Can Overeating be a real problem?(huskymom)

huskymom

I remember someones dog eating a bag of food, and there being some concern about something

BLOAT!!!  It is a daily fear in my home, even though G is not a gulper/major eater.  But it's especially common in dogs with deeper chests (barrel chests), and I've seen it happen about 8 or 9 times now in Dobe rescue.  Only 6 or 7 of those dogs lived.  It usually is extremely painful as their stomachs fill up with gas (bloat), and then the stomach typically twists because it's distended (torsion), causing the blood supply to the stomach/intestines to be cut off.  The dog dies a painful death within a matter of hours.

Here's some info on it: http://www.dru.org/bloat.htm

Symptoms I've personally witnessed are generally uncomfortable dog, unable to lay down for more than a few seconds because it's painful, somewhat anxious, almost every time they've spit up yellow foamy bile, and their stomachs will often get bigger (when you look from the top down, you can see it bigger than normal.)  We'd take a tape measure and measure the belly at one marked spot, then do it again in 5 minute increments.  If it increases, that dog goes to the emergency vet immediately.  However, only about 70% of the times I've witnessed a dog bloat, did their stomachs look like balloons.  Sometimes the bloating stomach was hidden up under their rib cages - as was the case of one dog who didn't go to the e-vet and died that night.

Aside from that, I'm not a fan of allowing continuous access to an item that is richer than normal and likely to give them gastrointestinal distress - ie, bad gas and diarrhea.  For that reason, if I give them a treat like that, it's monitored and they're not allowed to consume the whole thing because diarrhea is no fun for them, or me.

Candace, that would absolutely terrify me.  Maybe it's because I've dealt with Bevo bloating, but I just can't imagine letting any of my guys eat that much at one sitting.

I would definitely be fasting him for a day or two.

 Yikes ladies!  Ok, well, the bones are bare now anyway.  Just a bit of gristle left on some knuckles.  Crusher isn't having any problems getting comfy, and the gas has seemingly gone away, thank doG!  Also, right now, he's outside guarding his bone from some pesky birds, and is running around his kennel yipping at them.  He's always been good at regulating his food intake.  I could leave a bag of kibble open on the floor and he'd only nibble at it if he had already eaten.  Otherwise, he'd eat a slightly larger than normal serving and quit.  Its only with especially tasty things, and people food that he will overindulge. If I dropped another ribcage in there right now, he'd only guard it, I'm sure.  And save it for tomorrow.

He's certainly not having any trouble getting comfy either.  He was curled up on the couch with the boys for about an hour while they played video games.  And now he's wrestling in the porch with Onyx.  He won't let her in the kennel cause his bone is still in there, but the porch is fine I guess.  

 

I'd be less concerned being that it's raw food and not kibble or processed human foods that they gorged on. I think that the gas would concern me enough to have given him a gas-x or two...and watched him as well. I'd monitor the poop output and ensure the water intake was regular and not too much at a time. massage the belly as I could, etc.

Panting of any sort would concern me...as would signs of pain...but signs of contentment are often similar (laying still, sighing, moaning, lol) so...just keeping an eye on him is what I'd do...and sounds like what you're doing so

rwbeagles

I'd be less concerned being that it's raw food

Just a caveat (probably not applicable in this scenario), but... of the dogs I witnessed bloating, 5 of them were fed raw.  Two of those were among the ones that died because their symptoms were not caught.  Clearly, bloat scares the bejezuz outta me.

any dog, on any diet could bloat. I know a Dobe that bloated and he was raw fed. Hence the words less concerned....and not: unconcerned, or don't wory about it, or no way could be bloat...

Understood.

Two things make me less concerned (lol) - one, the dogs are used to that kind of food, and two, bloat isn't caused strictly by overeating, from what I've seen, but by overeating AND - if you know what I mean. Additional risk factors. Dogs are actually adapted to a cycle of gorge and fast - it's just that some breeds we've manipulated to the point that we've eliminated that function. Which is okay, because we don't require them to hunt for their food anymore. ;) I wouldn't let a larger dog like a husky just gorge all of a sudden like that. Working Alaskans though do everything "wrong" that would horrify the bloat folks - eat huge amounts of ice cold food and run before it's all digested. Border Collies do too. I do it all the time when I have an animal I have to cut up right here. The thing is that something like an actual large part of a big animal is hard to eat quickly. Sam the seven month old bottomless pit can eat about six pounds of food in one sitting but it takes HOURS to eat it. One other thing, less directed at you but for lurkers on this thread. There are other possible results of gorging. Stomach upset is the first one, of course. Severe upset can escalate to gastroenteritis, or inflammation of the gi. This can put a dog at risk for pancreatitis. A dog can also take a shortcut to pancreatitis via unaccustomed fat intake or exposure to contaminants or an unfamiliar type of fat (pork fat seems to be an infamous trigger), or just stress from the event. There are also immunologists who suspect that a "stress exposure" to a food can create sensitivities to proteins associated with those foods or that event. So this may all sound contradictory but to sum up, you've got to accustom a dog to this kind of feeding but it's okay for many dogs, but a total disaster for others.

 Thanks all. 

I think my dogs are pretty much ok with this type of feeding.  Its not unusual for me to toss them a whole frozen chicken each and then not feed them the next day.  They take about half an hour to eat a whole chicken.  This moose meat took Crusher the better part of the afternoon, so he in no way gulped it down.  

All the same, I'm keeping an eye on them and we totally skipped our exercise today.  Niether dog asked for a meal today either, so I didn't offer.  Water intake is the same as normal, though I wish they'd use some to wash off their legs...Gas is gone.  Crusher's tuck has gone back up, though I think he's actually just gained weight.  That's probably been over the last few weeks though....I've been watching Onyx, and have probably just not noticed the Beast.  He's got more meat on his ribs and fluffy butt too....oops.  My Bad.