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How To Prevent Bloat In Overly Anxious Dogs

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Karleen LindseyRecently I lost my overly anxious Great Dane/black lab mix to bloat. Sadly, because she was not a purebred Dane, I didn’t consider that she might be at risk for bloat, nor did the early warning signs register as an impending disaster. Since then, I have done some research and would like to share my findings in order to help others prevent bloat, especially in easily stressed dogs.

With this situation, prevention is your best hope. Once your dog has developed bloat, it may be too late to successfully treat and save your dog. I’ll explain a little about the condition of bloat to explain what happens, but I would mostly like to stress the importance of the precautions you can take to prevent bloat, especially if you own an overly anxious dog.

Bloat occurs when the sphincter between the esophagus and the stomach malfunctions and there is an obstruction of the outflow through the pylorus. The pylorus is a small opening at the base of the stomach, allowing partially digested food to flow out to the duodenum. When this gets stopped up for whatever reason, the food can’t pass through. With the plugged sphincter closing off the other end, the stomach fills up with air.

The stomach may then torque or twist up to 360 degrees and there is no way the dog can relieve the extreme discomfort. The only possibility of straightening out the stomach is through aggressive surgery, and even then the outcome is not very promising. Prevention is your best chance of survival.

One thing I didn’t know is that overly anxious dogs are more prone to experiencing bloat than calm well-balanced dogs. My dog Zoey had obviously been badly abused as a young dog and always lived at a high level of fear and anxiety, seemingly waiting for something terrible to happen.

That tendency, along with the fact that she was an older dog and was deep-chested, made her a candidate for bloat. Although any dog could potentially fall victim to bloat, it is mainly watched for in deep-chested dogs who may be underweight, older, very fearful or easily stressed.

Taking these 14 steps seriously can help prevent bloat, especially for overly fearful dogs:

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1. Don’t allow your dog to drink water for an hour before or after a meal, but otherwise always have fresh water available.

2. Control your dog’s water intake on hot days. Dogs don’t know what can happen if they drink too much too fast. Only give them a small amount every few minutes until they cool down.

3. Feed small portions of food two or three times a day.

4. Control food gulping by putting a medium to large sized rock in the food bowl so your dog has to eat around it, but make sure the object is large enough that it is not eaten as well.

5. Add raw meat to your dry dog food when possible.

6. If you feed dry food, look for one that does not include fat as one of its first 4 ingredients and does not contain citric acid. If you can’t avoid the citric acid, don’t put water on the food.

7. Also if you feed dry food, look for one that has rendered meat meal with bone product as one of the first four ingredients.

8. Feed a high quality diet.

9. Don’t raise the food bowl. This is one I would have never thought of, but it seems to be a possible contributing factor in dogs that are candidates for bloat.

10. Avoid alfalfa, brewer’s yeast or soybean products.

11. Promote healthy bacteria in your dog’s intestinal tract by supplementing with probiotics such as acidophilus.

12. Some people also believe it helps to give a bloat-susceptible dog 1Tbs of apple cider vinegar after each meal to aid in digestion.

13. Avoid subjecting your fearful or anxious dog to highly stressful situations if at all possible. If this can’t be avoided due to needing to make a trip to the vet,etc, try to make it as uneventful as possible. One method of calming your overly anxious dog is to try using the Thundershirt or Original Anxiety Wrap during events you know may raise the anxiety level in your dog.

14. Always have a product containing simethicone available to give to your dog at the first sign of gas such as belching more than twice. This would be a product like Phazyme, Gas-X or Mylanta Gas (must be for gas, not regular Mylanta).

These are the 14 things to consider if you have a deep-chested dog of the breeds of Great Dane, Doberman, German Shepherd, Rottweiler, Weimaraner, Irish and Gordon Setters and even the Basset Hound.

I don’t want to create a sense of fear among dog owners, but rather a sense of awareness. Although these deep-chested breeds are of a higher risk than other purebred or mixed breeds, any fearful or anxious dogs among these breeds are even at a greater risk still for developing bloat. If it is at all possible, all of these precautions should be taken to protect your dog. In any circumstance, it is always best to provide a peaceful, calm home and routine whenever possible to guarantee a well-balanced, healthy and happy life for your pet.

Remember, we are the caretakers of these wonderful pets who love us completely. Prevention of bloat in fearful and anxious dogs is far better than hoping to cure it when it may be too late.

Karleen Lindsey has worked with dogs for many years. In her work fostering rescue dogs and in her profession as a dog groomer, she has observed many behavior issues. She works extensively to help each dog overcome these obstacles of fear and anti-social behavior, with patience being the principal key to success.To learn more, visit her

anxiety wraps for dogs

site.

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