HELP! My dog ate a whole loaf of bread!
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Quote: her stomach feels tight and swollen
Please call an emergency vet or vet on-call now and get professional advice. I worry about bloat (but I'm not a vet). I hope she's doing better since you posted.  |
| Agreed. Call the emergency vet. |
Emma was put down this morning. We went to the emergency vet and did indeed find out it was bloat. Not a good way to start your morning.  |
| Oh my goodness!! How utterly shockingly horrible!! I cannot begin to tell you how sad I am to hear this.
I am so sorry.  |
| Oh NO!!!! How terrible!! I'm so sorry. |
| I am so terribly sorry... this is such a horrible shock.
Everyone, please take just a second to print up this list of Bloat symptoms. Keep it on the side of the fridge. Remember that all dogs may not show all of these symptoms. If your dog has ingested a lot of something (see below) or eaten bread dough, call the vet immediately and get professional advice. Quote: Source: http://www.globalspan.net/bloat.htm
* If your regular vet doesn't have 24-hour emergency service, know which nearby vet you would use. Keep the phone number handy. *Always keep a product with simethicone on hand (e.g., Mylanta Gas (not regular Mylanta), Gas-X, etc.) in case your dog has gas. If you can reduce or slow the gas, you've probably bought yourself a little more time to get to a vet if your dog is bloating. This information is not intended to replace advice or guidance from veterinarians or other pet care professionals. It is simply being shared as an aid to assist you with your own research on this very serious problem. BLOAT Symptoms Typical symptoms often include some (but not necessarily all) of the following, according to the links below. Unfortunately, from the onset of the first symptoms you have very little time (sometimes minutes, sometimes hours) to get immediate medical attention for your dog. Know your dog and know when it's not acting right. * Attempts to vomit (usually unsuccessful); may occur every 5-30 minutes * This seems to be one of the most common symptoms & has been referred to as the "hallmark symptom" * "Unsuccessful vomiting" means either nothing comes up or possibly just foam and/or mucous comes up * Doesn't act like usual self * Perhaps the earliest warning sign and may be the only sign that almost always occurs * We've had several reports that dogs who bloated asked to go outside in the middle of the night. If this is combined with frequent attempts to vomit, and if your dog doesn't typically ask to go outside in the middle of the night, bloat is a very real possibility. * Significant anxiety and restlessness One of the earliest warning signs and seems fairly typical * "Hunched up" or "roached up" appearance This seems to occur fairly frequently * Lack of normal gurgling and digestive sounds in the tummy bullet Many dog owners report this after putting their ear to their dog's tummy. * If your dog shows any bloat symptoms, you may want to try this immediately. * Bloated abdomen that may feel tight (like a drum) Despite the term "bloat," many times this symptom never occurs or is not apparent * Pale or off-color gums Dark red in early stages, white or blue in later stages * Coughing * Unproductive gagging * Heavy salivating or drooling * Foamy mucous around the lips, or vomiting foamy mucous * Unproductive attempts to defecate * Whining * Pacing * Licking the air * Seeking a hiding place * Looking at their side or other evidence of abdominal pain or discomfort * May refuse to lie down or even sit down * May stand spread-legged * May curl up in a ball or go into a praying or crouched position * May attempt to eat small stones and twigs * Drinking excessively * Heavy or rapid panting * Shallow breathing * Cold mouth membranes * Apparent weakness; unable to stand or has a spread-legged stance Especially in advanced stage * Accelerated heartbeat Heart rate increases as bloating progresses * Weak pulse * Collapse Back in 2006, unknown to us, Panda had gotten into a bag of kibble that wasn't properly put away. I looked over at her and noticed her belly looked bigger. http://oesusa.com/NaughtyPan.jpg I grabbed the phone and told the vet to be ready for us and we rushed her in. They knew she didn't have bloat when we got there because she was wagging her tail and walking. We had to leave her. We went home and found she had gotten into the kibble and told the vet. We were told that the food could have swollen in her stomach and burst. They gave her meds to help move the food along. Bloat can happen so quickly and even with quick intervention it's possible for the same tragic outcome. I am so very, very sorry for your loss.
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| OMG, How sad! I am so sorry for your loss. |
| Oh, I am so sorry.
to you and your family. |
OMG, I am so, so sorry for your loss. What a horrible shock it must be!  |
| So sorry about your sudden loss. hugs to you and all your family. xx |
| So sorry to hear about EMMA. I wasn't aware that could happen. OMG its a bad day at oes.org..... |
| oh my so sorry for your loss |
| I am so sorry for the loss of Emma. She was such a beautiful girl. |
| I am so sorry about Emma |
| Oh no! I'm so sorry! |
| I am so sorry about Emma
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| I am so sorry to hear of your sudden loss of Emma. My heart goes out to you. Emma was such a sweet heart. She will be greatly missed.
