the Doggy Love gets BLOAT

Below is a post I wrote on a forum regarding a really scary experience with Gastric Dilatation and Volvulus (GDV), or "bloat" as it is commonly called.  If you are a dog owner, please educate yourself on the condition and know the signs, and keep GasX on hand in case your dog starts displaying symptoms. I am positive that saved Marco - at the very least, it bought us some time to get him to the vet where they could really save him!

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Hello, Friends.

Some of you may remember me, if not, I am Liz, I live in Denver and have a 4-year old male Doberman named Marco (or Marco Barko as my neighbors love to call him) and he is one of the great loves of my life. When my husband and I adopted this adorable puppy, he was my third dobe and my husband’s first, but for both of us it was the first time either of us had raised a puppy without our moms and dads to help (and do all the work). At that time I found this community which, as you may well know, was SO HELPFUL and supportive, and I can’t say enough good about the place! With the advice of many members here, we were able to make sure Marco grew up into a model dober-citizen. Now, four years later, I haven’t been on here to check in much, though I have popped in a few times when I could.

I am here today because Marco got bloat, or gastric dilatation and volvulus (GDV) this past Friday. I cannot thank the members of this community enough for providing me with education about that condition when I first came here after getting Marco, and it is because of what I learned here at DCF that I have always kept GasX on hand – that probably saved Marco’s life on Friday night. I am so very thankful I knew the symptoms and knew where to go – HERE – when I thought he might be exhibiting those symptoms. So this website and the time you are spending here getting educated is saving your dog’s life in the future, if it hasn’t done so already! You may not be aware of it now but I’m here to tell you that is the case!!

I am going to share the story of what happened to Marco so you can file it away in your memory in case you ever need it, God forbid. Like me, you may wonder “How would I ever KNOW it was bloat?” Well, you won’t know for sure, but I want to tell you my experience in case it might help you, should you find yourself in a similar situation down the road.

Marco is a pretty typical Doberman male, but is by far the sweetest most docile dobe I have had. My other two were females, I thought he’d be more hard-headed than they were, but he’s not. He is a JOY and is very, very sweet. He’s also a WILD MAN and by that I mean, this dog will not settle down, ever. He’s four and people think he’s a puppy! He stayed at a kennel for a week and they put him in with the puppies, then the guy checking him out was like “how old is your pup?” and I said “Four” and the almost fell on the floor and said “GOOD LORD! I thought he was one, I was going to tell you it gets better and they calm down!” We all laughed about it. But that is how Marco is… super energetic but also SUPER SWEET.

On Friday Marco went to doggie day care in the morning. My husband picked him up around 5PM and he was his usual sprightly self, but when they got home, Marco didn’t want dinner – WARNING SIGN NUMBER ONE. Marco will never, ever miss a meal. I was in the middle of making a wedding cake and there were some cake remnants on the dining table, apparently Marco got some of them as he ran into the house. He probably ate maybe two regular-sized (not too big) pieces – less of an amount of food than he has for dinner (he is fed twice a day). But Marco NEVER gets sugar at all, so my husband thought maybe Marco's stomach was upset due to the sugar - but we both thought him skipping dinner was weird.

We took him out in the backyard, he was super excited and wanted to play, so we did but a few minutes into play time he laid down suddenly and just stopped – WARNING SIGN NUMBER TWO, laying down during play is odd behavior for our dog. At this point I actually thought to myself ‘Now that’s really weird…’ because, for Marco, it is – he will never, EVER stop play, not even if a freak thunderstorm shows up!!! At this point I recognized he was uncomfortable. And I thought “Oh my gosh, I wonder if he has bloat?” I looked at his abdomen / ribs / waist and it was a little big, but he was laying down and I couldn’t say for sure that it was a lot bigger or anything. But Marco wouldn’t get up for a few minutes, even with coaxing him with his favorite toys. When he finally did get up after 10 or so minutes, he took 3 steps and laid down again. I went inside and got GasX and gave it to him. THIS DEFINITELY BOUGHT US TIME AND IS ONE OF THE THINGS WHICH MAY HAVE SAVED HIS LIFE, I (and the vet) can say this in hindsight. The GasX was expired but it did still work, shortly after Marco took it he started burping. He was able to walk around again, and wanted to play a little bit more.OK. Dog seems not great, but fine..." I thought, and we went on with our evening.

