German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America

[Mavrik5055]

Hello all, I am a new in these forums and write to you all with a heavy heart.. My 6 year old gwp passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly. Currently we are blaming it on a condition called bloat. Quinn was an exellent hunter and the perfect companion. My entire family and most of my friends are devestated by this loss..Bloat appears to be something that cant be prevented, please let me know if anyone has experienced this terrible problem. Quinn is currently at the University of Minnesota to recieve his Necropsy and we will have the final confirmation soon.

[cjs180]

Sorry to hear about your loss. A very successful NAVHDA GWP named Ken Vospet I believe died from this also.

The only thing I do to try and prevent this is to not feed the dog before going out into the field or any other hard physical activity. I think this can also happen if they drink too much water.

I think this is where their stomach twists up?? I do know it is more prevalent in large chested dogs.
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VC Heidlwolf Benelli

http://www.perfectpedigrees.com/4genview.php?id=482

[HeissDraht]

I am terribly sorry to hear about your loss. It is hard to loose a companion especially at such a young age. Owning German Wirehaired Pointers and running them hard, this is something that is always in the back of my mind. There is alot of good information on Bloat (Gastric Dilatation Volvulus) on the internet. Here is a pretty good article.

http://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/2005/Summer/canine-acd.htm

I hope you will be able to continue on your hunting ways with another fuzzy face!

[Mavrik5055]

Thanks for the support, I have done extensive reasearch in the last two days on this topic. It is apprently the 2nd leading killer next to cancer. I found information on prevention and am passing it out to whomever I know..I am currently looking for a new GWP and this incident, though very painful, has not stopped me from wanting GWP's and from hunting with them.