Tears, |
| Oh this is terrible news. I'm sorry for Emma and I'm so sorry for your loss. |
| What horrible news. I am so sorry that you have lost your Emma. |
| I am sorry to hear about Emma. That IS a terrible way to start the morning. I will keep you in my thoughts today. |
| That is terrible. I am so sorry for your loss.
Laurie |
| Oh my, I am so very sorry. What a terrible thing to happen. |
| I am really sorry to read this. |
| What awful news! I am in shock. Much sympathy for your sudden loss. I can't imagine it. |
| Oh my, I am so sorry to hear about Emma. My thoughts are with you and your family. |
| I'm so sorry to hear about Emma, we're thinking of you. |
| I am so sorry for your sudden loss of Emma.
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| I'm so sorry! I know you are devastated.
susan |
| Oh I am so terribly sorry for your sudden loss of Emma |
| Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry about Emma! |
| Thank you all for your kind comments. This has been quiet a depressing day. My husband has been really torn up about it and ended up taking the day off. He couldn't concentrate on work. I keep trying not to think about it or I start to cry. We only had Emma for about a month and she really had started to fit very nicely into our family. I have never met a dog that was as happy as she was. Anytime you came walking by or caught her eye she would start wagging her bum and get up to see you. Edgar was in love with using her for a play toy which she happily obliged.
I am so glad that they both didn't get bloat. Edgar has extreme diarrhea today and you can see the seeds and nuts that were in the bread he ate come through. I really don't understand why only Emma got it. Maybe she ate more bread. We will probably wait awhile until we get another rescue/or puppy. |
| I am so sorry to read about Emma. |
| I'm so sorry about Emma.
Bloat is a viciously odd affliction. Even researchers who have been studying it for years don't fully understand the dynamics, but the risk of it happening does go up with age, among other things. Thinner dogs have a higher risk (don't everyone go out and fatten up your dogs, please). Stress can be a major contributor. And so on. Emma may have eaten more or she may have been more predisposed. I've had two of mine on bloat watch since Belle (I presume) finally managed to crack the magic code and get into the food bin while I had the three youngsters at the dog park Tuesday night.  Between the three at home, they must have polished off about ten pounds of dog food. Liz was huge. Mad seemed hardly affected. Belle in between. Belle and Liz upchucked a lot of their ill-gotten gains pretty quickly, which may have saved them. The rest of it has been coming out in lovely soupy, stinky form for two days now, but they seem otherwise OK.
I'm terrified of bloat on a good day. Reading about your Emma just drove the point home. It can happen at any time and for almost any reason. If anybody's in the slightest doubt what it can look like, reread what Jaci posted. Time is of the essence if you're going to save them and if their stomach has twisted, often you cannot. Kristine |
| I am so sorry about your puppy. I hope you feel better soon. I am making sure no food is ever left on my counters. I had no idea this could happen. Thank you for sharing with us. You may have saved another dog's life by informing others about this.
I free feed my puppy. She has so many treats laying around that she does not even have the desire to finish. She eats until she is full and stops. My breeder recommended free feeding and I am wondering if the bloat is preventable by free feeding your dogs? They may less likely to binge on food if it is freely available. I'm not sure though, just a thought. Ella |
ella wrote: My breeder recommended free feeding and I am wondering if the bloat is preventable by free feeding your dogs? They may less likely to binge on food if it is freely available. I'm not sure though, just a thought.
Ella It would make sense, wouldn't it? I think it depends on the dog and your living situation. I free fed my first OES who was a picky eater as a youngster. I eventually had to stop. By middle age she turned into a blimp. In a multiple dog household it's harder still. And then there's the pig factor. Mine would, as they clearly demonstrated, just keep eating. A rescue I just placed was a picky eater when she came to me, but learned to eat up or go hungry at my house. IN her new home, only dog, she's reverted to wanting the food available to nibble on all day. And while that might be desirable for the reasons you mention, I also know there's a grandchild on the way whom I presume will be visiting and she has some resource guarding issues with other dogs that I don't want her transferring to a toddler some day, so I asked them to please stay strong and convince her to eat when fed so they can pick up the bowl at other times. Interesting notion, though. Researchers have pondered that one too. Kristine |
| I just wanted to highlight two things in the bloat article--
http://www.globalspan.net/bloat.htm Quote: Bloat can kill in less than an hour, so time is of the essence. Notify your vet to alert them you're on your way with a suspected bloat case. Better to be safe than sorry! Quote: Always keep a product with simethicone on hand (e.g., Mylanta Gas (not regular Mylanta), Gas-X, etc.) in case your dog has gas. If you can reduce or slow the gas, you've probably bought yourself a little more time to get to a vet if your dog is bloating. |
| oh God, i am soo sorry for you....how terrible...call me if you want to... |
| Jaci -
I was thinking about your bloat article all night. SO many of those symptoms happen at other times for other reasons there is no wonder we often miss bloat (as owners). How do you strike balance between the er vet once a week and real diligence? |
Quote: SO many of those symptoms happen at other times for other reasons there is no wonder we often miss bloat (as owners). That's what I had said to crustybirds privately. "... reading about the symptoms and actually seeing them first hand are two completely different things. It would be easy to believe that the bread just didn't sit well with her..." Quote: How do you strike balance between the er vet once a week and real diligence?
