Beware of Bloat

Bloat is a very scary medical condition that can quickly become fatal for a dog. I'm posting about bloat on our blog because a couple of months ago a dog that attended our dog school died of this terrible disorder. If you are not familiar with bloat the simplest explanation that I can give is that the dog's stomach fills with trapped air. If the air build up continues the stomach can flip over which will cut off the blood supply to the stomach. If the bloat is not quickly treated the dog will very likely die.

The chart in the link below explains how to recognize bloat, how to treat it and what happens during each phase. We have this chart posted near Katie and Louie's dog food to remind ourselves and any of the dogs' caregivers what symptoms to watch for.

http://www.bmdinfo.org/Health/Reference_Guide_Bloat_GDV.pdf

Bloat is most common in deep chested dogs such as Great Danes, Rottweilers, Labs and Newfs, but it can happen to any dog. There is no magic bullet to prevent bloat, but a few things that are believed to be helpful are: feeding two smaller meals a day instead of one large meal, waiting two hours after the dog eats before exercising it and waiting one hour after the dog has exercised before feeding.