Beating Bloat

Posted on June 17, 2025

Let’s skip the cliché about starting like any other day. Nothing about this day was like any other. It was 65 degrees in the middle of March, I had the day off from work, and I went to Hammonasset (not my usual beach) with my dogs in tow (also not usual). My husband was a month into his 6-month military schooling in Virginia and I was working 7 days a week at the time.

Pup, my 14-year-old cocker spaniel, was up for any and all adventures. My 10-year-old pit bull, Bella, not so much. She was less than thrilled to be in the car for an hour. Neither of them had any idea what a beach was or what to do there. For extra confusion, a group of people on horseback showed up to enjoy the beach as well. Around 4pm, I decided it was time to venture home; 3 hours was long enough. You could feel the relief from Bella when her paws hit our driveway and the safety of home.

The rest of the day continued uneventfully, enjoying the weather in the backyard. Dinner was eaten, though Bella hardly touched hers (this was somewhat common for her at this time). I went to bed around my usual 10:30pm, nothing out of the ordinary. About 1 am I wake up to Bella making strange noises. My first instinct was to let her out, but she did not need to go. She was sort of just standing in the dining room looking uncomfortable, coughing every so often. I had been sitting on the floor for a few minutes, trying to coax her to me for pets. As I was getting up to go back to bed, unable to figure out her issue, I noticed she looked kind of pregnant. But she’s 10 and fixed, that wasn’t possible. I feel her stomach, it’s rock hard. Thank the universe for cell phones and Google! Instantly, I started to Google something about pregnant dogs and bloat comes up as a search. (Bloat is a condition in which the stomach flips, closing off the entry and exit to the stomach, and gas begins to build up. This is typically a fatal condition due to the need for expedient surgery.) A quick peruse through the info tells me to call the vet immediately. I called the closest vet hospital to me and explain the symptoms to the woman that answers. She very calmly tells me, “I don’t want to alarm you, but it sounds like your dog has bloat. We don’t have a surgeon on staff tonight, but you can try these hospitals. You will want to ask if they have a surgeon available.” She proceeded to give the numbers for 3 different hospitals. How I managed to call them, have a coherent conversation, and remember all the details is still a mystery to me. At this point, I was shaking, fending off tears and a panic attack. This is my husband’s area of expertise, I’m the panicky one!

I finally talked to a vet hospital that has a surgeon on staff and can take Bella in. Fortunately, she has been there before. Unfortunately, it was in Middletown, a 40-minute drive from our house. It was about 1:30am, I put on some decent clothes, rushed my poor Bella back into the car, and sped like a bat outta hell down 91 to Middletown, crying and praying the whole way. I call when I arrive, it’ll be a few minutes before someone can take her in for an assessment. When they do, she is deemed an emergency and taken right into surgery. I remained in the parking lot until 7am with back-and-forth phone calls from the doctor about Bella’s progress.

The doctors untwisted, decompressed, and stapled Bella’s stomach, took out her spleen due to a lump caused by the bloat, and removed a tumor from her liver which turned out to be cancerous (her 2nd time with a malignant tumor). I’d like to say that her recovery went well, but it didn’t. Bella could not leave the hospital until she ate. This took almost 2 days and visits from me. She developed ileus, a condition where GI motility slows or stops, and anything taken in is regurgitated. Then Bella got a cold (doggy snot is not pretty). Both events resulted in 2 or 3 more drives to Middletown. All in all, it took her several weeks to get somewhat back to normal. Unfortunately, she never really recovered as the rest of the year turned out to be quite rough for all of us.

They say hindsight is 20/20, but to this day, I have no idea what caused Bella’s bloat. She didn’t really meet the standard criteria we are told to look out for. I can’t recall if she ate any breakfast that morning. She did not eat very much dinner, a common occurrence for her after cancer removal surgery 6 months earlier. She was a barrel chested, bigger dog, coming in at 60lbs. Car rides and a day at the beach were stressful for her, but she had several hours of being home and relaxed before I noticed any symptoms. Her activity level was much lower after that surgery. So, the fact that she was not playful or active didn’t tip me off either.

All in all, what an experience (a very expensive one)! I wouldn’t wisht that on anyone. We had heard of bloat prior to this incident, but like most people, we thought that would never happen to us…until it did. Since then, I have become paranoid about all that my dogs do and eat; a helicopter mom you could say. But I have also learned a lot from this experience that I can employ with future dogs. Sadly, Bella crossed the rainbow bridge 8 months after this event, at the age of 11. She never fully recovered. We miss her every day.

R.I.P. Bella 10/2011-12/24/2022