I thought that , as we had a thread about dogs wolfing their food , it may be worth while mentioning bloat . This is a serious condition, usually affecting deep chested dogs such as Labradors, but can affect any breed and is often thought to be caused by bolting food after hard exercise . The dog develops torsion in the gut, where the gut twists and gas cannot escape, it is a very painful condition and, if not treated quickly, can quickly develop into a very serious situation . It must be treated by a Vet , usually a tube is passed by mouth into the gut to rid the bloat and ease distress . I dont want to scare anyone , but I did think it worthy of posting . The general advice to prevent bloat is not to feed a dog just prior to hard exercise and just afterwards , I usually try and have a margin of about half an hour to allow breathing to return to normal after exercise before feeding and the same afterwards . The symptoms of bloat are a pacing restlessness , excess drooling and possibly vomitting , the gums may also look rather pale too . Whilst it can be a serious condition , with care we can prevent the vast majority of risk associated, by sensible rest before and after meals .
Re: Bloat kate this is a different subject.....can you give me any advice on constipation ? last night was small hard stools, this morning he as not been yet ???
Re: Bloat Bloat resources here Bloat in Labradors There have been quite a few studies done on this horrible condition recently.
Re: Bloat i feed him beta large puppy breed,..........he is normally fine with is food,.......to be honest i think it his training treats,.with cheese he is very loose,......i have been giving him sausage treats the last couple of days.......how long should i wait before i ring the vet ?
Re: Bloat Does Jasper seem fine in himself Lynne and is he drinking water ok ? There are lots of " remedied " for dog constipation, but I hesitate to name them because I simply dont know how effective they are . If he hasnt done a poo by this afternoon , or his motions are still hard little lumps , I would have a word with your Vet, just for peace of mind x Thank you Pippa for the much more enlightening link re Bloat than my limited post , but having seen a friends dog suffering , it really is a dreadful condition .
Re: Bloat yes he seems fine, ....hes drinking , playing, just looks a bit sorry for himself.......i will keep my eye on him
Re: Bloat I'm going to try an anti-gobble bowl to see whether I can slow the eating, at least so it doesn't get worse, and I've tripled checked the emergency numbers are in my phone and I know how to get hold of a vet in all the places we spend time. Thanks - might be critical one day.
Re: Bloat Hi Unfortunately, bloat expert here, with wolfhounds not labs. First symptoms are usually salivation and a look of discomfort accompanied stretching out the stomach. I would recommend that everyone learns the shape of their dog, the area behind the ribs is the section to focus on, look at the shape when your dog is standing and lying on their side. Swelling behind the ribs but above the soft tummy area is characteristic of GDV, it can be soft or hard to touch, the more firm it is the more gas there is likely to be. You should still be able to hear gut noises and sometime you can't actually feel the gut moving. Rapid treatment is a life saver but even if your dog requires abdominal surgery most dogs come though. If you have dog that has had bloat there lots of meds to help prevent it happening or if you know what you're looking for can give at the first signs. No one really knows why some dogs suffer from GDV, there are lots of theories, hundreds of studies and many (often expensive) "fixes" but none so far hold up to scrutiny. Best advice is to be sensible, don't over feed, better to have two or three smaller meals than one huge one, no mad spell before or after food. Some people feed off the floor (we do for both labs and wolfies) but there's no evidence that this can prevent GDV, dishes to slow eating have mixed results, some dogs actually take in more air which is not good. There are a couple of recent studies which suggest that food has nothing to do with it at all! Maia is a food-bolter and with our history I've tried all sorts to slow her down, feeding her on own, feeding her with the others, varying the food, soaking her food, leaving it in big pieces to make her chew. The only thing that works is to kneel in front her, my knees either side of her dish, ruffling her shoulders; I think it's linked to food guarding but if I guard for her she doesn't need to bolt although she still eats more quickly than the others. However, having worried the life out everyone, relax. It's relatively rare and usually treatable. Learn the symptoms but don't fixate. Kerryn
