In all my years in Canada, I had 1 dog bloat back in 74, and she started to vomit, expelled the gas, the stomach never torsioned, and she was fine. We were just moments from the vet when she was back to herself. Since coming to Texas, I noticed a high incidence in the state with others breeders, along with my own dogs, many having come from Canada, except for 1 line I have that never seem to be affected. One dog that John had came from a high incidence background of bloat that all of his siblings had bloated or torsioned and died before 6 years of age. I decided to give him pepto bismal daily 1 hour before meals just to settle his gut............he lived to 11 1/2 then bloated and we lost him. Another male bloated while a blasting company was close.......the earth shaking was too much for him. He had surgery at almost 10 and lived for 2 1/2 years. I soaked his food well so nothing would expand in his gut. Another bloated a few years ago at 7, had surgery, got tacked. He stressed with my being gone for medical treatment, but his mom, older brothers had all have bloat incidence....with 1 of them passing at 10 months old. This boy get's no grains and I do a sulpha flush every 3 months. He has been good for 2 1 /2 years. Is there anything specific and common to all....don't know other than history. A long time friend/dane breeder who had many suffer bloat and torsion had many golden rules.......never feed 1 large meal daily, divide in 2 and take the stress off the gut. Never let your dogs drink a lot of water after eating, or get involved in vigorous exercise. Avoid stressful situations. Does it help, maybe. I do them all anyway just in case. But taking all the precautions and preventions into consideration, there are no rule's that say they will work. If we could discover that.....neither the dog nor any of us would suffer this, one of the worst and painful things in this breed. But know the signs.....the quicker you get to the vet, the better the chance's of survival. Molly Trillia German Shepherds since 1972 Member GSDCA, GSDCC, GSDC of Beaumont, lifetime member CKC In a message dated 1/1/2011 12:32:52 P.M. Central Standard Time, ketchy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: athy, Whether you want to believe it or not, bloat is hereditary. I bet if you went far enough back in both dogs' pedigrees, you would find some common ancestry. I also believe that there are factors that can make it happen, but none are weather related. Jeddie bloated in the summer, The Kid and her dam Ketchy (both house dogs) bloated in the winter and Brando torsioned in the summer. Outside of tacking the stomach, I can't think of anything to prevent it. I am feeding raw now, which I wasn't doing before. Will it make a difference? I really don't know. ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2010. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in any post. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================