Comments on: GDV – Some Frightening Facts

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:27:32 +0000

My 11 year old standard male poodle developed GDV while we were out for the evening. When we arrived home, he did not come to greet us, and I knew that something was dreadfully wrong. Then, he began to retch unproductively, and I felt his stomach which was hard as concrete. Fortunately, I resisted my wife’s wish to “wait until morning” to attend to this insidious killer. Samson went to the OR by 5:00 a.m., and did very well during and after surgery. We thank our lucky stars for being well forewarned about this nasty life threatener. Roger New York, NY

By: Laura Johnston

Laura Johnston — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:59:12 +0000

I woke up this morning to find my dalmation dead with a huge swollen stomach. He seemed fine the night before, ate his dinner and was fine before we went to bed. The vet who we rang said it is most probably GDV. He is a very big dalmation and eats his food so quickly. It was such a shock considering we havent heard of this condition before.
It looked like there was a baloon inside his stomoach. Poor jasper

By: Christine Collins

Christine Collins — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:38:13 +0000

Hi Brigitte,

We were in the german shepherd club for 5 years and we were always warned about bloat over that time bloat had sadly taken the life of some members dogs. Some breeders were beginning to talk about could it be hereditry as the dogs affected came from the same blood lines,it is strange because in the natural dog world they always play after eating sometimes quite vigorously maybe we have fine tuned these beatiful animals with breeding and this could be where the flaw lies.We now have two german shepherds and never feed them bones as we have listened to to many stories of all types of bones causing death or extreme injuries internally!!
We lost our beloved Tara at 4 years old to a fungal disease called aspergillosis that was eating her spine as the specialist said it is a very aggresive and nasty disease. Our shepherds are 14 months and are half brother and sister their names are Tasha and Jay.
Kind Regards
Christine

By: Brigitte Smith

Brigitte Smith — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:03:05 +0000

Hi Julia,

Wow, that really came on fast. The vet told me it can sometimes develop within fifteen minutes, but 5 minutes is really extreme.

I recall that “mooing” sound as well, now that you mention it. I had forgotten that. It was part of the retching sound when she was trying to be sick.

What advice were you given about feeding bones in the future? I’m interested to know, as I was advised not to ever do that by the specialist (although one of the vets involved in her care thought it should have been okay). I’m not taking the risk in view of that, and now have to feed my dogs completely separately as my other dog still has raw bones.

Hope your dog continues to improve.

Regards,
Brigitte

By: Julia Godden

Julia Godden — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:16:57 +0000

My 12 yr black Labador is just recovering from GDV trauma that he had on Sunday.

He and my other 2 dogs were eating a doggy bone. We were supervising all the time, however he did eat his rather quicker than the others.

About 5 minutes after eating it he was walking round the garden making an awful sound, like a cow mooing, and trying to be sick. My husband followed him around and said, somethings not right, his stomach was all bloated like he was pregnant, on one side. we called the out of hours vet and explained we were bringing him in.
Luckily we were at the vets within 40 minutes of noticing and I think that saved his life.

As an owner I was alway aware for the need to have quiet time before and after feeds, but boy I have now learnt so much more from the web.

My eternal thanks go out to the Staff and Students of Saint George’s University Vetinary Teaching Hospital in Grenada W.I

I hope Kara’s still doing ok.