Health of your doodle

[missmydoodle]

My Family first fell in love with labradoodles 3 yrs ago when my parents brought Sonny home.He had his issues from the beginning, like peeing when ever some one came over or even looking at him lol... but recently Christmas eve night around 2 am sonny wasn't acting right ,wouldn't sleep basically restless but could barely walk and went outside and laid in the snow .My mom knew something was wrong and rushed him into the the vet .Sonny's stomach flipped! My mom couldn't bare putting him down so she had them do the surgery (that was $3000). During that time they also found out he had crystals and would have to have another surgery later which they did a few mons. ago. Well last Thursday 5-1-2008 Sonny started acting the same way he did on x-mas eve ,they rushed him back in and found out his intestines bloated and were twisted and there was an even less chance he would survive
Unfortunately Sonny did not make it and our family is having the worst time getting over him. He was the most lovable dog we ever had ,our big lap dog that thought he was smaller than what he really was.
The reason i wrote all of this is we wanted to know if anyone else had any problems with their dogs and if not to warn you of what had happened to use.If anyone has any info please let me know.
Thank You

[gene]

I have no experience or advise, but please accept my heart felt sympathy for your loss. You and you family will be in my prayers.

[MichelleB]

So sorry for your loss I know how hard it is losing your beloved Sonny. We lost our Dalmatian 4 mos. ago, we had her for 13yrs.
I weep with you and my thoughts are with you and your family.

I personaly have had no experience with bloat.

[blueteal]

I am so very sorry for your loss..................
Sonny had a great life with your family, so much love.....

[lmtoth2]

I have heard of dogs getting bloat...did your vet think this was the problem?

I seriously have tears reading your post...I cannot imagine what your family is going through Please consider getting another doodle when you are ready...

[missmydoodle]

Thank you everyone that has responded it means so much to my family.

And to answer the question about the vet thinking it was bloat , yes he did they took x-rays both times it happened.

[Jac]

I am so sorry for your family's loss. It is clear that you adored your Doodle and there is nothing more painful than losing someone you love...

Bloat is common in dogs. It is common in certain breeds, including the Labrador Retriever and Standard Poodle (and miniture Poodle)...but also in other breeds.

Bloat is not considered to be a genetic disease or defect, even though it does occur in certain breeds. Here is a link that might be helpful for your understanding: http://www.globalspan.net/bloat.htm#Bre ... est%20Risk

I'm sorry for your loss.

[annieG]

I am so very sorry for your loss. You obviously did everything you could for Sonny. We lost our first doodle also but at 7 months old. I do know the pain you are going through. After it happened all I wanted to know was Why?....We will never forget our "Hannah" as I am sure you will always remember Sonny.

I am happy to say that we now have another doodle, Tanner. He has helped us cope with the loss of our Hannah. When the time is right, I hope you will consider another doodle. I believe it a tribute to Hannah that we wanted another doodle...nothing else would do.

Thanks for posting a picture of your beloved Sonny.

[sdrudge]

I am sorry for your loss. I don't have any experience with that. sorry I can't be of any help.

[Tink]

I'm so sorry for your loss!
As stated previously by Jac, Torsion is something many deep-chested dogs experience. Feeding frenzies where the dogs devour a large amount of food in a short period of time; some stressful event, even minor, (in approximately the eight hours prior to the incident,) a fearful temperament, or consumption of fairly large quantities of non-food material have been suspected of causing it to happen. It's believed that dogs who have several smaller meals each day rather than one or 2 large ones are less apt to develop bloat.

Adding vegetables and canned or meat scraps appears to help lower incidence. Most dogs (60%) bloated not immediately after vigorous exercise soon after a meal, but in mid- to late evening when resting or sleeping.

Because of this, My dogs are grazers. There's always food and water in their dishes so they never get so hungry that they gulp their food. So far we've not had any incidences of bloat feeding this way.

Hope this helps!

[deepnite10]

DAMN IT!!!im crying..

in a few of my pictures there is a picture of sabrina and lucky..both, gave us scare s as well..sabrina had a collapsed vertibrae..and lucky a bout with snail poison..it saddened the entire family terribly..

my girls were away at college and they never failed to call every couple of hrs to check on their welfare..

[deepnite10]

im going to give all the kids a big hug now..

I'm so sorry about Sonny. I know how much your heart hurts. He was beautiful.

[tykesmom]

Such a beautiful dog....I am so sorry.
I hope that this does not discourage you from getting another dog. As Annie said, it really is a tribute to her first dog that she and Tim got Tanner. I lost my 16 year old Eskie about 2 months before I got my Tyke. I never considered NOT getting another dog - I don't think I could live in a house without one! They never "take the place" of the dog you lost, but you give yourself the gift of having someone else to love.