I brought Porridge with me last night to work to have his nails done. Ever since the VT Student in the spring cut his one nail way back to where it comes from his toe; he; understandably has been very nervous about his feet and nail trimming. Part of what we do at BHRR is humane education and we often have groups of students out to learn how to properly groom, restrain, do nails, bath and take care of horses plus giant breed canines and unfortunately, Porridge was given a traumatic experience by a student that unsupervised cut his nail that bad. I have since brought Porridge in a couple of times, put him under a light sedation and have trimmed his nails. Last night we used a slightly different ‘cocktail’ for him as the last one we did in July(Hydro); just put him right on his tush for the whole day and made him quite ill to boot. It is not uncommon for some nausea and/or vomiting to occur on Hydro yet this just really set Porridge down for the count and in the sedation department; he was given quite the low dose. Everything went well and I took him home yet when I went to bring him into the bedroom approximately 45 minutes later to feed the dogs and to give Porridge about 1/3 of his own normal portion, Porridge began to not act nor look normal. After being in the bedroom for a very short period, I rushed him outside and the poor boy had terrible diarrhea and the drooling began. I then decided it was time for GasX plus Zantac for I did not like how he began to ‘crunch’ up on me. We then began to walk and keep him moving. I think Porridge and I must have down 15 laps down our extensive laneway and back and thank god, it was making a difference. In bringing him back inside, he was ‘ok’ for a bit and then began to drool again and nip at his sides; so in went more GasX etc. and I tubed him. The gas that came out of him was significant. Throughout all of this, I could palpate Porridge without much discomfort to him and his stomach did not swell once. I then took Porridge for some more walking and Sean slept with him in the main area so that he could be supervised one-on-one all night. Porridge kept wanting to come into the bedroom yet with how the ‘pack’ wanted to be with me for I had been away working all night; it was easier to do things this way. It was also a great ‘bonding’ moment for Porridge and Sean who have had their moments of ‘not’ quite seeing eye-to-eye since Porridge came to us as a mere 6.5 week pup. For me to attempt to determine a possible ‘trigger’ for Porridge’s ‘gas’ bloat is truly impossible to define. Yet, I am not so keen on signing on for the same ‘tranq’ cocktail we did last night for Porridge. I am going to converse more with the Vet when I am in today to see if any of the meds that we did give Porridge could possibly have had the side effect of ‘gas’ build-up. On the other hand, being sedated, slows down things as is and we were a bit more cautious over putting him under due to his recent seizure. So much to discuss with the Vet and the fantastic news is that while Porridge is a wee bit still under the weather this AM, he is almost back to normal. He had a good night with Sean, once he settled down and realised that it was ‘ok’ to be just with Dad and not with Mom too. For those that are very worried about bloat etc., the one thing to continue to bear in mind is that you can read all the ‘classic’ symptoms of bloat all you want; yet there are cases where they do bloat and the symptoms are not there as you might expect them to be. Just know your dog’s behavour and what is ‘norm’ for them and be vigiliant. We have had several Danes(Zane, KB/JB and now Porridge) that have ‘gas’ bloated on us over the years and it is key to begin treatment ASAP to get that gas out before other complications can arise. Porridge weighted 63.8 KGs(140.36 pounds) last night yet I believe he is more for he had a foot resting on that wall. 😉