Your dog is happy and healthy, eating and drinking normally, active and enjoying life.
Suddenly, your dog becomes lethargic and tries to vomit. Your dog keeps trying to vomit and produces little if anything. While trying to vomit, your dog is inhaling a lot of air and you notice your dog’s stomach getting bigger. Then your dog collapses.
This can all happen in a matter of minutes to a few hours. While there are a few things that could be going on with your dog, the number one thought on your veterinarian’s mind is bloat.
Bloat is a medical emergency most common in large breed, deep chested dogs (Great Danes, German Shepherds, Weimaraners, Dobermans, Rottweilers, and Standard Poodles), although any breed can develop the condition. It has also been noted in Bassett Hounds and Dachshunds. Cats rarely develop the condition.
When dogs bloat, their stomach fills with gas or fluid and expands, giving the dog an outward appearance of a fat, round belly. Bloat can quickly progress to GDV, or Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus, which is when the stomach flips, cutting off flow to and from the esophagus and blocking any fluid and gas in the stomach. Your dog will begin retching but will not be able to actually vomit anything significant. Retained stomach gases cause the stomach to increase in size. GDV is a life-threatening, surgical emergency.
Consider a blown up balloon. You are continually filling the ball of the balloon with air, but are not letting any air out. The balloon can only stretch so far before it bursts. The stomach in a dog with GDV is like that balloon, although the stomach doesn’t burst. Instead, the torsed (or flipped) stomach has squeezed off blood flow to the stomach. Often when the stomach flips and is displaced, it will affect the spleen as well. The spleen serves to create, filter, store and recycle red blood cells. Often during a GDV, the spleen will become caught in the flipped stomach and will have its blood flow cut off.
GDV leads to a number of life-threatening factors:
- Blood supply is cut to parts of the stomach and possibly spleen. Without blood, these organs will die.
- The heart is not getting enough blood coming back to it; therefore there’s not as much oxygenated blood leaving the heart to the rest of the body.
- Toxins from dying tissue in and around the stomach increase, affecting surrounding organs.
- Abdominal distension (the bloated stomach) puts pressure on the diaphragm, making it difficult to breath.
GDV can result in:
- Hypovolemia (low blood pressure)
- Endotoxemia (toxin build up internally)
- Heart Arrhythmia (due to stress, poor circulation, low blood pressure)
- Dyspnea (trouble breathing)
- Shock
- Death
Dogs presented with bloat need emergency treatment including oxygen therapy, intravenous fluids, monitoring the heart via ECG, and releasing the gas in the stomach. Once the dog has received emergency treatment, x-rays and blood work can be performed to determine if the dog indeed has GDV and to evaluate it for surgery.
Surgery for GDV patients involves returning the stomach (and in many cases the spleen also) to its normal presentation within the abdomen. The remaining gas pressure is released. Organs will then be evaluated for damage. The stomach will then be tacked to the body wall to help prevent another case of GDV for that patient.
Round the clock supportive nursing care is important for the next 24-48 hours in terms of any residual shock, heart arrhythmias, pain management, surgical complications, electrolyte balance and gastritis. Patients will go home on several medications, each with different jobs. Patients will also go home with specific feeding instructions during recovery.
Prognosis of patients with GDV varies depending on the severity and time between onset and surgery, as well as the patient’s overall health prior to the GDV. Surgical repair does not guarantee that the dog will never bloat again, but it should keep the stomach from flipping again.
There are several things you can to help prevent your dog from bloating, although none will guarantee your dog will never bloat:
- Feed your dog several small meals a day instead of one large meal. Dogs who gulp their food or eat quickly tend to take in more air.
- Ration your dog’s water intake around meal times and during exercise. Drinking smaller amounts of water frequently is better than the whole bowl at once, followed by a continued romp around the yard. Water also causes food to expand, making that meal your dog just ate heavier.
- Some say that feeding your larger dog on an elevated surface helps decrease the amount of air ingested, versus leaning clear to the floor to eat. Feeding on an elevated surface is certainly better for the body of larger dogs.
- Some veterinarians will do a gastropexy (tack the stomach wall as they would in a GDV patient) during routine spays and neuters. It’s more often done with spays since spaying already involves a surgical incision into the abdomen.
Remember, a dog with its stomach tacked can still bloat. But hopefully it will keep the stomach from torsing.
Bloat is a medical emergency which can quickly lead to GDV, which is a surgical emergency. Without treatment, the dog will die. Recognizing a problem and quick action can be the key to saving your dog’s life! If you suspect bloat or GDV, go directly to the nearest emergency clinic or veterinarian.
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