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condition, although many other large-chested dogs are also in danger. The age of the dog is apparently not a factor.

For any dog owner, it's important that you know about GDV. It's a life threatening disease, and often strikes without warning in otherwise healthy dogs. A certain set of conditions might trigger GDV one day but not another. If the stomach cannot be emptied, this may cause it. Too much exercise immediately following feeding, or extremely large intakes of food may cause it. But stress can also cause it. ANY intense activity can cause it.

Although GDV could occur for no apparent reason in certain dogs, and could even be triggered by unpreventable stress, there are certain factors that tend to lead to GDV. The number one contributing factor in causing GDV is how you feed your dog. The weight of the food or water in the dog's stomach can sometimes cause the stomach to twist. Exercising your dog before or after they eat, or if the dog eats too much or drinks too much water, could cause the stomach to overturn on itself, and twist.

Once GDV starts, the stomach balloons tremendously with gas and other materials. The dog's stomach dilates and twists around its axis, causing catastrophic and usually fatal damage. Food or fluid accumulates in the stomach, and this is usually accompanied by blockages in the two tracts leading into and out of the stomach. The stomach may twist just a little or completely around, but this causes a destructive cascade to the dog' internal organs. The blood supply to the stomach is cut off (and the food has nowhere to go). The spleen enlarges. Blood supply to the heart and lungs is decreased, causing hypoxia (a lack of oxygen) to other organs, and shock.

If the dog is lucky, it will die of shock to the brain before every organ in its body becomes affected. The destruction is widespread and if untreated, fatal.

This process takes anywhere between 2 to 8 hours to kill the dogwe have no way of knowing how long Dallas suffered, but pray it was a short time.

GDV is unpredictable. Dallas had been seen by her vet only two weeks before. Her doctor was very happy with her healththere was no indication anything was wrong. For Dallas, the day she died was identical to a thousand others in her life. So why this day? Why now?

On the morning she died, Dallas drank a lot of water, then she ate her food as well as some of the other dog's food. She'd done this many times before, but perhaps this feeding was the triggering factor on that day.

We cannot

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