I haven’t been able to bring myself to write on this blog for quite some months. I think I am ready to deal with it now, but I’m going to take the next I don’t know how many posts to just write about my Lizzie and all the things we did that I didn’t get around to posting on here. I figured I had plenty of time.
I lost Lizzie at around 9:30pm on February 8, 2013, after a 10 day fight for her life. She died at the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center from complications, namely septicemia, following three surgeries from GDV – Gastric dilatation volvulus (commonly known as bloat). This is a condition I knew nothing about until this happened. I wish I had. Her symptoms started suddenly, seemingly from nowhere. Knowing my dog as well as I did, she was at the emergency clinic within minutes of when the symptoms started. Unfortunately she was not diagnosed or treated at that time. I cannot go into details on what happened at the emergency clinic at yet, since the situation is currently under review with the Veterinary Board for the State of Texas. Once the decision is issued, I will go into more detail. Just to be clear, the issue under review is in regards to the emergency veterinarian in Tyler, Texas, not with any veterinarians who treated and operated on her after the fact, and tried everything they could to save her life. To them I am grateful.
GDV is deadly, and an absolute emergency. Minutes matter. If you aren’t familiar with the condition, here is the link to the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric_dilatation_volvulus
Hi Maya. I share your grief over your loss and the trauma of bloat. It is more common than people seem to think and if your emergency vet didn’t recognize it, that’s heart breaking. It is unusual in young female dogs; that’s the only excuse I can think of. Can you tell me what food and supplements Lizzie was getting when she got the symptoms? I have my own theory about yeast in dog foods and additives. I think I have a need to believe I have the answer to preventing it from happening to the 2 GSDs I have now. Thanks for your input.
Hi Linda..thank you for your comment. Lizzie was eating Nature’s Variety kibble. However, what is unusual is she had not yet eaten the day this happened. I have since read that studies are showing that there is no correlation between eating and GDV, but apparently dogs with large deep chests and narrow waists are more prone. The only way I’ve heard to avoid this is the gastropexy. I am looking into laproscopic gastopexy for the GSD I have now. I don’t want to go through this ever again, but if it did happen I would know to insist the vet look for it immediately.
Hello Again! I had a 10 y/o male GSD bloat. Fortunately he only lost his spleen during surgery within two hours and I had him another two blessed years. So when I got another male, I asked for gastropexy, but my vet wouldn’t do it. I hope you have better luck, because it would be a real relief not to have to worry about bloat every single day. People don’t seem to realize how devastating it is for owners to have an otherwise healthy dog suddenly become deathly sick. Thanks for getting back to me on the food. NV does use some yeast culture, but a reaction from the previous day’s feeding is unusual. I know it is most common in deep chested dogs, but since not every deep chested dog bloats, fortunately, it must be anatomy plus some other variable. I know there are a lot of studies on this, so I am surprised the cause hasn’t been specifically determined based on statistics. Unless dog food manufacturers don’t want such information to come out, since it is usually food related(eating too fast, swallowing whole without chewing, dish high or low, too soon after exercise, too much water before or after meal, etc.) Why not consider food ingredients as well? I think if a dog frequently passes foul smelling gas, that can also be a precursor of digestive problems and susceptibility. Just putting it out there for what it’s worth.