My 6 month old GSD had surgery for Intussusception of the Intestine on Friday. He had been nuetered 4 days prior and was heathly. His health deteriotered very quickly right after the neuter. He was inactive, moopy, with no desire to eat, refused treats he would even readily accept. 2 days after nueter he started vomiting and having bloody stools. Returned back to the vet over the next 2 days with an initial diagnosis of stress colitis as all blood work and exams were unremarkable. On Friday morning he was even more inactive and vomiting after a small amount of fluid and activity...also had bloody stool which contained what appeared to be a long bloody clot... Called my breeder and she advised that I take him to another local vet for a second opinion. The second opinion was the same diagnosis, stress colitis but they wanted to keep him for observation and give him IV fluids. They would do an ultrasound on Sat or Sun if he did not improve.
Sopke with my vet after I returned home without my GSD so....long story short...went and retrieved my GSD, took him back to my vet...they performed the ultrasound later that day at another facility and low and behold.....Intussusception of the Intestines. It was soooooo......severe we had only hours to get him to surgery....would have been a dead GSD IF WE WAITED UNTIL SAT OR SUN FOR ULTRASOUND....
I stayed with him prior to the surgery...after the surgery....only going home for 8 hrs. to sleep, eat and shower....returned on Sat morning...he was already about 30% himself...he started eating some Hills AD mixed with water....then ate some Hills AD mixed with Hills ID....kept the food down...perked up more 50% himself....no problems with peeing as they were running lots of IV fluids....took him home on Sat at 6pm...following a strick diet.....2 tbl of ID and 2 tbls of AD with some water...every four hours...many drugs spread out through the day and night...i keep a timer running attached to my shirt collar to assure that we do not miss feeding or drugs.....
I am happy to report that he is 100% himself at this time...mouthing my curtains again...searching for stuff on the counter again...taking short 5 minute walks down our dead end street only to reduce stress and activity...keeping food and water down...no blood in stool...increased food intake as per the vet Monday....3 tbls of Hills ID, 1 tbl of Hills AD, 1/4 cup of kibble(we feed him Annamaet Encore 25% Protein, Wheat and Corn Free Dry Dog Food).
He had 2 servings last night and now I am feeding him only 4 times a day...increasing kibble to 1/2 cup to Hills ID only tommorrow until i speak with the vet on Friday..
Long posting for my first but hope someone might have had an experience such as ours with their GSD as this was an unusual presentation of an idopathic Intussusception. No parasites...very healthy puppy...prior to all of this walked 2 to 3 miles a day, played for 20 mins in the afternoon...indoor supervised play and interaction w/family 5 to 7 hours a day. otherwise crated....
He is a very strong chewer...he destroys almost any toy we purchase regardless of their claim that they are indestructable....he will take a piece off of a nylabone with minutes, which I would remove and throw out....also looking for suggestions on toys...bones...that will be more safe as I have read that an Intussusception can be caused by the dog injesting small foriegn objects...

Thanks for posting, Susan, and welcome to the forum. I'm glad the problem was caught in time and that your dog is doing fine.

I had this happen to a 6 wk. old pup. Thankfully the vet was able to reverse it with some kind of a telepscope instrument, thus did not need surgery. It never happened to her again. Not sure why it happened the first time.

Our last rott had that happen when he was 11 months old, surgery was done and he never had any other problems with it.

Good Luck

Thanks for all of the responses. I am happy to hear that hopefully Czar will continue to be well. He is a great pup with a wonderful temperment