Related to Bloat...Need answer ASAP - Page 2

 Agar,

We will hold your friend and her dog in our thoughts. Hopefully the cardiac issues can be managed. Keep us posted.

Agar,

Great to hear she has made it through the surgery!

Vickie

www.PowerHausKennels.com

Well as of this afternoon the vet says the dog is looking at a good prognosis but she's still not out of the woods.  They had her outside to go to the bathroom today and said she was walking around ok but is still pretty doped up on the pain medication.  They're gonna keep her another day or 2 to watch over her before they send her home.  From what I understand this is all a good sign that she made it this far so hopefully she will put this behind her and recover.

My prayers for the Dane and family.

Sounds good (and familiar) to me!  I'll keep sending good thoughts!! 

Thanks everyone.  Looks like the dog is gonna be alright.  Vet kept her for an additional 48 hours after surgery and she's coming home today.  My friend and I stopped to visit her on Sat. as the vet tech indicated the dog seemed depressed.  My friend had boarded her at her sisters house for a couple days over the summer while we all went away on a little trip and the dog wouldn't even eat for her and paced her floors until she finally packed the dog up and stayed with her back in my friends house where she seemed a little more at easy.  So I'm sure this vet stay was not going over well with her.  When she saw her "mommy" walk in she stood up groggy and tail a waggin'.  lol 

The vet had said this was one of the worst cases she'd seen in a long time but thankfully there was no damage to the spleen and the outcome was much better than they had expected.

I'd suggested to my friend she visit her breeds forum to ask more about bloat in Danes and most of the breeders were split down the middle with their opinnions.  1/2 felt it's genetic and 1/2 felt it's just environmental and can happen to any deep chested large breed dog.  Her breeder on the other hand of course did not feel it was "genetically" linked.  God forbid she'd have to admitt her "champion sire" famous show dog who's produced more litters than I can count could possibly be passing on a genetic problem....but at least she was notified and she can do what she wants with that information.

Looks like the final vet bill will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3500.  The $2500 was a deposit for the surgery and I anticipate she's gonna get hit with another thousand dollars for an additional 2 day stay, meds and such.  But what can you do???  I'm just glad this story had a happier ending than some of the one's I've read on bloat.  Thank you everyone for your advice and support.

Hey, she should consider herself lucky! Someone on the Shiloh forum lost their dog last week, and the bill was$11,000!! The vet removed part of his stomach and all of his spleen, and he still didn't make it.    Absolutely gorgeous dog, too!

Sunsilver- OMG!  $11,000????  So even though the dog died they still had to pay the entire vet bill of 11 grand?  That just seems terrible to do to someone who just lost their dog.  I couldn't sleep being a vet having to do that to someone.  That's just a ridiculous amount of money.  Hell I've had surgeries that didn't cost that much. lol 

What I don't understand is how this happend to her dog???  The dog is a family pet.  She's a sweet lazy girl that just follows everyone around the house and she lays around.  Not the dog you'd have to worry about getting too much exercise.  Now I have noticed in the past when the dog would eat she doesn't chew her food up like my dogs do but kinda takes a couple crunches and whatever didn't get chewed up still goes down with the rest.  I'm wondering if this is what happend and then perhaps she began drinking water immediately after which led to the bloat??

She feeds her out of an elevated bowl.  I've read others say this is not good.  Is that true?

Ever since this happend she's got me so paranoid I've been watching my dogs eat.  My husband thinks I'm nutts. lol

 Purdue did a study on bloat and came up with only a few conclusions. One of the recommendations was that ELEVATED Bowls CONTRIBUTE to bloat. This was a very small study and so the conclusions are frankly not terribly statistically valid in my opinion. NOne the less, why have an elevated bowl unless a dog has an injury?

The good news is that the dog has made it this far. I would advise your friend to watch the dog very, very carefully however as the depression may in fact be related to some consequences as yet undiscovered. Tissue can and does die quickly. Infection can develop quickly and dogs can be very stoic. So careful monitoring with a return to the vet ASAP if there is something out of the ordinary is still in order. Hopefully the dog will do just fine.

I believe bloat conditions where tissue twists will eventually be proven to be in some measure a genetic trait where certain ligaments holding tissue are not strong enough, too long etc. There are likely environmental causes or contributors as well. The trick is, understand what signs are of such a condition and get the dog ASAP to someone who can do something about it immediately, including surgery if necessary.

Agar, yes, the owners have to pay the whole $11,000. Very sad. Makes you wonder if the vet should have tried to save him when the damage was already so extensive. Some forum members asked if they could donate money to help out, as the dog and owners were really well known, so Tina Barber set up an account for donations.

There's some wonderful kind, generous people on that forum. I even had one of them offer to help me out with Ranger's expenses when he needed a second ultrasound done on his prostate. Totally floored me...I'm not even a Shiloh owner!!   

Luckily, the second u/s was much less expensive than the first, as they limited it to his prostate and bladder, instead of doing the whole abdomen as they'd done the first time, to rule out cancer.

Anwyay, I'm very happy for your friend, and I hope the dog continues to improve.