My 7 year old GSD was rushed to the vet 7am with suspected torsion, I have been reading info on internet, anyone had experience of this?

Charm,
Hope all goes well,
Anne

Yes, my GSD had a torsion a few years ago :(
The surgery went well and he had his spleen removed at the same time. It was touch and go for a day or two as the stomach had turned black so we weren't sure whether the tissue would recover. Thankfully it did and he is still with me. The vet stitched his stomach to the wall of his abdomen to help prevent it happening again.
I do now feed him raised off the ground at chest height which I believe helps him because he tends to gulp his food.
Fingers crossed that your dog is lucky!
I know the worry and turmoil that you are going through now.
Regards
Lara

Thanks for your positive reply, the more I was reading the worse things looked, vet has just rang to say she is still on the table, doing everything they can, confirmed she has a very bad stomach twist, she has 4 week old puppies here, my poor Anna....

hope she's OK Charm

just sending my best wishes to you and hope everything goes well julie:)

update on Anna....She underwent a 3 hour operation, vet says she had a 370 degree twist, worst he has ever seen....He has sewn her stomach to the wall of her abdomen, she is on a drip and in special care, next few hours are critical. Thanks to everyone for your kind words, I certainly need them.

Fingers crossed that the news is good charmed

Melody

Charm, Please try not to worry TOO much. I had a Wolfhound that was as bad as that, and she survived with lots of TLC. Fingers and everything crossed for you xxx

thinking of Anna Charm - everything crossed for her :)

I lost my first IW with torsion in the late 80's so I'll be thinking of you.
Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery. :)
Nicky x

Charm My thoughts are with you today, I so hope the outcome is good. However as I lost an Irish Setter to bloat/ gastric tortion, only 10 days ago, I'm not able to be all that positive for your situation.I'm more than aware of how much of a worry this is and as you have babes as well I'm praying for your bitch. Good Luck keep us posted, Love Dawn R.

I hope she pulls through and gets better :)
How are her 4 week pups doing, are they still nursing?
Wishing you luck

Vets nurse has just rung me to let me know that Anna has got to her feet and they are pleased with her progress, she has assured me that she will be staying with her to keep an eye on her overnight, one of my worst fears is that they would leave her alone, as some vets do. I just cannot believe this has happened to Anna, she was fed at 3.30 yesterday, she is being weaned from her pups, so her meal was smaller than usual, We got up at 6am as we were supposed to go to Discover Dogs, Anna was put in to feed her pups at 6.15, she was her usual self, excited to see her babies, and laid down with them to feed, had felt her glands afterwards and they were empty, so put her back in her own kennel, then let out our other 3 shepherds for their morning run, then Anna started to moan and cry, she was quickly brought indoors, where her stomach was starting to swell, she started salvitating, knew these were the signs of torsion, so got on the phone to vet straight away, vet said that this probably started last night, by the degree of twist, so can you believe her motherly love for these puppies, that she would be so willing to feed them despite the awful pain she was in, bless her.

Have had an elderly bitch come through OK and go on to enjoy the rest of her life. Not only did she have a torsion but her stomach had to be opened too. Hope you dog is well on the way to recovery now.
Ja:)kie

Hi charm, glad to hear the news is better. Still keeping everything crossed for herxxx

Hi Charm, sorry to hear about the shepherd, I have been reading about bloat on the net, seems to be a lot of conflicting advice, I actually lost a shep to torsion a few weeks ago, but thru the nite, I wasn,t there to catch her in time, I hope she responds well and recovers, from what I can gather, there is no one contibuting factor to torsion, not much help, when its such a horrible thing, to endure, we are praying for you both

Hi Charm, just seen this thread. I do hope she pulls through ok. At least the pups will be fine at 4 weeks, thank goodness they wern't new born. Thinking of you, do post soon and let us know how she is. Fingers crossed.

Hi Tracy, I quite agree that the reason for getting torsion is inexplicable, we are always so careful that our dogs are rested after eating, food and water bowls are on stands, off the ground etc, my puppy guidelines contain a reference to torsion and the dos and donts to prevent it, This is my 1st experience of the condition in 36 years of owning shepherds, although I have read so many times of others suffering from it over the years, I did read about your bitch, in the breed notes in Our dogs, so sorry for you. The vets nurse has said she will ring if their is any deteriation in Annas condition, so the longer the phone stays silent the better.

