Bloat is a very dangerous condition in dogs which runs close to a 50% fatality rate. You can read about types of Bloat here (More Info on Bloat)
Lets answer few questions first.
1. What breeds can get bloat?
Any. Even though some deep chested breeds are more prone to bloat like: Doberman, Great Dane, Hounds, and etc, any dog can get bloat at some point of their life.
2. How do I prevent bloat in dogs?
You can prevent bloat very easy, by not feeding your dogs kibble.
3. But why so dangerous?
Kibble chips are extremely dehydrated to sustain shelf life and can “ expand” in your dog’s stomach. Some kibble feeders recommend not to exercise, or give your dog water an hour before or after feeding times and give few small meals and this should prevent bloat, but the truth is that even dogs fed in this regime can still get bloat.
A dog’s stomach is not a dry environment. When the food enters the stomach and mixes with bile and stomach juices it expands. In another hand, when fed kibble the food stays in your dogs stomach longer than an hour. This means not to give your dog any water for at least 3 hours during feeding time and this sounds a bit torture to me. Then what do we do? Well, we don’t feed kibble. If I am still not convincing enough, then cook for your dog. Cooked food may not be the best for your dog, but at least it is better than kibble. Raw food has enough moisture, so when eaten it doesn’t expand in your dog’s stomach. You will also notice while feeding raw food, dogs do not consume as much water because they get plenty from the food.
4. Why is so important to prevent bloat?
Two important reasons to know about bloat. First, bloat has a 50% fatality rate, if caught in time. Too late and the rate increases to 90%. Second, treatment of bloat is very expensive. Average bloat treatment runs between $4,000-$8,000 in a regular vet office.Emergency Centers have been known to charge double. I wouldn’t want to take the risk with kibble.