Recovery from a bloat scare - Page 1

Alright, last night we had our first bloat scare with my male.

It happened approxmiately 3 hours after he ate, his abdomen became distended (for him).  There were never any secondary symptoms such as vomitting or increased salivating or flank nipping and he acted his normal self in every other way.

I contacted the Emergency Vet and it was agreed that I would give one 20mg Pepcid AC which I did and observe for secondary symptom.   After the Pepcid he had one small bout of loose to pudding consistency stool.   Over the next 2 hours there were several burps and farts out of him and gradually the distended abdomen went down and there have been no secondary symptoms arising.

This morning, his profile and top view are back to normal, he has not yet had a stool but he normally does not pass a stool until the later afternoon anyway.  Honestly I had expected to wake up to a mess in the kitchen, which sometimes happens when his stomach is upset but so far he is totally normal.

MY QUESTION!

When you have a case of gas like this, how do you normally pick back up the feeding schedule?  Do you give 24 hours off/fast or cut regular meal portion in half or feed regular?  

Also this is my SchH dog and we are scheduled to train tomorrow, do you give a week's rest from training or, so long as everything is normal, just maintain regular schedule?

I know there is a lot of discussion about bloat, the horrors of a full on bloat, how to recognize it, etc but I could not find any discussion on how to ease a dog back onto their schedule after a experience with abdominal distention due to gas.   

Had the same issue with our Am Staff, we did very small meals more frequently for about a week. Of course watching him closely the whole time.  I'd have Gas X at home ready to go just in case.  Personally I wouldn't do a ton of hard work with him maybe some obedience but no protection since he's running and gulping air with bitework.  Tracking should be ok.
Good luck!
Amy

IMO dogs that are prone to bloat will do it again. So what are you feeding him?

 You might ought to run him to his vet and take a picture of his stomach, area intestine..

  I found out one of  my big males , the Trike shop owners , saw Max extended, gave him Gas X and rushed him to vet...The vet went ahead and performed the stomach staple or what ever the proceedure is...he said YES, it will happen again..

  YR

Max is 8 now.

He rides all over the USA in a GOlDWING TRIKE...one built for him to ride with his DAD>

My old SL male used to bloat regular, especially in hot weather.  I used to keep Rennie Deflatine (Gas X) in and used them with great effectiveness, the twice he was really bad, I used some very old advise from the net.  Lay the dog down on his left side, hot water bottle under his bowel area, and massage the bowels until they start moving.  you have to listen for bowel sounds and keep massaging until the bowels kick back into action.

If he's done this once, he will do it again unfortunatly.  My lad was fed BARF and I made no changes to his diet.

RLHAR - What are you feeding your dog? How much? How often?

No training today.

Take him to the vet to be checked out.