I had been wanting to write this for a long time, but did not have the courage to write because the loss of my beloved SParky and the memories of that day still hurts.
This was Sparky, our beloved 5 and a half-year old German Shepherd that we lost on the early morning of November 11, 2018 to GDV(Gastric Dilation Volvulus).
November 10, 2018 was just like any other day in his life.In the afternoon, he had his lunch of freshly Cooked Fish(only meat, no bones) & Rice. He was perfectly alright till then. At around 4 PM, he started showing first signs of discomfort. He was trying to vomit, but nothing as coming out of his mouth. I took him out for a walk, he seemed alright for a while then again started showing the same symptoms. He was refusing to drink water also. We took him to the vet immediately. On the way,his condition started to deteriorate. He started to howl in pain. The vert examined him and said there can be only two causes, either he has had indigestion or he is showing signs of the dreaded GDV.
He gave a him a few pills and said if his condition does not improve in half an hour, to take him to another doctor to get scans done. We rushed to another vet who did the scans and said it is not as serious as the usual GDV cases that come in. He said pumping out his stomach contents(gas/liquid/solids) is the way forward. So the vet sedated Sparky and pumped out the contents of his stomach. Looking at the pumped out contents, he said the contents had become toxic but he should be alright once he regains consciousness.
After a while , Sparky regained consciousness and he seemed alright for a while, a little drowsy but the panting had considerably reduced and he wasn't trying to vomit anymore. The Vet examined him and said he will give instructions how to take care of him for the next 2-3 days. After around 10 minutes, Sparky got up on his own and then suddenly slumped, howling in pain. Hearing this, the vet rushed back in and gave him some anesthesia to try and pump out more contents from his stomach.
This time the pipe was just not going in. At the same time, Sparky stopped breathing and his heart stopped beating. The vet revived him by applying pumping pressure on his heart. He regained consciousness and the vet took him for an other scan. By now, because of stomach expansion, his spleen was being crushed by it. The vet said only way out would be to perform a surgery and cut out his spleen but anymore anesthesia would be lethal for Sparky. The deterioration in his condition was so quick and so overwhelming that we could not decide what to do. The vet said that Sparky might not make it till morning. It was around 8:30 PM by then.We took a call that we will take him home, if he survives till morning, we will do the surgery then. He was walking on his own but was very drowsy, uncomfortable and panting heavily. Once home, he went to straight to the place where he normally sleeps. Got back up and came back to the hall where we sit. He drank little water.
All went to sleep praying for him to survive till morning. I really could not sleep that night. In the night, he slept a little, got up in between to change places(which he normally does). At around 3 in the morning, he started having violent fits. we tried to make him stand up on his feet, but he wasn't able to. All of us n the family were besides him, I was trying to comfort him tearfully knowing that he will be leaving us forever. He had his eyes fixated on me, as if asking me to help him. After half an hour of struggle, he passed away.
We buried him in our garden in the morning.
The next few days were very tough. We had raised him a 50-day old and to my wife & me - a newly married couple, he became like a son. We kept inside the house and he was like a family member to our family. Extremely caring, obedient and feircely protective. For us, a knock on the gate or a sound outside had became synonymous his loud barks. We used to ask him to keep queit. But now, I longed to hear his barks. Everytime I came back home, I missed his running to me, jumping, welcoming me with something - a chappal or one of his toys in his mouth. The silence in the house was haunting to say the least. I almost dreaded going back to home because I started missing him so much. Every small thing in the house reminded me of him.
After a while, Sparky's absence had started to become unbearable and we decided to get a German Shepherd pup home, not to replace Sparky's memories but to give his share of love and care to another pup. So, on Nov 11, 2018, we bought Archie home - a two month old GSD pup. A relative's German Shepherd had delivered a litter of 5-6 pups and he asked if I wanted to adopt one. I immediately said yes.
Archie:
I really don't know what went wrong with Sparky that day. He had normal food just like any other day.I admit I had no idea about GDV till it happened to Sparky. Sparky was healthy as a horse and did not have any other health issue except for minor hip dysplasia which was being managed by tablets. I tried researching about GDV but nothing points to any concrete reason for it. Surgery is last step but chances of survival for a dog that has a GDV attack are very less.
So I ask the experts here how does one make sure that GDV never happens. The vet suggested a preventive surgery to fix the stomach to the abdominal wall and that this will prevent GDV from ever happening. But I read that it has its own side effects.