Great Danes and bloat

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Vicstress

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Friend of ours lost her great dane in the week through bloat which got me thinking. My mum bred them in the 80s and it was unheard of! They were fed meat and winalot or something similar and I can't help thinking all these dry biscuits can't help....or is it a gene that's getting stronger in the breed?
 
Sorry for your friends loss, they do leave such a big hole in your life.
I have had Danes for the last 20 years, (good grief I'm old!) it is a well known problem with the breed but I can't say I've heard of it becoming more common. Twenty years ago Danes were quite rare though, whereas now with the advent of t'internet and the chronic overbreeding of everything, they are more numerous so instances would probably appear higher. You only have to browse preloved etc to see the vast amount of non kc registered Danes, in other words it wasn't sufficiently to type to show anyway but we bred it to more dross for the money.
I don't think dry food helps anyway, far too easy to ignore the calorific content and think- big dog=big bowlfull. My Danes even as adults have three smaller meals per day.
Sorry waffling on a bit, but Danes are one of my favourite subjects, they are brilliant.
 
It was known in the 80's but information was not as easy to find as it is now with the internet.

Feed, genetics, style of feeding & exercise could all contribute.
 
My gran had danes in the 40s and 50s, I couldn't swear to it but I am sure she lost at least one to bloat. She and my mum were certainly aware of the problem for as long as I can remember, long before we lost a bloodhound to it in the early 70s.:(
 
My friend lost her dog de bordeaux before christmas due to this. She seemed not quite herself and literally 20 minutes later had died. Apparently its common in large dogs.......she did have trouble insuring the dog beforehand and wonders if it was because they are known to suffer this.
 
Loulou2002 said:
My friend lost her dog de bordeaux before christmas due to this. She seemed not quite herself and literally 20 minutes later had died. Apparently its common in large dogs.......she did have trouble insuring the dog beforehand and wonders if it was because they are known to suffer this.
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It's common breeds that have a deep chest and a narrow waist - we have an Airedale and have to keep an eye out for it.

It, unfortunately, often goes the way it did for your friend. They can go downhill very rapidly. In my mind it is very similar to colic in horses. Only tips I have been given to try and prevent it are to avoid letting them bolt their food, and not exercising heavily before/after eating. Other than that I think it can be pretty out of the blue, and I'm not convinced there is anything you can really do to prevent it.

I would say that the prevalence of bloat is, as others have said, down to the information available relating to it now, and people being more aware of the signs and symptoms. Not a bad thing, but now bloat is more likely to be recognised as bloat rather than another problem.
 
Many years ago, in the US, I had a friend who was a Dane breeder/exhibitor. She felt that diet was a crucial component in the prevention of bloat. She never fed dry food which expanded when wet. There was a dry food, also called a hard-baked kibble, which never expanded when mixed with warm or hot water. Most of the breeder/owners of large, deep-chested, small-waisted dogs, of my acquaintance, fed this food, along with fresh raw meat on occasion. Of course, the dogs were never exercised right before or after a meal. In my friend's experience, once she had switched to the hard-baked kibble, she never had to deal with bloat again. Whether or not the problem was the release of gases within the stomach after eating expanding dry food, I don't know.
 
Statistics - both from insurance companies and scientific studies - show that over 50% of Danes get bloat. All dogs can in theory get it, but as mentioned more commonly large, deep chested breeds - and Danes more than anyone else. The reasons for this are generally unknown - the theories are many. Body conformation may be one - if you look at pics of Danes from 100 years back they too have certainly become more extreme over time. Genetics/hereditary factors also certainly play a role - certain lines in many breeds are definitely more prone than others. Various types of food/foodstuff - dry/raw/ingredients - have also been researched, but nobody has been able to prove that any type of food or ingredients predispose or protect.

A friend of mine has had Danes for nearly 40 years - up to 20 at the same time (yes, really!). Obviously, her life revolves around her dogs - and the risk of bloat is always at the forefront of her mind - and doing the best she can to prevent this, she tries to stick to the same routines and regimes she herself was taught by experienced Dane-owners when she was young. I.e. the same feeding - a mix of dry and raw - 3-4 small meals per day, resting before and after meals, etc. etc. Nevertheless, she is experiencing bloat a lot more frequent nowadays than when she first started. The risk was obviously known 40 years ago, but it didn't really happen very often as long as precautions were taken - very different from today... And just to point out - my friend breeds vary rarely - most of her dogs are bought in from breeder-friends in 3-4 different countries, i.e. they are not all closely related, but the frequency of bloat is still increasing regardless.

Loulou2002 - Yes, Dogue De Bordeaux can certainly get bloat as your friend tragically experienced. However, far, far more common health issues in that breed are skin problems or joint/skeletal problems (as pointed out by a vet friend the other day - if they don't have the one, they have the other...!). I therefore suspect those are the main reasons your friend had trouble with the insurance companies...
 
But my mother bred a lot of Great Danes and they never suffered from bloat. To be fair the dry dog food market is so big now I can't see a lot of people wanting to prove that it's an issue! non of her friends that were breeders lost dogs to it either.....she showed at a high level and doesn't remember other being prevalent!
 
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