Bloat is one of the things I fear, but have never experienced. All of my dogs have been free-fed, that is, they always have food available. As a result, they eat many small meals and never a lot at one time. Thus no bloat. I also limit exercise after they eat.
I've never experienced bloat and the resulting gastric torsion, but here are some tips I have picked up to prevent it.
-don't feed foods that are high in soy
-dont allow your Akita to play hard after a large meal (probably better to feed a lot of small meals/freefeed anyway if you can).
- especially dont let your dog gorge himself on dry food and then play hard as the food swells a lot when it absorbs water
-once a dog has had it, he is predisposed to have it again. you must be doubly careful then.
- as Colleen said, IMMEDIATE PROFESSIONAL action is required. this is a quick, painful killer
- Read a medical book on the symptoms to look for. They describe it better than I can.
Feed your Akita off of an elevated platform (we use the fireplace hearth) so his neck is not strained while eating (this has nothin to do with bloat, just thought i'd throw it in)
Be viligant, but dont worry too much. The odds are you'll never see it.
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UPDATE: Keith has now experienced Bloat and Gastric Torsion.
It is every bit as horrible as I imagined. My elderly male bloated due to medical reasons unrelated to feeding, but it was a potential death situation nonetheless. We noticed him restless at 9pm and I kept checking him for abdominal swelling or hardness(& watching for unproductive vomiting)until 11.45pm when I noticed all of these symptoms. Stuff in car and rocket to Vet College. They saved his life. He was 270 twisted clockwise. They tacked his stomach(and noted that there was only a 2% chance of recurrence after tacking!!!!) and told us we had to hold our breath for 48 hours to see if the swelled stomach had cut off blood flow to anything major, allowing necrosis to kill important tissues.
Long story short, we got him there fast enough that he recovered fine(tho still with underlying medical problems related to his age). Bloat can be beaten with due vigilence and a plan, but it is THE most horrible thing I have been thru with my Akitas.
This message has been edited by krater on Jan 13, 2005 10:49 AM This message has been edited by krater on Jan 13, 2005 10:47 AM