Tag Archives: Bloat

Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted in dog training, General/Misc by

It was two weeks ago today that Thunder bloated and needed surgery for spleen and stomach torsion.  He has recovered very well and is now allowed to run and jump and play a bit.  We had been keeping him close to home, but now he can venture out a bit; however, he has to wait another two weeks to resume light field training.

Yesterday Storm met up with a training group and the big brown dawg had to stay home.  There was a big boo-boo lip over that and about an hour spent in the laundry room pouting.

Why does that girl dog get to go while I am stuck at home?

At least he can also start spending some time in his outside kennel provided the weather cooperates and it isn’t too hot.  He has to wait another four weeks before swimming and training in water.  Mainly the vet does not want to risk Thunder smacking the water with his huge water entry until he is completely healed.

Remember this?

Water Entry

None of that and no dock diving. :)

Thunder's New Bowl

He did get a shiny new bowl.

We decided to try this bowl to see if it would slow down his eating.  Since he bloated once, there is an increased risk that he could bloat again.  His stomach has been tacked, but we don’t want him to bloat again or to stretch the tacking because over the years there is a possibility of failure. So we are making some changes including forcing him to eat slower.  There are lots of items on the market to help slow down a dog’s eating.  We picked this bowl which does seem to slow him down a bit.

In addition to the new bowl, we are also making some other changes and leaving some things the same.

  • He will continue on his regular food which is grain free.  We feed him Taste Of The Wild Pacific Stream formula.
  • No large meals for him.  He will continue to have two meals each day which we soak with water.
  • No exercising for at least two hours after a meal.  We will also wait at least an hour after exercising to feed him.  (We have always done this and will continue.)
  • We are adding one Gas-X to each meal.  We discussed this with our vet who said it could help with the foamy gas that some dogs get and it couldn’t hurt.  (It is always a good idea to consult your vet before adding any medication to your pet’s diet.)
  • No large amounts of water at any one time.  During training, we will no longer allow him to free-water.

As far as hunt tests, we will see where he is once he starts to train again.  We cancelled our reservations for an HRC test we hoped to go to in Indiana in the middle of July.  There will be some tests here in Michigan in August and September so we will wait and see how his training goes.  Hopefully he will be able to pick up right where he left off.

Storm will probably be returning to the trainer early next month, (provided she doesn’t come into season early).  We hope to have her run in some more tests this summer.  Even though she had a week off from training after Thunder bloated, she seemed to pick up right where she left off.  Marking still good.  Handling good.  She is supposed to meet up with a training group for some water work this week.  Unfortunately she is due to come into season at the end of summer and the rules prohibit bitches in season from running tests, (don’t want to scramble the boy dogs’ brains ;) ).

Unfortunately we also had to cancel our plans to attend the Chessie specialty show which is taking place near Gettysburg PA this Fall.  I have always wanted to go to Gettysburg and this would have been a great opportunity…..ah well…someday…..

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Thunder Update 2

Posted in General/Misc by

Thunder continues to recuperate.  He returned to the vet today and had his pain patch removed.  He still has pain pills every 12 hours, but no patch.  His food has been increased to 1 cup, but only 2 times a day.  There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with his appetite because he was looking for food at his normal meal times.  However, since we are giving the pain pills, antibiotic, and stomach medication with food, his meals are a bit later than normal.  He had been eating 4 times a day and even though he was only getting 1/2 cup each time, I think he was enjoying meal time rolling around so often.  We can now leave his water out, but will not let him drink a lot at any one time.  At least we no longer have to measure it out and log the times.

He isn’t totally chipper, but he seems less sleepy.  He didn’t really sleep that much today and every time I moved around to do something, I noticed him watching me.  I also think he is more uncomfortable today because he is starting to heal.  He hasn’t been stretched out on his side, but then again he must remain at the ready to spring up and check out each and every sound.  I suppose he wouldn’t want to miss anything. :)

He has adapted really well to the cone.  I worked a lot with him the day after he came home to get him used to it.  Initially he didn’t even want to put it on, but now he just slips his head through.  Of course I told him how handsome he looks with it on.  ;)   Lucky for him, today I was able to watch him, so he didn’t have to wear it much.  We have decided to get the staples out on the 10th rather than the 14th day because we think he will be more comfortable and maybe he can ditch that cone faster.  We just hope they are ready to come out then.

