Question About Bloat

[Dame Aussie]

What is "deep chested"? I understand giant breeds and those that are deep chested are more prone to getting bloat. Are Blue Heelers deep chested? Just trying to work out if either of my dogs would be in that category. I have a Blue Heeler and a Lab X "something".

Do you constantly worry about your dog getting bloat? After reading this forum it seems it's extremely common and i'm starting to stress about it almost constantly (half because i'm slowly loosing my mind from being at home with an injury for so long). It sounds like a horrid thing to go through for the dog and the owner.

I am by no means an expert so someone please correct me if Im wrong, but to me deep chested would include dogs like Weimeraners, Danes, Greyhounds, Wolfhounds/Deerhounds, GSD's etc.

Possibly not a Cattle dog but from what I've read it can happen to medium sized dogs too.

Try not to stress too much, just educate yourself on the signs and go straight to the vet if you see them. I had to stop myself from stressing too much as it was getting ridiculous.

[Rebanne]

I don't consider a cattle dog deep chested but others might. Personally having owned GSD's and now Greyhounds, both breeds that could bloat, for over 30 years, I never really think about it. There have been so many theories over those years that you would go

mad trying to sort it all out. All you need is a bit of common sense and don't feed your dogs close to serious exercise. It's the only thing I agree could be harmful. My dogs often run around like loons right after feeding, I rarely interfere as it is not forced exercise, if it gets too intense or lasts too long I will intervene. My dogs have been fed raw, fed dry, fed soaked dry, fed mixed raw and dry, fed on the ground, fed from a raised feeder etc. None have bloated yet.

[Dame Aussie]

Yeah Rebanne, Mosley will sometimes do zoomies after dinner but I usually leave him to it, only time I intervene is if he's getting ridiculous or drinking madly. I worry the drinking while he is out of breath could cause it.

[AussieDog]

Good to hear - thanks for the replies. I'd never heard about bloat before reading it on here a few weeks ago and now it's all i can think about. I'll relax a tad and just make sure they aren't doing anything too strenuous around dinner time. It's hard because they love playing together and we recently got a new kitten who seems to sleep all day and then switch on at bed time.

I love Dogzonline and the wealth of information that is available on here - but geez sometimes it's just not good for my stress levels :D

[tarope]

Mine are fed three small meals per day, they are not allowed out half an hour before and after each meal and bowls are raised.

Whether this works or not who knows, but we have never had bloat yet.

[OSoSwift]

It isn't just deep chests either it is the depth compared to the width. So the shape of the chest as much as the depth. My male WhIppet in particular has a deep chest but because it isn't very wide he is very unlikely to bloat - I still keep them quiet after feeding as force of habit.