Causes of gastric torsion in dogs

Dogs who engage in strenuous exercise immediately after eating, especially rolling around, running back and forth on the stairs, etc., can easily cause gastric torsion. At this time, the dog The dog's stomach is full of food, and the gastric ligaments may cause torsion during violent and sudden rotational movements, causing the dog's stomach to turn over entirely. At this time, the dog will feel unbearable abdominal pain. When gastric torsion occurs, the upper and lower exits of the stomach will be tightly closed, and the stomach will not turn back on its own, and surgery must be performed to treat it. If it is not discovered in time and sent to the hospital for surgery, the dog can only survive for a day or two before dying, so it is a very difficult disease.

Which dogs are prone to gastric torsion?

In fact, not all dogs are prone to gastric torsion. Generally speaking, large dogs and those with narrow chests Dogs are prone to gastric volvulus, and German Shepherds are particularly prone to gastric volvulus. The occurrence of gastric torsion is also related to the dog's food. Compared with dogs eating wet food, eating dog food seems to be more likely to induce gastric torsion. Because some dogs eat dog food in a hurry and do not chew enough, the dog food easily forms a ball in the dog's stomach, making the stomach form a substantial whole, which is easy to digest when the dog is exercising. The whole flip. There is also a gender factor in gastric volvulus. Male dogs are more likely to suffer from gastric volvulus than female dogs.

Symptoms and Treatment of Gastric Torsion

Dogs with gastric volvulus experience abdominal pain and rapid bloating. They may stand or lie down to beat the drum and palpate the balloon (stomach). Breathing is highly difficult, the sick dog vomits, and the pulse beats violently, which can even lead to death.

Treatment methods

The dog was quickly put under general anesthesia and gastric reduction surgery was performed. First, an abdominal incision is used to find out the stomach and release the gas in the stomach. Then the pylorus, duodenum, spleen, etc. are reset and sutured.

Methods to prevent gastric torsion

Although gastric torsion can kill your dog, it is not impossible to prevent. As long as you follow the following methods, you can effectively prevent the occurrence of gastric torsion in dogs:

1. Feed the dog regularly and quantitatively, and do not let the dog eat too much: Some owners feed the dog randomly every day, and the amount of dog food will also vary. In fact, this approach is unscientific. For dogs, it is best to eat a certain amount of dog food at regular times every day.

2. After the dog eats, it must be allowed to rest for at least 30 minutes: Some owners believe that the dog will excrete immediately after eating. In order to prevent the dog from excreted at home, they rush to take the dog after eating. It is convenient to go downstairs, but dogs often run around happily after going downstairs. Gastric torsion is easy to occur at this time.

3. Don’t give your dog a lot of water immediately after a meal: Giving your dog a lot of water after a meal will cause food to clump in the dog’s stomach., a more scientific method is to give your dogs water 15-20 minutes after they eat.

4. Don’t give your dog too much food before taking him in the car: Some car owners are worried that they will be hungry in the car before driving for a long distance, so they want to feed their dogs before going out, but they don’t know that dogs that eat too much will easily become hungry after a car crash. Twisting. car.