Then about 30 minutes later we took him into the house to try to give him dinner again. He was still not interested, but otherwise behaving normally. This is about an hour after he came home, so this is a one-hour time span so far that we had our eyes on him. During that time, he drank water. He had gone pee and poop out while we were playing in the yard. About 15 minutes after the second dinner attempt, he threw up a small amount on the carpet. The throwing up was a relief to me. I figured now he’ll probably start feeling better. We thought maybe it really was just the sugar in the cake reacting to him. But 15 minutes after he threw up, he tried to throw up and nothing came out. And then he started pacing – WARNING SIGNS NUMBERS THREE AND FOUR. The retching with no vomit and the pacing continued on and off for the next few hours.

I still could not tell for sure whether Marco's abdomen was distended, BUT I did notice that his narrow waist area, back near his hind legs, was kind of filling in down toward the floor. 'Maybe this is bloat, maybe not?' I wasn’t sure, but it looked like he had less of that nice tuck where the underside of his chest goes toward his back legs. There was definitely a difference, but I would not say it was an obvious one. I came here to DCF to look at the symptoms for bloat, Marco was in line with all of them EXCEPT his demeanor (other than the pacing) was pretty normal - he was kind of puppyish, very alert, attentive and expressive with his face. So I didn’t want to jump the gun and take him to the vet, and I’d given him the Gas-X. At this point it was about 10PM, and he sort of laid down to go to sleep, so my husband and I went to bed, too.

But then Marco kept waking us up whining, so we invited him to jump in the bed, but he just stood there and whined – MORE WARNINGS, as Marco will never turn down an opportunity to sleep in our bed and just stand there whining. Patrick took him outside and again, Marco tried to throw up but couldn’t. I decided to sleep with him in his doggie room, and an hour went by and Marco never calmed down, was just pacing, and then he laid on the floor and started whining. At that point, when he started whining, I knew... I thought “Oh God, this is definitely bloat, I’m taking him to the ER” It was 2:00AM.

So we arrive to the emergency clinic and Marco goes BOUNDING in like the crazy four year old puppy he is, wagging his tail and body like a mad man as if to yell to everyone ‘WE ARE ON AN ADVENTURE!!! WE JUST HAD A 3AM CAR RIDE!!!! THERE ARE DOGGY AND KITTY SMELLS EVERYWHERE IN HERE!!!!! Mom, this is SO GREAT!!!’ The receptionist asks me why I brought him in, and I say “I’m pretty sure he’s got GDV – bloat.” She gives me this look like 'Yeah, right, lady, you’re an idiot.’ And she says “Well…. that’s a *REALLY serious* condition.” So I tell her I know that, and while he looks fine right now he’s extremely energetic in general, and I promise he was not himself and I’m certainly not one to just show up at the emergency vet at 3AM, and he definitely has all the signs. So we go through everything, then I go through it with a nurse and yep, they think it’s bloat, they do xrays and yep, his stomach is huge and twisted…. But only twisted halfway.

Surgery can save him… but they want to make sure this is what’s going on because, again, he is not ‘presenting himself’ with the demeanor of a bloated dog. I opt to leave him there for the night because they say they want to see if his stomach will go back to normal, and they can monitor him closely because if it really is bloat and it rotates all the way, he will deteriorate really fast and they will be able to start the surgery right away if they have to.

Well morning comes and they call to say he’s no better or worse, but the doc wants to open him up because his stomach is still twisted halfway around. They’ll tack it (gastroplexy) while he’s under. Ok, let’s do it. They call me in the middle of the procedure – back when Marco was one, he had swallowed socks and needed surgery to remove them from his intestines. Ironically because of the way they had to stitch up his intestines during that procedure, it probably prevented Marco’s stomach from completely turning in this bloat incident. (It also prompted us to BUY PET INSURANCE – and I’ve been on the phone with PetPlan and this whole thing will be covered, thank GOD as it is NOT CHEAP!!!) But the doc wanted to talk about the previous surgery, and tell me that unfortunately Marco’s spleen was now damaged so it had to be taken out, which was just fine with me, I just wanted him to come out ALIVE!!!

