preventative stomach flipping surgery - Page 2

WOW what an eye opener thread.  I have never heard of this surgery before for any dog breed.  I have a few questions (for my knowledge).

1.  What are the long term down sides to this surgery? 
2.   How common is bloat for GSDs?  It seems that this is more for the WLs, so here are the specific areas:
          a.  Show lines
          b.  a dog working in the Shitzhund (sp is really bad today) trials
          c.  herding dogs, both as a sport and as a "daily job"
          d.  personal protection dogs / house dogs.
3.  Is this a genetic thing or just something that can happen based on the physical make up of GSDs?

If you are familiar with horses, this sounds like the same thing a colic.  Am I correct and would the general preventives be the same (make sure food is clean, not moldy; good cool down after work out; watch eating right after a work out; etc)?

jbbrbx,
 Were these dogs from your breedings or related?

Yeah.  Thats the thing about very young dogs - they 'bounce'.
When our Shiloh had his op, (age 3.5 yrs) we were told to restrict his moving around for 10
days, to give the staple time to heal over internally, in case it pulled loose or didn't take properly,
as well as getting over his other sutures.
Can only go by what my Vet told me, she did the actual op.
If this had been disregarded and the tack HAD pulled loose, it would have been a pointless exercise,
as there'd be nothing to stop his guts twisting up again later ...

Interesting information in this thread; thanks, Jim!

the vet told me that that was somting themilitary does to all working dogs, as soon as they get them they spey them, and since their already in they tack them, she told me that she wouldnt recommend it for my pup girl cause i may breed her and things need to be able to move around naturally, however i was thinking when i get a male i may want to consider it, and since u guys seem 2 know these dogs well, i figured id start a convo about it 2 learn a lil more

fawndallas,
Do some research.  There is plenty written about bloat and the genetic predisposition and the other contributing factors such as stress, diet, feeding habits, eating and water intake and exercise.  It can happen in any large deep chested dog, SL or working line or mutt.  It can happen to any dog from sport dogs, Police K-9's, MWD's, agility, SAR and regular pets.  

There are no downsides to the prophylactic gastropexy surgery, except maybe the anesthesia.

Fawn - Gastric Dilation can affect any number of dogs;  they are - usually - of 'large' or 'giant' breeds, but any
dog that has a deeper ribcage in relation to its other proportions has the ROOM for the stomach to blow up and
twist.  Have heard of some quite small-breed animals being affected, but they too usually had deep chest cavities.
I believe the jury is still out - it may be polygenetic, i.e. dogs that have certain gene combinations can be more
prone to bloat;  that would accord with them being 'deep' construction, too.   Some people think it runs in families
of dogs,  I don't know any lines particularly where that seems true, so I don't know.
I do know that although German SL bitches don't seem to get Bloat very often - which fits with their smaller frames -
it certainly isn't impossible that one might.  I know of a lot of SL males in the UK which have bloated;  maybe that
is related to size, there are still a lot of oversize studs around.  And then of course US SL and non-showline 'straight'
backs are largely more deep chested; as are many of the working lines dogs around.  We were warned when we
took on the Shiloh that these were susceptible to Bloat;  still wasn't too pleased when it happened !  Especially since
with all the GSDs I've looked after I've been observing received wisdom about not letting them exercise just before
or after eating meals, etc ! 

My old shepherd experience GDV @ 4 years of age-we were fortunate in getting to the University in time-needless to say he was tacked; I've a female that was tacked during surgery for a foreign object obstruction and I voluntarily had my young male tacked-the University recommended the procedure on all of my Shepherds and quoted 4 figures whereas the clinic did the young male for $400.  There's a variety a methods of tacking but believe me having gone through GDV once was enough to take the precautions and do some major research on the subject.

As a note, they had a Great Dane come in the same night as I took my old boy in-it did not survive.  The owner of the clinic were the young male was tacked stated he had never had one to survive GDV and what had I done . . .

Thank you.  I will definitly look into this more.  Max is turning out to be what I would call stocky built with a large chest.

Thank you again all.

I had a dog bloat and die on me but I still dont think I would do it unless it was required. Hate to say this but what does that say about what bloodlines are being used that its now considered the "norm" and not the exception.