Here (I hope) are some helpful hints to help minimise the risk of bloat/torsion.
1) Never exercise your dog for an hour after eating.
2) Never let your dog drink huge quanties of water on top of a meal.
3) Never exercise your dog hard, just before eating
4) If your dog is very hot, only allow small amounts of water at a time.
I have always been taught to feed large dogs from a raised bowl, but having recently read a five year study on bloat in Great Danes, it appears from their findings, that more Danes bloated when fed raised, so Im not going to comment on these theories.

Signs of Bloat
1) A general appearance of unrest
2) Standing stock still with the head held low
3) Foaming at the mouth
4) Trying to be sick
5) Swelling of the left hand side of the abdomen occurs first
6) When tapped the stomach makes a timpanic sound
If you have any doubt at all, get to the vets straight away.Minutes can be vital with this illness.

hope everything goes well for anna, and hope the pups are well and not missing mum to much, regards tina

Ditto. Hope everything turns out well.
Dot

Any news this morning charm?

Melody

Hi Everyone, update on Anna, vet said she had a comfortable night, no complications, drip is going to be taken out, try her with water by mouth today,Vet says she is making excellent progress, looking bright eyed, in fact, he is surprised but delighted, that she looks so well, showing no sign of any pain in her stomach, still has on critical watch as
their is still a chance of perforation, which would show up to 48 hours after surgery. Her babies are missing their mum, I had to do as a surrogate, my nose and ears are sore......Thank you to everyone for their good wishes, it looks as though they are working.

Charm,
Fingers crossed everything continues to go well
Anne

I am so pleased that everything seems to be looking fine for Anna, she must be missing her babies as well. I will keep everything crossed that things contine to go well for you and Anna

Such good news. :D
Hope she recovers well.
Still thinking of you both.
Nicky

Great news hopefully she will be home soon. Keeping fingers and paws crossed :)

Hi Charm, how is Anna doing this morning, thinking of you all

Vet allowed us to see Anna last night, she was up on her feet, with her tail wagging, full of kisses, felt awful having to leave her, but know she is in the right place for the time being, Vet has rung this morning to say she is now eating small amounts, pleased to say, no vomiting, she still has a slight temperature, so he recommends another days stay, all being well, she should be allowed home tommorrow.

Hi Charm, so pleased that she is on the mend, you were really quite lucky to have caught her in time. just goes to show bloat can happen when we least expect it, everyone seems to know about it, but they dont think that will happen to them. It took the loss of Shannon to make me question what I was actually feeding to my dogs, I know that there are endless theories on torsion, and one usually contradicts the other but, on one site, it states that foods that contain citric acid, are a probable cause, and also food that contains fat as listed in the first 4 ingredients, which mine did. The conclusion that I drew up was we really dont know what causes torsion BUT if I could lessen the risk of it ever happening again I was gonna, I now feed a lot more raw meat than I ever did, along with natural yoghurt, which aids digestion, and a little wholemeal biscuit, one thing that I found last nite was a product called MYLANTA, which is an anti gas product, ie if u notice a dog starting to bloat, giving this buys u a bit more time to get to the vets, it helps to disperse the gas inside, maybe worth looking into, by the way did u get the file on torsion that I emailed to u, if not its linked on my web site, it does make interesting reading

Hi Tracy, yes I did get your e mails and I did look at the sites you suggested, as you say there is conflicting advice and reasons why dogs do get torsion, I wouldnt mind having some of the mylanta, just in case, though, My food does not contain citric acid, but according to all the sites torsion usually happens after eating, Anna had been fed a lighter meal than normal at 3.30 at Saturday, which leads me to think that this was more stress related, she loves her puppies so much and she was being weaned away from them, my own personal theory is that she was stressed because she did not go in with her pups on the saturday night, she started pacing her kennel in frustration which led to the torsion, another theory, when she had her pups 4 weeks earlier, her first born puppy was very large 2 pounds in weight, she did have a struggle to produce this puppy, we had to help her in the final push, would this have weakened her stomach muscles? Then when she got stressed it led to torsion? What do you think?

