I am also so sorry to hear about your loss.
Tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of my beautiful German Sheperd "Dusty" passing away from bloat.
I never heard of bloat. We had went away on vacation and boarded Dusty. The day we picked him up he was fine. That evening I noticed a swelling on his left side and I was very upset wondering whether he was abused at the kennel, which we had taken him there many times before and never had a problem, but you never know. I said to my fiance that if the swelling is still there in the morning, I'm going to take him to the vet. I regret that now because I could have probably saved his life if I had taken him that evening.
It was a hot evening and he always loved to go down to the basement and lay on the cold floor, but what was odd he usually waited for us to fall asleep before doing so. He went right down to the basement when I said it was time to go to bed.
The next morning I woke up. Dusty sometimes sleeps in because I get up real early to workout but before I workout I like to have a cup of coffee and he didn't come up from the basement. I called to him and nothing. I figured he was exhausted from being at the kennel because he never really got a good night sleep there because of all the barking.
I went down the basement to workout and there he was, he had passed away.
When the vet opened I called them and I was so upset because I really thought he was abused and I wanted an autopsy done. I took Dusty to the vet and later that afternoon I received a call from the vet who then informed me that he passed away from bloat, which is common in dogs that have large chest cavities. The stomach flips and cuts off both ends causing all the gases in the stomach to expand and eventually puts pressure on all the organs, especially the heart and causes a heart attack.
Now my next German Sheperd that I get, as a puppy of course, we are going to have the stomach tacked. Where they surgically sew the stomach to the inside of the chest cavitity which will prevent bloat from occurring.
The really odd thing is, I had no idea what bloat was and after it has affected us, the more I hear about it.
Once again, I'm so sorry for your loss.
Sharon