Re: Bloat Thanks for this Kate,it's something I hadn't even heard of.....Im a bit worried we could be a candidate for this..... We get up in the morning,(currently 6 am)let Dexter out of his cage ,he wees and then we go out for our walk (25 minutes)His walks include some sit/stays ,practicing walking to heel and some short chases after the tennis ball,as well as a bit of a free run and a romp around if we meet any friendly dogs,so a reasonably strenuous activity level. As we have increased the lengths of his walk,his activity level and temperatures have been increasing steadily too.He comes in panting but not excessively as on the return leg home we try to cool him down gradually with a steady pace and that's when we practice our sit /stays.......since he arrived to us we have always fed him immediately after this morning walk,he literally does a foot to foot dance in front of the cupboard waiting for his food ,so he expects it now straight away.......Now I know about Bloat,I feel I should change this?Stupidly I know I am going to feel dreadful about making him wait for his meal when he knows his routine so well.....and I think he must be starving......Would I do better feeding him before his walk and waiting 15 minutes to take him out( the heat would allow me to wait until 6.30 to take him out ......it's just then I miss a lot of the other dogs that I like him to meet and there will be a lot more joggers/walkers that I still like him to meet but might not be so keen to have us romp over ......)Do dogs feel confused if you make a change like this?I know Im guilty of humanizing him,will he even care? The alternative is I could feed him at 5.30 am so I and wait for a while for him to digest but I space his meals out 11 hours between so his dinner would then be at 4.30pm.....that seems really early when his day doesn't end until between 10-11 pm ( it isn't cool enough for him to have a second 'main' walk until 9 pm)I knew we would have temperature challenges and the Summer would dictate a lot to us. I thought I would struggle with him being restless being confined to the house during the day but it seems the heat is just pegging him out,he's sleeping as much as when we first got him. Got an early morning whining issue to be released from his cage going on too but I'll start another thread for that.....
Re: Bloat Thanks Kerryn too,we were writing at the same time.....need to make changes for sure. Im being totally stupid I know but I feel I will be breaking his trust in me when I don't give him his food when he has learned to expect it,( taught to expect it by me :-\)he relies on me for it...what will he feel when I don't come through ?
Re: Bloat [quote author=Dexter link=topic=1873.msg15033#msg15033 date=1372684741] Thanks Kerryn too,we were writing at the same time.....need to make changes for sure. Im being totally stupid I know but I feel I will be breaking his trust in me when I don't give him his food when he has learned to expect it,( taught to expect it by me :-\)he relies on me for it...what will he feel when I don't come through ? [/quote] I am totally unpredictable when it comes to feeding times and my dogs have never held a grudge against me as far as I know. It all depends what the dogs have been doing first thing in the morning. If they have been out either training or working then they will have to wait until their breathing has returned to normal before breakfast is served.
Re: Bloat It is definitely better to feed him AFTER exercise, not before. I would just let him cool down for a few minutes when you get back, not before, as running and jumping with a full stomach can be deadly for big dogs. It happened to my sister's dog - Bones' brother. He drank a load of water, then went rushing out to chase around with some other dogs (they lived on a farm in France, so he was pretty much free to come and go as he liked). When he came back in, he was looking distressed, and then collapsed. My sister managed to get him into the car and to the vets and onto the operating table for emergency surgery, but he had a heart attack and died on the table. His stomach had flipped, and the pain and stress caused the heart attack. Seven years old. Sorry, ghastly story, but horribly true. Never, ever feed or water your dog before strenuous exercise.
Re: Bloat Oh Karen what a horribly sad story..... I was saved from the angst of delaying his food this morning because we stood and chatted to a neighbor at our gate for 15 minutes so by the time we got in the house,he had calmed down and his breathing was back to normal......but you know what.....he won't be getting fed until he's settled down because Id rather put up with the incredulous looks from him that his meal is delayed than be responsible for creating a dangerous bloat situation.....
Re: Bloat This is an opportune thread as I had been wondering about elevated feeding bowls. A friend was round and said I should elevate Digby's bowls off the floor or he may get bloat? I haven't heard this before - anyone do this?
Re: Bloat It was humid this morning ,Dexter was panting quite hard when we got in,so today was the first day he didn't get fed as soon as his harness came off!His incredulous face!Or so I think!he did every trick in his book to remind me I had 'forgotten'......dancing from foot to foot,leaning his whole body up against the cupboard where his food is,going to look at his water bowl as if to say there should be one just the same as this with my food in!I felt grim.....Made myself a cup of tea,guilt ridden drinking it ;D ..sat on his bean bag for some cuddles.....not interested...oh he made me suffer!
Re: Bloat Jury is out on elevated bowls , I got one for Sam and was told that they could cause bloat, so I just went back to a floor bowl , confused.com :