I did manage to take a picture of him during one of his short naps.  You can see that he has a lot of shaved patches, including his entire underside.

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Post-Op Update

Posted in General/Misc by

We appreciate all of the kind well wishes and prayers for Thunder.  They must have helped because we picked him up from the veterinary hospital last night.  He is doing very well, all things considered.  He is back on his normal diet (grain free) and is getting his regular amount of food (2 cups), broken up into 4 meals a day.  His appetite does not seem at all diminished.  We are limiting his water to 2 cups every 4 hours.  Initially he was very thirsty last night and would empty the bowl when we put it down.  But today he seems more interested in sleeping and is drinking more moderately.  I guess he is happy to be home because he even flipped on his back for a belly rub.  :)

He was sent home with three medications: an antibiotic, a pain medication, and something for his stomach.  Between the food schedule, the water schedule, and the medication schedule, we had to make him a hospital chart.  He also has a pain patch stapled to back which they will remove on Saturday.  The staples closing his incision will come out in 10-14 days.  Until then he has to wear a cone.  He is not at all fond of the cone, but since he has already tried to check out those staples, we will have to have it on him when we can’t watch him.

Unfortunately, we have to keep Thunder and Storm separated for 2 weeks.  That is not popular around here. ;)   Thunder isn’t allowed to run or climb stairs for 2 weeks so we are taking him outside on a leash and then bringing him right back in.  Once the staples are out, he can spend time in his outside kennel again.  If all goes well, he can resume light training in 4 weeks and go back to regular training, including swimming, in 6 weeks.

Thunder Training Earlier In The Evening Before He Bloated

As far as testing for him this summer, we will have to wait and see.  Since we blew the budget on his surgery we probably won’t be able to travel to tests as we had planned.  We will also have to see how quickly his training comes back after his lay-off.  Right now he is happy to snooze away on the floor, but I doubt that will last long.  In the meantime, we will keep training Storm and hope to run her in some more tests this summer.

 

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There Are No Words

Posted in General/Misc by

Normally on Wednesday I would post one of the hundreds of pictures I have taken of the 2 brown dawgs, but not today.

It all started on Monday.  We went out and had a great training session after work and even found a new pond to train blinds.  We finished up and then came home and did our usual routine, made dinner, did a few chores, fed dogs and then sat down to relax.  We were still a bit tired from the busy weekend.  As we were hanging out we noticed that Thunder was not acting himself.  Nothing specific, just not passed out sleeping as would be his norm.  We kind of watched him, but there was nothing really specifically “wrong” that we could see.  However as the evening progressed he continued be restless, and when he did settle down it was to lay under the bed which is not his normal spot.  We discussed that he was not acting quite right and when we let him out, he kind of laid down in the grass.  Other than that, there was nothing specifically “wrong” to look at him.  Maybe he was just really tired from the weekend?  We decided to go to bed.  But not Storm.  By this time Storm was pacing around and would stand near Thunder and then pace more.  She wasn’t going to sleep and she wasn’t going to let us sleep either.

About this time Thunder started to retch and cough, but no vomit came up.  We also noticed that he was standing with his back sort of roached or rounded with his head and tail down.  He was sort of licking but was not excessively salivating.  We suspected bloat, but the symptoms we remembered hearing were not exactly the same symptoms he was having.  They always describe the stomach sounding like a hollow drum when you tap on it if it is bloat.  We did not hear a hollow drum and but we did notice a tightness in his abdomen.  We took to the internet to quickly research and also consulted our copy of “Dog Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook”.  (This book is our go-to reference book for basic info on what may be going on with our dog’s health.)  Based on what we found, we were pretty convinced that it was in fact bloat.  Unproductive vomiting was described as a “hallmark” symptom and Thunder was certainly doing that.  The licking and standing with a roached back were also described as classic symptoms.  Of course you always hope it isn’t “that”.  You kind of wish it would just go away and wonder do we really need to spend the money to have him checked at the ER vet?  (Anyone who knows anything, knows that ER vet always = big bucks!)

One of the dog club’s we belong to periodically offers seminars on pet first aid.  These seminars are presented by different vets but one thing they stress is that if it is bloat, you can not wait to go to the ER vet.  In fact we learned during one of the seminars, that the leading cause of death for otherwise healthy dogs is due to stomach torsion during bloat.  We made the decision to head to the ER vet.  It would be worth the office visit for them to tell us we were being silly and he just had a stomach bug.

The emergency vet we picked was a bit of a drive, but we are familiar with it because it is a 24 hour veterinary hospital.  They also have hours during the day for specialists to see patients, so they access have to these specialists and to the latest equipment.  By this time it was around 10:30 pm and luckily there was no traffic (just very annoying traffic lights).  Thunder was still having the unproductive vomiting and he just could not get comfortable.  As we drove he started to froth a bit around his mouth and as we got closer he started to whimper and moan a bit.  We were now convinced that there was something seriously wrong.

Thankfully once we arrived, they took him right in after asking us a few basic questions.  They asked permission to do x-rays which of course we granted.  The exam and x-rays did in fact confirm bloat and that his spleen was enlarged and pushed back and his stomach was pushed forward, (and they suspected torsion or that they were twisted).  This diagnosis left two choices: 1 expensive surgery or 2 euthanasia.  The decision had to be made quickly because time was of the essence.  We were not ready to say good-bye so we elected surgery.  But did we get him there in time?

The ER vet explained that first they would need to clean out his stomach and I guess any gasses in his abdominal cavity and do blood work which would take about an hour.  I am using lay terms because although the vet explained very  clearly and medically, I do not remember all the medical terms.  :) The blood work showed that his coagulation was a bit off, but most of the other levels were within normal range and his vitals were very good.  Because his coagulants were out of normal range the vet asked permission to give him plasma because she wanted his blood in as good a shape as possible before starting surgery.  She also said that if his spleen was twisted and the blood was being cut off, she might have to remove it.  Giving him the plasma would take about 45 minutes but then they would go right to surgery and it should take about 2 hours.

So we spent the night sitting on some not so comfy chairs waiting and watching old sitcoms on the CW network.  :)   The vet appeared a bit earlier than we expected to tell us that she had some very good news.  She did not have to remove his spleen because she could not see any evidence of loss of blood to the spleen or the stomach.  She told us she untwisted everything and put it back into place and then tacked his stomach to prevent it from twisting again (a procedure we had considered having done as a preventative but never did).  She said she felt that in Thunder’s case the spleen may have twisted first taking the stomach with it.  The tacking should prevent that from  happening again.  She also said that his case was a bit atypical because she did not find the frothy gas in his abdomen that normally goes along with bloat (she said she sees 2-3 cases of this a week!).  Since she did not have to take Thunder’s spleen or any part of his stomach, his prognosis for recovery was very good.  It seems we had gotten him there on time.

I know this is a lot of detail, but my hope is that in describing our experience, maybe it will help someone someday in the future.  The symptoms are not as cut and dry as you read in a book or on the internet.  Sometimes they can be really subtle and the decision to wait and see can sometimes mean the difference between the animal having a chance or death.  In Thunder’s case, we made the right decision to hurry to the ER.  Provided there are no complications he should recover fully.  His vitals and blood work are all good.  He will need some medications for a bit and some special care for the first couple of weeks, but if all goes well he can resume training in about a month.

So what causes bloat and torsion?  I have come to the conclusion that they just don’t know.  You can read a lot about it on the internet, but in the end there are no hard and fast answers.  Every dog is different and every case is different.  Most of what is known is based on a review of what each dog did, or ate, or drank before the onset of bloat and torsion.  There are no actual studies and what is out there are simply reviews of data which could mean something or nothing.  I asked the ER vet why there hasn’t been more research and her answer to me was that they cannot duplicate what happens in a home before an occurrence and there are so many factors that could contribute to an occurrence.  In reviewing suspected risk factors, Thunder fit very few except he is a middle aged deep chested dog who is physically active.  Going forward we will alter some things that we do with him which I will share once we have him home and settled.  For a time a part of this blog (but hopefully not all), will be devoted to his recuperation.

So we are not wordless today.  But there are no words for how happy we are to have our big guy still with us and how thankful we are to his doctor and to the staff who saved his life.

During Thunder’s convalescence it will be a good time to catch up on our blog reading.  We have missed visiting everyone’s blog this week.