Hi Charm, it says in most of the sites that it does usually occur just after eating, but Shannon was fed at 5pm. then kenneled for the nite at 11pm, that was 5 hours difference,AND WHEN I PUT HER AWAY THERE WAS NO SYMPTOMS OF BLOAT AT ALL, no whining no drooling no swelling etc. So the mystery continues, except she had been to a show that day, but wasn,t worried by it all, or maybe she was and didn,t show it, but she was a very calm, stres free bitch, nothing unusual happened that day, to make me feel that something could have upset her, it is something that we will never understand as to why these things happen, as for Anna puppies, yes I suppose that she could have been pining for her babies, and this in turn lead to the stress, and then the torsion quite possible, did the vet give any thoughts as to why she had a bloat, the maddening part about it all, is that no one knows any answers why torsion occurs, we just have to be careful, vigilant, and try to avoid the things that are thought to trigger torsion, at the end of the day, if torsion is going to occurs then it will, whatever we do

Hi all, I completely agree that there is positively nothing you can do to avoid torsion. I have kept Irish Setters for twenty nine years, and I knew as well as anyone that the breed was prone to this. So I fed my boys from bowl stands, restricted their water intake after eating and after exercise, exercised them three hours following feeding and stopped them from rolling onto their backs as they sometimes liked to try to do.Cassidy had bloat/torsion three times twice he was treated by the vet. I decided that I would try limiting his free running, to just a few minutes a day, the rest of the time he'd be on lead, not much of a life for a 5 year old. I also started feeding him three times a day. None of this stopped him from bloating a third time,only two weeks after the second. I decided he'd had enough. I could not wait for the fourth occasion. Cassidy was given sleep on Nov 6th 2002.What will be will be.

Hi everyone, pleased to tell you Anna has been allowed home this morning, but the worry is still there, she was promptly sick when she got home, so phoned the vet, he says that if she continues will have to re admit her, just gave her a very tiny portion of mashed poached chicken and rice, just now hoping she keeps in down, her diet has to be little and often, do you think that would be every two hours?

Hi everyone, how is Anna doing now

She is doing really well, she is having poached chicken and rice, or poached fish and rice, little and often, keeping it down, drinking water, no problems, she still hasnt been to poo, since the op, I will be glad when she does, so I know everything is working ok, it is so sad, because she would dearly love to get in with her babies, but sends a shiver down my legs, just the thought of it, the pups are doing really well, they are completely weaned, much to Annas dissapointment, Anna has to got back to the vet tommorrow morning for a check up.

I am pleased that everythings ok,

Hi Charm, what I did with my bitch was to cook some chicken in a lot of water and put it through a liquidizer, then I gave her a couple of table spoons full every hour with a more solid meal every so often. Increasing the amount of solid as the days go by until she was back to two meals a day took about 3 weeks. My bitch had the stomach opperated on so yous may well manage quicker. Hope it all continues to go well.
Ja:)kie

Hi all, Anna went for her check up today, vet gave her a good examination, says everything is looking good, I questioned about her not going to poo yet, he said that she is not constipated at all, and not to worry, during her op, she was throughly cleaned out, so it will take a while, I am to continue on chicken/rice, fish/rice little and often until next week, when he takes the staples out, she is allowed for short lead walk daily, so everything is looking up so far.

Hi Charm, really pleased that Anna is doing well, and that you and your other half are fine now, how are the pups not missing their mum too much I HOPE.

Hi Tracy, pups are doing well, not missing mum, as much as she misses them,weighed them today for worming 16/17 pounds at 5 weeks.....so they are little fatties.

Between Anna and yourselves you have done a good job

2/5/03 Patty and I {Bill}, took our 12 year old Basset Hound to surgery today for gastric torsion today. He is holding his own but fifty fifty he will live. they removed his spleen and turned his stomach and attached it to his rib. We had no idea about his condition. Lucky we have a dog health book and rushed him to the vet. I am tying to tell all my dog friend about this condition. We are so upset, and were glad to read all the messages and to know we are not alone. Keep us in your prayers.

Bless your bassett, I hope that he recovers as well as my Anna has, it has been almost 3 months now, since we had this happen to Anna, I hope this thread has been of some help and comfort to you. As you will see, it contains the day by day diary of how things went for us. It was a very traumatic and worrying time, I do hope and pray that things end up as well for your dog.
Charm xxx

ANNA is quite a dog and what a great sprit. Thanks for the reply. It did us so much good to read your story. You will never know how hopeful it has made us. We need to have your story told by major news it could maybe save the lives of many dogs. Thanks again. Bill

PATT AND I LOST ERVING LAST NIGHT, HE FOUGHT A HARD BATTLE BUTCOULD NOT HAND ON.

So very sorry to hear that - you did everything anyone could have done by the sounds of things - do you know about the 'Rainbow Bridge'? It's a great comfort to many of us who have lost our furkids.......

I am so so sorry, what a bitter blow for you, just remember the 12 years you had with him, and all those good times.

God Bless

Charm xxx

Sorry to hear he didn`t pull thru. One of my girls had this when she was only 3mths old but she was very lucky & pulled thru. It`s a rotten thing this torsion.
Christine, Spain.