Problems after bloat and tack - Page 1

A little over 2 months ago my female bloated, I caught it early and rushed her to the ER.  They did surgery and tacked her stomach.  She's done well since then, back to normal active and happy.  However yesterday morning after eating a couple eggs and drinking water she threw it all up.  She threw up again after drinking more water.  I took the water away, her stomach felt hard but not very distended.  She seemed fine and went to bed with me (I work third shift & sleep during the day).  I woke at 3pm and left right away, she seemed fine/normal.  When my husband came home at 5pm he gave them water.  After a few minutes he noticed yellow liquid on the floor, he thought she peed....a little while later my daughter saw her vomit yellow liquid and my husband realized what was going on.  As soon as I got home I walked into her vomitting again, I took her water away and fed the other dogs.  She stayed upstairs as I brought the food down, which she NEVER does (never says no to food!).  I rushed her to the vet at 8pm. 

The vet took an abdominal xray, I don't have a digital copy of that...I will try to get it (it was about 3-4x's the size of the stomach in the xray below).  The vet was puzzled, her stomach was very large and filled with gas, no food.   I'm guessing the tack was saving it from twisting.  But she said she never saw this before and referred me to Valley Central Vet Hospital.  I arrived around 9pm the vet said her stomach was bloated but was not twisting because of the tack, he said they'd put her on IV fluids, pain meds, anti vomit meds, pepcid AC and Gas X.  He said her stomach was full of gas.  I questioned as to what caused it, he said there's no trigger, some dogs are just prone.  He says there's supposed to be a valve which relieves air/gas (birp), but she does not have this working properly.  Therefore the gas made by the stomach acid builds up in the stomach.  He said she likely has a sensitive stomach, that with her high drive and lack of birping is causing this gas buildup.  He said if she continues to fill with gas he'd have to put a tube down her throat to relieve it, but hopefully the pepcid and gas X will reduce the gas and size of her stomach.

So she was admitted, I picked her up this morning and he stomach has decreased to normal size, no tubing was necessary.

They perscribed:

Clavamox (antibiotic I think)

Cerenia (anti vomit)

Buprinex (pain meds)

and told me to pick up:

Pepcid AC and Gas X from the pharmacy.

I asked what is going to prevent this from happening again, since there was no trigger...no food (except for the 2 eggs in the am), no excersise etc.  He said change her food to a sensitive stomach formula, give Pepcid AC (he said to give her this daily since I have her on Glucosomine/condroitin for her HD...he says this can irritate the stomach).  AND...this hurts...decreased amounts of excersise...he said no more playing frisbee and running around, walks only.  Now THIS is the second worst thing next to dying for her...she has prey drive through the roof, gets absolutely extatic about frisbee, ball, swimming.  Honestly, I couldnt' stop crying about this part, it's very sad for her.  I told him I swim her because if her HD, he said, well, she can swim but be careful that her swallowing water and running around could be dangerous.  Now, she doesn't just go for a lazy swim around the pool it's lots of jumping, splashing and running laps around it, nothing is low impact with her, I was afraid to tell him that, afraid he'd say no to it then...I just don't know what to do.

I'm very sad about having to keep her quiet and I also can't afford to have

Sorry my post got cut, the last part is....

I'm very sad about having to keep her quiet and I also can't afford to have $1000-$2000 vet bill every two months.

Anyone have similar issues with their dogs? 

Thanks,

Melanie

Also her father died of bloat and her littermate survived it....I think it's safe to say it's genetic with her :-(

Melanie, I have know a few dogs that can't handle the Condroitin, they do fine with a Glucosomine only product.  It might be worth a try.

I have Gas-X on hand in my dog emergency kit.

Mel, deep breath, ok?

You're looking at a lifestyle change, not the end of the world for Chili. Pax is a water maniac, too. Jumping in, diving, swim like hell, retrieve the toy and get to the steps before any other dog does. RunRunRun around the pool. It's part of the fun, I agree, and it makes my day when we have swim sessions, but! It's too much for her, so change it. A lot of the fun of dog activities is what WE get out of them. They're dogs, you know? And I think we forget that sometimes. She likes water activities, so offer he controlled swimming, none of that hectic, driven stuff.

One of our other dogs bloated and survived the surgery but was put on very limited exercise just like Chili. We had to learn to adapt and it was much harder for us than it was for him. His swimming is now back and forth laps, no diving, no jumping, no retrieving. He learned immediately (as soon as we removed the toy box from the deck) that water fun means swimming laps and you know what? He begs to be let in at the gate just as much now as he did before. Dogs are very accepting that way, much more so than we are.

He's prone to bloat and so we watch him at the pool. No swallowing water, no barking while in the water (they swallow too much air that way), and limited retrieving. He goes in by himself, no other dogs, so we can avoid the competition and the barking. We have another dog who swallows way too much water when he retrieves Frisbees and such, then hacks and coughs and vomits. He only gets to swim, no retrieving at all.

Swim sessions are 10 minutes of straight swimming, then a break of at least an hour. Then another 15 minutes if I have the time. They involve me walking along on the deck, telling the dog TURN when he gets to either end. If they hesitate and get bored I might carry a Frisbee to lure them and at the end I do drop the Frisbee in and let them bring it out.

I can't advise you on the meds and other things because we don't have to deal with that. I know how much you'll miss working her but she can still do OB and tracking, very low impact work that's nonetheless interesting for both of you. You can do FH with her and you can look into the VST title AKC offers. Talk with Reg, she's preparing for that one. SchH isn't everything but their wellbeing means the world.

Glad it all turned out well. I think I would give her Gas X every day as a preventative.  Maybe the Pepcid AC too. Can't hurt. Good thing she was tacked. I am very sorry I didn't have Blitz done when he was neutered. So far, so good, but it's always on my mind. Limiting the exercise is a tough one for an active dog. I'm not a frisbee fan, too much jumping for me.

I think there is definitely a genetic component involved in many cases of this disease in the GSD (and some other large breeds as well). 

Contact me for a top raw diet recipe. $90./mo., but should make a hell of a difference to Chili-girl's future happiness, darlin' Girl.

SS

Hello -

  Yes, we had a dog who used us as a Vet, the dog had bloated and had surgery at an emergency Vet for 3,500 as well as the stomach tacked. One day almost a year later, the owner came home to find the dog fully bloated and DOA. He rushed him into our clinic for an autopsy because the Vet assured him the dog could not bloat if the stomach was tacked. What the Vet found was that the stomach hardened and filled with gas but did not twist, what twisted was the intestine and it had cinched itself off and "died" so the dog deceased.

  I have a GSD who had bloated 4 years ago and has been perfect since that surgery. He had a LOT of issues as a pup and I often had to blend his food as a middle aged dog. He was raised on a raw diet and his body could not handle anything else. Then it got to the point that the raw food could not digest either so we blended a liquid diet for him. Since his surgery, we wheaned him onto a kibble diet and he is going to be 12 in 3 months!

Tina

Here's the other xray...this was taken last night at my vet:

Here's the second xray again for comparison: