Barry he had bloat. Something I had never heard of or knew about. We were both in the yard for most of the day. I was working on the garden. He loves playing ball and chasing sticks. Even at 8 years old, he's very active, running back and forth along the fence line with the neighbors dogs to either side. It's a big yard so he gets plenty of exercise.
Well we came in about 6pm. I fed him and sat at the kitchen table knowing I didn't feel like cooking. So I let him out in the yard and I took a shower. Let him back in and I went to a local roadhouse for their baked fish sandwich. They were packed and I didn't feel like waiting around so I went somewhere where I could have a beer while my takeout was prepared. Gone all of 40 minutes.
I get home and he doesn't greet me at the door. I looked around and saw a small patch of bile in the foyer. Thought maybe the cat had an upset stomach. Willie finally emerged looking what I initially interpreted as guilt. Thought maybe he did something he wasn't supposed to do. Went into my office and saw a huge amount of bile on the rug. Went back to the foyer and looked into the living room and found the same. I knew then he was in trouble. Thought maybe he ingested something that was poisonous. I immediately took him down to my truck and to the local animal ER. Voluntary covid restrictions have these facilities keeping owners outside. They come retrieve him and after about 1/2hr diagnosis tell me they need to operate immediately to untwist his stomach. Oddly the vet also said he had a torn spleen, so they needed to remove it. Vet thought it may have occurred when he was wrenching. That's when I discovered what bloat is even after having another German Shepherd for 15 years.
Large breed, large chested dogs such as GS and Boxers are susceptible to this. No no reason for the cause is known. My other guy was just as active and ate all kinds of things dogs should not. Heck my dad used to feed him grapes and apple and pear skins.
I am ecstatic to say Willie is back to being Willie. However he has an 8 inch incision on his belly that needs to heal properly, so no running for quite a while. I can see he's already getting antsy, but too bad. No free rein for a while. Only leash walks.
This is William Wallace less than four days after all of that, thinking I'm just going to let him out in the yard lol
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