In any case, he got through the surgery on Saturday and the staff at the clinic were so complimentary toward me that I knew what to do, they said the GasX was a really good move, as was bringing him in even though he was behaving sort of normally, mentally. My husband was thrilled that I ‘saved Marco's life’ but really, I just knew what to look for and that it was super serious, so when in doubt, do what you think is best. I did that. I’m glad.

Marco is not out of the woods yet. He came home Sunday afternoon, but getting him into the car was pretty traumatic. He was screaming. He made it, though. Back at our house he didn’t feel well, obviously, and he laid down for a bit but then he started pacing again. And his stomach/abdomen looked a lot bigger. SO I called the clinic, they had me bring him back. They xrayed him and examined him, said there is a lot of air, but it’s not uncommon, his stomach was normal sized and still in the position they put it in, so that was good. They gave him an extra pain injection and then sent him home with me to monitor. He did go to sleep when we got home. Yesterday morning, however, the clinic called and said to bring him in, another doctor had looked at the xrays and didn’t like the looks of it, he was too swollen/distended. So I went back Monday morning for the third time, LIVID because getting him in/out of the car is obviously terribly painful for him. They did help me get him out of the car.

They pulled a liter of air out of his abdomen and did some tests. They weren't sure how the air is getting in there, if it’s coming in through the incision or if there is a leak or tear in his GI tract, which could be causing an infection. He stayed there under observation yesterday, they ‘sealed him a little better’ by covering the incision with ointment and a plastic bandage, so no air can get in. They took more air out before they did that, and continued monitoring to see if any more air shows up, which it did. So that indicates an infection or some other issue with his GI tract, and they’re now taking him in to surgery again to go in and find the leak. So I’m sort of worried now… I really just want him to be ok, he’s only 4 and very healthy otherwise… I’m happy that I was able to get him to them in time, but now with the complications I can only hope and pray he comes out of it ok, there isn’t any more to be done, I guess, except come here and share my gratitude for the existence of this community! THANK YOU, DOBERMAN CHAT FORUM AND ALL YOUR WONDERFUL, HELPFUL MEMBERS!

Other than that, things have been great, Marco is a happy dog and we just recently bought him his own doggy trailer so we can pull him behind us when we ride! Below are pics of him with my husband taking him around the backyard to get used to the trailer – I hope he gets out of the hospital soon so we can do this again!!

I guess overall I just want to say if you even THINK your dog might have bloat, give them Gas-X. Keep some with you in your car, your purse, anytime the dog is with you. Also keep in mind, in the back of your head, if your dog retches repeatedly but nothing comes up, it might be bloat. If your dog paces continuously and whines like they are uncomfortable, it might be bloat. If your dog lays down or crouches and won’t move, no matter what you try to coax it up with, it might be bloat. Be safe and give it some GasX, and even if they behave like their normal self, if these symptoms don’t go away TAKE YOUR DOG TO THE VET AND TELL THEM YOU THINK IT HAS BLOAT. Even if the dog prances through the doors of the clinic and wags his tail and licks everyone and seems otherwise normal, the staff will take you seriously once you describe what is going on. Don’t wait.

I’ll keep you all posted on Marco… I’m so thankful this forum exists, thank you all for being part of it and caring and helping first-timers like myself! J I don’t wish this on anyone but if you ever find yourself wondering if your dog has bloat, I hope what you have read in this post will help you save your best friend.

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PS Marco came home last weekend and is doing great! His surgery for removing the septic infection went really well, he stayed in the ICU a few days to recover and is now back with us and acting like his normal crazy four-year-old-puppy self! His stitches come out Saturday.

 

Here is a good link to some info about GDV / Bloat:  http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2090&aid=402