Bloat - Page 1

Hello Everyone,

I've been curious about a couple of statistics with bloat.

1. Has there ever been a study as to whether the occurrence of bloat happens more in the female or male GSD?

    I have only read / heard of people having had this experience with males and have not read or heard about it so much in the female.

 

2. How many people have experienced water bloat?

 

3. Is there an age (timeframe) that one has to be more vigilant for signs of bloat?

    I ask this because I had an incident where my wild child ate an entire chicken 12" pot pie (when she was less than 1 year old). When I discussed the incident (fear of bloat) with the emergency vet he said, that bloat in youngsters is rare.

Yes, males, typically older than 5 but it can happen younger. There are many studies that address these commonalities. 

One pot pie is nothing I'd be concerned about. It's already cooked, anyway, unlikely to expand once eaten. 

Jenni.....Thanks........I know that now...and it become one of those remember when stories......but at the time it was an OMG how did she fit that entire pie into her belly...her belly was huge.

It got me to wondering why a vet would say that youngsters have a smaller incidence of bloat than adults. My conclusion (to myself) was that it must have something to do with the flexibility of the stomach.

Flexibility and as we age, we lose elasticity, making things not hold their shape (ahem...) like they used to. It stands to reason that the stomach would be no different, and I think that's why there is so much anecdotal evidence about raw fed dogs not bloating as much- not only does the food not expand during digestion, but the stomach must work harder on chunks of meat and bone than on soggy kibbles. 

I know YOU know about the pot pie, but the way it was worded, I just wanted to clarify that it's not just a case of youngsters not bloating as much, but a pot pie isn't really a top concern of things to cause it. 

Would this have happened to be a homemade pot pie? Because, mmmmmmm!

 

Anyone have info or experience with water bloat?

No experience with water bloat,but I have had 2 females succumb to bloat. Both were fed a raw diet and both were over the age of 8 years. Incidentally,or perhaps not,both of these females had a second degree relative that bloated.

My friend's elderly GSD bloated after playing in the lake on a hot day, and drinking a lot of lake water. He was PTS as he already had fairly advanced DM, and the vet could not get a stomach tube in to relieve the bloat.

I've also heard of dogs bloating after playing with the hose on a hot day, and swallowing a lot of water out of it as they tried to catch the stream.

I don't know about proper research.  There is plenty of anecdotal evidence like  dshlerner 's ^^^  that it

does happen in bitches too -  but it seems, not so much.  Certainly there may be a hereditary factor.

Both cases I have had to deal with were in males.  That was about the only thing the two dogs had in

common.  Both survived.  One was a 5 yr old Shiloh (of which it is said they are particularly prone to

bloat - whether that is known genetics, or because they, being bigger, tend to be deeper chested, I'm

unsure.)  Suffice it to say we were warned about the increased likelihood of bloat and I think that

helped me to catch it in time.  We had zero knowledge of this dog's family history, he was a Rescue.

 

The 'deep chested breeds' thing is the only consistent piece of veterinary info I have heard in 45 years

interest in the GSD breed.  And even that does not seem to be the direct cause -  neither of the two

dogs I'm writing about are particularly deep-chested in construction ...  I have always :  soaked kibble,

not fed on top of exercising ( either way, before or after),  used different shaped  bowls, scatter-feeding

and other tricks to slow down super-fast eaters, not allowed too much water immediately before or after

a meal,  yadayada, all the tips one gets to avoid bloat.  The Shiloh was being fed from a raised dish, for

most meals, because of his height and because at that point the vets generally recommended  that as a

precaution against bloat.   When he bloated, I was told vets had just decided the jury was out on that

theory;  some study had indicated it might make more problems than it avoided.

 

My WGSL bloated at age 10 1/2 , completely out of the blue, hours after he'd eaten.  No known history in his

immediate pedigree of getting it;  may have been some bloat hushed up in an earlier generation,  who 

knows.   He is also a b******* for playing with hosepipe jets (but hadn't been on that day).  Still alive and

kicking - he got run over since then but survived that as well !  He'll be 12 on 8th December.  

Here's one of the more recent studies on bloat that shoots down a lot of previously held ideas. It DOES implicate dry kibble as a major cause of bloat, though, regardless of whether it is soaked in water before eating or not: Actually, soaking the food INCREASED the likelihood of bloat!

I have only cut-and--pasted the most interesting portions of the article. Please click on the link to read the whole thing.

http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proceedings.plx?CID=TUFTSBG2003&PID=5091&O=Generic

 

One traditional preventative has been to raise the height of food and water bowls, but this was found to actually increase risk by 110 percent. This correlation of risk was verifiable; the dogs of the breeders in this study did not have close relatives that had experienced bloat.

The study also found that fearful, nervous, or aggressive dogs had a much higher incidence of bloat than did dogs perceived by their owners as having happy temperaments. Stress can also be a precipitating factor, and many dogs bloat after recent kenneling, or a recent long car ride. A slightly higher percentage of males than females developed bloat.

Several diet-related factors were associated with a higher incidence of bloat. These include feeding only dry food, or feeding a single large daily meal. Dogs fed dry foods containing fat among the first four ingredients had a 170 percent higher risk for developing bloat. Dogs fed dry foods containing citric acid and were moistened prior to feeding had a 320 percent higher risk for developing bloat.

Conversely, feeding a dry food containing a rendered meat-and-bone meal decreased risk by 53 percent in comparison with the overall risk for the dogs in the study. Mixing table food or canned food into dry food also decreased the risk of bloat.

During the past 30 years there has been a 1,500 percent increase in the incidence of bloat, and this has coincided with the increased feeding of dry dog foods. There is a much lower incidence of bloat in susceptible breeds in Australia and New Zealand. Feeding practices in these countries have been found to be less dependent on dry foods.

Interesting stuff.  I rushed off to check the kibble I'm currently using  ( Wainwights Grain Free )  but

citric acid isn't listed.   Cranberries are, though, would that count ?  I don't remember what Taz was

eating at the time he bloated, but it was likely to be one of the other, ordinary, Wainwrights with rice

or other grain, as I'm fairly sure they didn't bring out their Grain Free until after that date.