My 6 year old just collapsed and died! - Page 7

I don't want to take this off topic but I to have lost 2 out of 5 dogs from the same breeder to bloat and I feel your pain. My question is for all the people that have lost there babies to bloat has any of them been on a raw diet?  I always felt I was really to blame due to feeding crapy dog food not realizing it was not good for them so I am just curiouse to hear if anybody was feeding raw and lost there dog to bloat.

I am so sorry for your loss.. Good memories will remain and come to mind from time to time, and your heart will smile. Up in heaven, someone just passed over.. maybe a little child. They asked God for a special companion of their very own, and God looked down and saw your dog, and realized that she was just the perfect one. In heaven's wide fields and shady lanes, your dog walks and plays now with someone for who needed her. And, they are happy together. You will see her, again. Right now, she is doing important work.

As much as we love our dogs, we must always remember that dogs are shared. We get them from others before us, and we must always be willing to share the gift.  Part of it (the hard part) is letting go. And, somewhere, sometime, there will be another special one for you.. 

I'm so sorry for your loss. My black boy Onyx died from the same thing in 2007. We were devistated.

Sleep tight beautiful Annie. You are in my prayers.

So sorry to hear about your loss. 

ZIN

  An old friend of mine and a well known breeder / trainer / judge had discussed the bloat problem and came up with the idea that a lot of "bloat" incidences are actually not bloat or torsion, but bowel impaction.. from chewed / ingested foreign materials. We all know that dogs do this. I have seen and heard of it causing the deaths of dogs. I cannot sufficiently stress the importance of watching your dog and keeping him / her in safe kennel enclosures. To most novices, this seems "mean", or "cruel", but it is for the dog's best interest and protection. Some dogs eat rags and these will almost surely cause an impaction. The gut will die at the place of impaction. The whole process may take only four or five days.

  True torsion of the stomach is relatively uncommon. If you can pass a stomach tube, the dog does not have torsion. Sometimes, dogs will drink so much water, or the contents of their stomach will begin to ferment.. creating gases which also distend the stomach so much that the pyloric valve is forced shut by backpressure. The dog cannot vomit. Passing a stomach tube may save the dog. I did have one bitch many years ago who did this (drinking too much water, after a meal). I saved her with a stomach tube. Every kennel should have one. The clear vinyl tubing you can get at some hardware stores by the foot (similar to aquarium tubing, but larger) is quite effective. You can cut it at a taper and bevel the edges, to make it easier to pass. About 5/8" OD (outer diameter) would be about right. If you want to leave it in, you can place a dowel at the at the back of the teeth and use strapping tape to hold it in place, also use strapping tape to restrain the front legs parallel to the neck, so they cannot pull it all out. Then rush to the vet. Sometimes, this is not possible to get a vet in time, so we need to know how to provide immediate first aid. 

  If the dog is not looking right, and you are unsure, you can always ask the vet to draw blood and look at the white cell count. Most vet clinics can do this. It doesn't cost much or hurt the dog. It's a vital diagnostic tool for early discovery / confirmation of problems like this. If there is localized infection and necrosis of tissue going on inside your dog, you can get a good indication of the need for surgical exploration by means of a white cell count, together with palpation and x-ray. I saved a bitch and half of her near term litter once by insisting the vet do a white cell count. He told me nothing was wrong with her and that I should take her home to have her puppies. I knew the bitch, and I knew something was seriously wrong. I actually suspected a torsioned uterus, although I had never seen or heard of it, before. I was right. When the vet saw the white cell count raised, he immediately scheduled for surgery and I got to watch. Sure enough, there was the dead uterus, looking like a big purple yam, with three dead puppies in it. The other two I saved, because I was a good observer and knew my dog. I also gave her massive amounts of pen-strep injectible for four days, to stabilize her, until the pups were old enough to survive (minimum 28 days). I had palpated her previously and knew exactly how old those pups were, to the day.. Thank GOD!!!  Now, you can't get pen-strep anymore (thanks, USDA), but probably straight penicillin would work. Everyone ought to have some on hand for emergency.

Also, keep rags out of the kennel and if you use them, know where they are at all times. All it takes is an ingested rag or small wiping towel to kill a dog. If a dog swallows a rag, seek medical assistance for that dog, ASAP. It will not pass by itself.

Again, I see the tendency to blame the breeder for everything that goes wrong, and I'm sure this is unfair in many instances. The breeder cannot have any influence on the dog after you take it home, and people do a lot of stupid things without even realizing it. I have, God knows. No one is born knowing everything and most people learn by mistakes. Learn from the mistakes of others and learn to look, listen and think. You are the first line between your dog and harm.

Having a dog is a lot like having a three year old, that's stuck on three. They can get into a lot of trouble and they don't know any better. Anyone who has raised a child through the toddler years (2/3) especially knows that they must be watched constantly. They will put anything into their mouths and are dangerously inquisitive.

I was rather unsympathetic in some of my remarks to someone else who posted a thread of OMG, my baby's gone.. Turns out they let the dog out to run at night, every night and knew the dog was running deer, etc. Who would let their five year old child out to run every night? That is just stupid and irresponsible. Two dogs were just shot by a farmer in Arizona and there's a big stink about it, but the farmer was within his rights to do it. He found one of his calves dead, chewed up by dogs. This is what city people do when they move to the country. They let their dogs run, and don't know or care what kind of trouble they are getting into. These are the same people who are most likely to blame everything on someone else, and breeders are getting blamed for a lot of things they have no control of. Result? Increased breeder legislation and regulation, to the point where it's impossible for most people to even comply.

People, get a clue. Sometimes, we set our dogs up to fail. Worse, we can't take responsibility for it or learn from our mistakes. It's always easier to blame it on someone else.

And, by the way.. If there is a bowel impaction, toxins from bacteria can immobilize the smooth muscles of the gut and muscle, greatly complicating things and making it seem that the stomach is bloating (because it cannot process anything). I know that we like to have our dogs around us as pets, but if more dogs were kept in kennels and brought in only for interactive sessions, they would not have as many accidents in the home... something to think about. There IS a type of kennel which can keep the dog absolutely safe, comfortable, happy and immaculately clean and odor free (ready for interactive play or training, any time), but most of the namby pamby's think it's "cruel" to put a dog in a "cage". So, whatcha gonna do?

I guess that dogs are just going to keep having accidents in and around the home. It keeps the veterinarians busy..