[Dailydrool] Bloat prevention? Howliday Card Webpage Link?

[Dale Rutz]

So Lea, you are referring to a torsion tac, which means attaching the basset stomach to the torso wall.  This does NOT prevent bloat.  What this does prevent is torsion twist.
 
Basically in the initial stages of bloat the belly fills up with gas.  Bloat is prevalent in deep chested dogs (eg bassets) and you can't prevent this.  What often kills the dog is not the bloat, but rather the torsion twist in which the stomach, filled with gas, twists thus cutting off blood supply to major organs, starving them of oxygen and killing the dog from the inside out.  Once the dog is in torsion twist the odds of saving them aren't good, even if you make it to the vet .... if you have reached the point of needing surgery then the odds are initially about 50/50 from what I'm told, and get worse as time goes on.
 
THUS the need to keep GasX pills and symethicone liquid in the house.  The pills work great if the dog isn't in torsion twist so s/he can still swallow them and the medicine can reach the stomach and reduce/eliminate the gas.  The symethicone liquid can make its way down a tiny little space and even if the dog is in partial torsion twist you MIGHT still be able to dump it down their throat and have some of it make it to the stomach and save the dog.
 
I have heard of more than one dog (including my very own Snoopy) that went into partial torsion twist and had the stomach flop back into place as a result of a quick acting (PANICING) parent.
 
Snoopy has tried to bloat on me AT LEAST 3 times.  I spoke to the vet about the tac and she wouldn't do it.  Said it is abdominal surgery and involved risk and that Snoopy could still bloat (and die) even if he was tac'd.  She DID say if she was spaying a female she might consider it because she is in there anyway but wouldn't open up a male dogs gut to do it.
 
Good luck,
Dale


I read this with great interest in the last Drool:

"She's also the one who began to attach basset stomachs to the torso wall so that they couldn't
flip if bloat occurred.  All of our bassets (we've only had females) have
had this done when they are spayed."

Anyone who has experience with this procedure of attaching basset stomachs to the torso wall--could you elaborate? 
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