Is anyone else getting paranoid about bloat?

DukesMom

Just too many of "our" dogs have been getting it lately! What the heck is going on? And Shelby....was so so young! Now every time one of my dogs throws up even a little I'm scared to death! It makes me not want to leave them alone for one second.

LunaBrown · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:14 am Post subject:

Extremely paranoid, yes!

I wish I had known about the tacking surgery before we had Luna spayed... I would have done it. Confused

rejoh0605 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:22 am Post subject:

I to have gotten very paranoid. I always heard about this disease, but always thought that it could never happen to us. With all the recent posts, I want to run Wilson to the vet every time he coughs. I cannot even bear the thought of this happening.

I think we should all join together and light a candle for these dogs tonight.

DukesMom · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:30 am Post subject:

I'm just so scared that I won't recognize it if it should happen. Is it true that most dogs that get it are the ones that scarf down the food? Duke is a very slow eater, Gracie is a bit of a scarfer but not bad like I've seen some dogs. I don't raise their food bowls (I've read the debates) and I don't excercise them after eating. They both CAN scarf down some water though and it makes me a bit nervous. Anything else I need to do? I'm not sure on the whole soak/don't soak the food and I don't.

momofZaneandWyatt · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:27 am Post subject:

I am the paranoid one here...my husband tells me to calm down and relax...the huge water drinking between both dogs makes me a nervous wreck...then when both are fed, I am always on Bill to watch them and no water for a bit after eating.. Bill tells me I go into panic mode..but honestly I can't help it, after all that we read here on both our weim boards, its scary, and makes me aware of what is going on with them at all times. With all of our other dogs we have ever had in our lifetime...we have never had two that we are so careful with or watch almost every move they make, or had such huge vet bills.

Shannon, Bill, Zane and Wyatt

kamfam · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:09 am Post subject:

Hate to be a "Debbie Downer" here, but paranoia is a useless waste of your precious energy. No matter the precautions, education, prayers and worries, you can't beat yourself up over something you really can't control. Yes, there are things we can do to help prevent, but nothing's 100%.

Love your babiez like today's your last Pink whoohoo

.

(miss you kam-o pink sorry

)

Trene · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:11 am Post subject:

I agree KamFam... oh and kisses up to Heaven for the boy Lips

aly · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:26 am Post subject:

I agree with Kamfam too, as the lucky mum of a weim who survived gastric torsion I can assure you that sometimes it just strikes no matter how careful or paranoid you are!

As I have said on numerous posts the best thing you can do for your dog is be aware of the EARLY symptoms, time is the most important factor to their survival and also ensure that your vet is aware too as lots of vets wait until the stomach actually visibly 'bloats' until taking action, in our case this was one of very last symptoms that Bailey showed. If we had waited until then to get him to the vets he would definitely have died as his body went into shock and began shutting down.

As I have said before I am working closely with my local vet and together we are hoping to write an information factsheet on bloat as very few owners of deep chested dogs here in the UK are aware of the risk. If you are unsure of the early symptoms please search this site, google or even PM me (I have quite a bit of info together so far), and please get your dog checked out even if you think it may be bloat, a vets bill is nothing compared to the loss of our loved ones.

weim2mom · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:17 pm Post subject:

I am always paranoid about it too.
I'm a nervous wreck whenever they eat or drink. I even left the signs and symptoms of bloat pasted on the fridge when I left for vacation, along with the emergency vet numbers and addresses.

The thing is, you can never be too safe when it comes to this.
I always stick my hand in Chevy and Hemi's bowls when they eat.

Cathy · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:34 pm Post subject:

I worry about Marley all the time and try to explain to her that she just ate so she can't run around the yard, but she doesn't believe me.
Funny thing is I worry about her all the time and a couple weeks ago I ended up in the hospital with a bowel obstruction. I ate an apple and went running-the doctor said it wasn't my fault, but I sure won't be doing that again.

anne · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:49 pm Post subject:

There are things you can do to try and avoid bloat.

#1 - Avoid lines that have bloat in it!!! This is something you can research
#2 - Train your dogs to accept being alone, anxiety is one of the biggest precursors to bloat IMO.
#3 - All the other stuff, get them to slow down eating, no raised food bowls, no exercise before and after eating....

These are things you can control, the other stuff....

age
chest shape

are things you cannot control....

Shamaya · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:49 pm Post subject:

I'm nervous too. One night I hugged her and told her she wasn't allowed to bloat. My boyfriend goes "she probably will now since you told her not to". Haha silly girl. Her favourite things are always the ones she's not allowed to do.

I going to talk to my vet about tacking her stomach when she gets spayed. If it's not too expensive, I'll go ahead with it.

Trene · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:52 pm Post subject:

3 - All the other stuff, get them to slow down eating, no raised food bowls, no exercise before and after eating....

No exercise is hard to do when you have two young ones IMO....

anne · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:53 pm Post subject:

You can wait to exercise them tho. I wouldn't have any dog/pup, no matter the age, exercise right after eating.

weimdawgs · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:28 pm Post subject:

I brought them in one night last week because we went out after dinner and Gunnar got the zoomies...nope...in we went. Came back out an hour or so later. He is the next one I worry about. Because he is so deep chested. I don't know why, but I always had a bad feeling that Jake would bloat...so the second I suspected we were off. I feel very very lucky to have my boy.

Gunnar is very easy going, though. Jake gets stressed easily. But then Gunnar has never had a bad moment in his life. He has been with us since he was a pup. We were Jake's third home. Anything out of the norm gets him stressed.