Woof! How are you furiends? The weather is becoming pawsome and that means more time to kick up your paws and enjoy the beautiful day.  Exercise is fun! However, have you ever heard your parents talk about waiting to exercise after eating?  Do you know why?  Woof! Exercising after eating can cause dog bloat, after all, since we are dogs only makes sense that we could experience dog bloat.  Woof!

Now listen very closely, bloat for us dogs is nothing to shake a tail at; this can be fatal.  Yikes! Bloat is a medical emergency; did you know that bloat is the second leading killer for us dogs? OMD! Even as I am pawing this up, this has my attention.  Bloat can occur in two ways; one is the swelling of our stomach from gas or torsion, torsion is when our tummy twists.  Furiends, this sounds painful; beginning to understand why this is nothing to shake a tail at and is a medical emergency.  Woof!

How do you know if you have bloat? Or, what should your parents watch for?  Here are a few symptoms, remember though, some of these symptoms could mean something else too.  If your parents are like our Mom, always best to be safe and call Doc if unsure.  Here they are:

• Severe stomach pain (swelling of belly)
• Unproductive vomit (we keep trying to vomit, yet nothing comes up)
• Rapid shallow breathing
• Excessive salivation (this may because we are in pain)
• Lots of pacing (we just can rest and become comfortable)
• Gums are pale white
• Collapse

Woof! This is scary stuff.  So, how can our parents prevent bloating for us? There are simple items that parents can do to help reduce the chance of us dogs getting bloat, which will keep us out of the emergency room.  Here are a few tips:

• Feed us two to three times a day.  Think about it; if you are fed only once a day, you are one hungry dog and will gulp your food.  When gulping of food occurs, we ingest air and when air is ingested with our food, gas is created.  Gas will create bloating.
• Exercise before of after one hour eating. Now, humans seem to have this rule for themselves, only makes sense that this will be for us too. Woof! By waiting for one hour, it allows our meal to digest and reduce bloating. Plus, if you are like Twinkle Star, she likes to roll and wiggle on her back all of which can twist the tummy.  I know that you want to get out and play, take a nap first and then play.
• Water available vs given certain times.  Just like our meals, if drinking water too fast, air can be ingested causing gas.  If we have water accessible most of the time, we have less of an urge to gulp our water.
• Prevention is the best medicine.  Furiends, if any one of you had bloat in the past, there is an increased chance for this to happen again.  Preventing it happening again will keep the Doc away.  Woof!
• Ask for probiotics.  Probiotics is our tummy’s best friend, it encourages friendly bacteria which helps our food digest.

Arf! Arf! I can not bark this enough; if you have a tummy ache, show your parents immediately.  This is a matter of life and death.  Have you ever had bloat?  Would wuv to hear how you prevent it coming back?

Woof! Mr MaGoo

 

 

 

#bloatingindogs #dogbloatcare