Baloo

Canine bloat awareness
Following a birthday that was memorable for all the wrong reasons, a trip to the emergency vet when Beau suffered bloat, I devised the poster together with the help of a fellow lister on my golden retriever group, which of course was approved by vets. It is copyright-free and you are welcome to email it, print it and distribute it to get the message across. When our other dobermann, Roxy, bloated in 2011 I referred to my own poster on the fridge door to check the symptoms before rushing her to the vet. She survived too, but sadly we lost her to DCM later in the year.
BLOAT - THE KILLER DOWNLOAD POSTER HERE Our beautiful boy Beau would have died in November 2008 if we hadn't recognised the signs of bloat and rushed him to the vet immediately. Big thanks to Clinton Jefferies who saved Beau's life. If you experience a combination of the following: Your dog retches from the throat but nothing is produced other than small amounts of frothy mucus Your dog tries to defaecate unsuccessfully Your dog adopts the 'Sphinx' position Your dog's tummy goes hard and/or swells up like a balloon and is as taut as drumskin Trying to bite, or worry, the abdomen Your dog is very unsettled CONTACT YOUR VET IMMEDIATELY. Bloat is a true emergency - be prepared to drive to the surgery straightaway. The chance of survival decreases alarmingly if you delay getting the dog to the surgery more than 60-90 minutes after the first signs.

Baloo 1991-2002	Roxy 2004-2011	Following a car accident in 2006 we decided to do something about safety of dogs in cars, so after buying a Volvo we then trawled the world to find a safe crate for the dogs. We were so impressed that we are now the UK distributor for the Safedog crate!