat.
2. Feed twice per day (rest 1 hr. after eating
3. No water after heavy exercise for 1 hr.
4. elevate the food bowl to prevent excessive swallowing of air while eating
5. add water and soak dry food for about 10 min
Even after all these precautions your dog may still experience bloat. Do what you can to reduce the chances. I truly believe heredity does play a role in this predisposition to bloat, so inquire about the blood lines and the bloat there. Then pray to God your dog never goes thru it.

I'll have to check when I get home, where my books are, but pretty sure that recent research published in JAVMA lists a raised food dish as a thing to AVOID, that raising it was associated with an INCREASED RISK. I'll check on it.

Yup, found it online - JAVMA issue from Nov. 15, 2000 - "Among the environmental and management factors, having a raised feeding bowl and restricting water intake before and after eating increased the risk of GDV in large breed and giant breed dogs"

Thanks Lee-

I had been considering building a raised bowl platform for my dog feeding station. You've saved me time and a possible problem with my dogs. I was also under the impression that a high bowl decreased the chance of bloat. :rolleyes:

I have read that the BARF diet reduced the chances of bloat as well.

Has anyone else heard this?

I've only read BARFers claims to that effect, but have never seen an actual study on it.

Put a cup of kibble and a cup of chicken in warm water and see how big they both are later.

The theory with home made or raw is that the food does not expand in the stomach. Expansion = possibly stretching the stomach and making it more round (likely to twist). Digesting grains (otherwise known as kibble) is more likely to produce gas in some dogs as well. There's no money in feeding dogs real food (unlike charging for pellets of mostly grain with waste products of human meat manufacturing added in) so no research has been done to my knowledge.

Either way, it certainly can't hurt to feed raw/homemade. After Auster bloated we couldn't find a kibble that didn't give her awful gas, so we had to cook for her. She recovered very well (amazed the vets) and is now healthier than she has ever been. She can now tolerate some kibble (only used when somebody forgets to get hamburger out of the freezer), but we will always give her real food after seeing the difference it made.

I went to a lecture by a veternarian in Europe that saw the 'last hope' dogs. These dogs were usually ones that other vets had given up on. This vet did feed a raw diet and that was the first thing that owners had to agree to do if they wanted him to see thier dog. Throughout the years, one thing that became very clear during his different surgeries on the dogs was thier stomach/lining. He could tell you immediately which dogs had been fed kibble and which ones had been fed raw. Dogs who were fed raw had a thick strong stomach lining. Those fed kibble had a thin weak stomach lining.

This vet also talked about his training as a veternarian and recalls a lecture by a visiting vet from the U.S. He was talking about different health issues in dogs and one of the ones he kept mentioning was bloat. Someone finally asked what he was referring to as they had not heard about it and had not experienced it. Now, you must remember at this time that in many parts of Europe many people were still feeding thier dogs a raw diet , often in the form of the stuff that most people/butchers would throw away. The visiting vet explained bloat and when he was informed that they did not have this 'here' , he said...you will as soon as processed dog food (kibble) became common feeding.

This particular vet also feels that 'North America' is doing things wrong when it comes to bloat. He felt that the only way to prevent it was through a strong stomach muscle/lining. As mentinoed earlier the way to achieve this was to feed raw. He did go into more technical reasons why talking about what the little 'bugs/enzymes' etc did in the stomach when fed raw and how many of these were not needed when fed kibble etc.

The other thing he felt that was important to keep the stomach strong was the exersice of having the stomach go from full to completely empty. He only feeds and recommends that you feed your dog once every 2 days. Allow them to eat as much as they want and then nothing for a couple of days. He also talked about the importance of fasting your dog once a week. This type of practice gives the stomach muscle the necessary exersice to keep it strong and healthy.

He feels that feeding many small meals was the wrong thing to do as the stomach is never empty.
(now you must remember that he combines this theory with feeding raw...not kibble)