Bowel Torsion, related to Bloat (crosspost)

Crosspost from Allie on Molossers Bulls and Herders



Bowel torsion is very similar to bloat, but instead of the stomach twisting, the small intestine kinks, causing the rest of the intestine to die... quickly. It can happen for the same reasons as bloat (exercise after eating, etc.) It is a VERY serious emergency.

Here's Piper's story:
I came home and let him out of his crate on a Sunday night after dinner with my parents. I had only been gone about 2 hours or so. Prior to leaving, he'd been his happy, normal self. When I go home, he acted sad. Ears were down, he was semi-lethargic, color was poor. He kept looking at his rearend, and stretching his stomach out in the "praying" pose. I knew something was seriously wrong. So, on account of it being Sunday, I called the vet at home and she agreed to meet me at the office in an hour. All the while, Piper's gums were turning greyer and greyer. It was really scary! He kept looking at me like "Mommy, help me!".

When we got to the office, we took xrays and they revealed that his stomach and internal organs were completely out of place. We thought that he had eaten something that was lodged in his stomach. So we started emergency surgery, thinking that we'd simply open his stomach and remove the culprit. But as soon as we opened him up, the surgeon started pulling out his bowel and saying "oh my god, oh my god, this is really bad". About a quarter of his bowel was completely black, necrotic.

They explained that most dogs with this died on the table. As soon as the bowel is untwisted all of the toxins enter the bloodstream, send the dog into shock and it can die instantly. We made it through that part ok.

Next, we had to remove the dead part of the bowel, and reconnect the good parts. The whole time, the surgeon and the tech are telling me "he is going to die" "prepare yourself, because he probably won't wake up from this surgery" etc.

So after surgery ended, they sat me down and discussed what we wanted to do with his body. I was told I could take him home with me to die at home, or leave him there overnight and pick up his body in the morning. Since I have two other dogs at home, I decided it would be best to leave him there and figure out where we were going to bury him, and basically, start digging.

I got a call the next morning that he was awake and wagging his tail They still didn't think the outcome looked good. We still had to figure out if the bowel was going to work or not.

In conclusion to the story, Piper is my miracle dog. He stayed in the hospital for 4 days recovering before being sent home on his first birthday. He's now almost back to 100%, but he's still trying to gain all of the weight back.

The vet thought that it was probably caused by him eating or drinking, and then rolling around, playing with the other dogs.

I love a happy ending! so glad piper is ok!
I am getting to the stage of being paranoid about bloat and torsions!

Glad to hear that Piper is OK. Its another thing to watch out for

oh nice to hear a happy ending on one of these stories!! it is scary though isnt it! am i right in thinking this is more common in deep chested dogs

yes it is

Glad it had a happy ending.

what a relief phewww

love the dog in the first pic

It is a happy ending. Thought it was important to post since I've never heard of it before, and maybe someone else hasn't either. All of these things are scary

I think the dogs are gorgeous too Azz. I hope the pics aren't too big The first one is Piper the one who had the emergency surgery.

Oh dear. Glad it ended good.

I'm so careful with Luna's feeding, but it can easily go wrong, cant it?