When I saw Panda's distended stomach back in November 2006, I remembered this article. I grabbed the phone, told the receptionist that Panda was bloating and to be prepared for us. We have never driven the distance in such a short time... Panda would not sit or lie down during the ride over. I mean there was a big difference in her stomach size- http://oesusa.com/NaughtyPan.jpg I can laugh at myself now but I carried her through the doors and set her down on the floor and... she wagged her tail and was happy to see the vet.  They knew right then she didn't have bloat because she wasn't in "bloat-discomfort" and there had been no vomiting or attempts to vomit. X-rays showed her digestive tract was FULL of "stuff" which later was found to be food.
I wonder if the key might be that any time there is non-productive vomiting or vomiting of just mucus/foam maybe we should go through the list of symptoms? Or if our dog gets into something he/she shouldn't have? Check the gums to ensure they aren't dark red, pale or off-color, look for a hunched up appearance, anxiety or restlessness, etc. I doubt it's the bile-type vomiting that a dog does when the stomach is empty and he/she needs food... probably not when a dog regurgitates an entire meal either. (But again, I'm not a vet.) Just a side note... The AAHA website indicates that bloat can be fatal in just 30 minutes in severe cases and that it's most often found in larger dogs that have eaten a large or abnormal meal. http://www.healthypet.com/library_view.aspx?id=30 In the end, we know our dogs best and when something just isn't right. I think this is the best we can do... |
| I don't know if there are bloat cases that present more mildly, but the one case I saw - we saw it happen before our very eyes and were in the car on the way to the emergency vet in minutes and still lost the dog, well, he was 12 years old - there really was no doubt. None.
It was awful. Roached over, stomach distended unbelievably, like someone blew up a balloon in there - he was pacing, uncomfortable. Retching but nothing was coming up. Labored breathing. He was in so much pain. I held him on the way down to the vets and there was nothing I could do to comfort him in any way. It was a most horrible, helpless feeling. He left three women devastated, one who didn't even get to say goodbye, but it was almost a relief to let him go. No creature should suffer like that. #### - I start crying again just thinking about it and it's been years. We never did figure out why it happened. He hadn't gotten into anything. He was a well adjusted sweet old guy. He ate his regular meal and less than two hours later he was dead. The following day two of the breeder's young girls got into the dog food - Liz was one of them then too . I walked in and discovered them in fact. Dana looked a little funny to me so I felt of her stomach and it was distended and I was in full panic mode and already on my way to the car when her owner grabbed me and said let's look at her first.
Yes, her stomach was distended, but she was feeling no pain (quite proud of herself actually ) Gassing away, happy as a clam. Then I thought to look at Liz and she was the same way. We watched them like a hawk, but they were OK.
When in doubt I'd still say better safe than sorry. I doubt there's a vet alive who wouldn't rather you brought a dog in for naught in that situation. Certainly if the dog's stomach is at all distended plus unproductive vomiting, don't think, just go. Kristine |
Quote: I start crying again just thinking about it and it's been years.
{{{{{ Hugs to you Kristine }}}}} These memories can be so difficult. I can feel the total helplessness you must have felt and finally the release from the overwhelming suffering in finally allowing him go. |
| See now this is why I didn't think anything was really wrong at first. Emma was throwing up piles and piles of brown yellow goo and a little foam. She was not displaying any of the other symptoms. So it really just looked like to me that the bread didn't agree with her. Then when I heard her throwing up again in the early morning, it was still piles of goo but then turned into not being able to bring anything up. She was not laying down like before and her stomach was making noises like it was going to explode. If her tummy hadn't of been tight I still don't think I would have known what was going on. She walked herself to the vet and even jumped up into the car. I think her not being normal in most of the symptoms made it harder for us to tell what was going on. |
| Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry abut Emma. What a shock. I never saw more posts on this thread and didn't realize until someone else posted it elsewhere. Even though she was only with you for a short time, it doesn't make losing her hurt less. I'm so, so sorry. |
| I ams so so sorry! How horrible!! You all are in my prayers. |
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