Bloat in dogs can mimic other conditions that are not urgent or need attention at all. This is why it can be fatal – you are not realizing that the symptoms you are witnessing is bloat. Bloat is a condition when excess food, air, or water are in the stomach cavity. A more serious condition of bloat is when the dog’s stomach twists. This is a fatal condition if left untreated.
Symptoms of bloat are hard to distinguish because they are something that dogs do often. Bloat may cause the dog to roll around due to stomach distress. They vomit without producing much , and they retch as if they are trying to get something out of their throat. Their abdomen can become enlarged or bloated, but not all dogs share this symptom. The dog may start to pace from the discomfort.
You can understand from these symptoms why you might not think it is an emergency situation. Many dogs roll around and pace. Dogs vomit and gag often. Especially the long hair breeds, they get hair balls and the retching and gagging can be something you see them do often.
In Bloat, the stomach can get so distended that it starts to cut off blood supply to the vital organs. The dog can die in a matter of an hour once this happens. If this is the case , the dog needs to be rushed to the vet.
At the vet they will decompress the dogs stomach with a tube down their throats and by strategically using needles in the stomach until the stomach is normal size. If this does not work because the bloat is to progressed then surgery will need to occur. Even in the cases where the dog does not need surgery for the first episode, more than likely they will later on as a prevention of recurrence. The stomach twists and that can only be addressed surgically.
During the surgery for bloat if the case is advanced, a piece of the dog’s stomach may need to be removed, as well as the spleen. The spleen sits next to the stomach and may be one of the areas where the blood flow was cut off, resulting in the removal. During this surgery the vet will use one of three techniques to sew the stomach to the abdomen wall. This will assure the stomach from not twisting again and causing another attack of bloat.
Bloat is more prevalent in larger dogs. It will normally occur after the dog has a big dinner and exercise. The dogs stomach is full and the exercise causes the dis-positioning of a now heavier stomach. It does not always happen that way, it can just occur without these preceptors. You can understand why vets warn against over feeding. It is not just to keep a dog at a healthy weight.
If your dog starts to show symptoms of Bloat, get them to a vet immediately. Next time your dog starts to gag, vomit, or starts to roll around, take a closer look at him and make sure these seemingly normal actions are not symptoms of something else, Bloat.
