SHAKTI, CGC, Advanced Trick Dog
("Dayspring's Spirit of SHAKTI")

Hello everyone,

First of all Shakti's recovery is going GREAT!

She has a great appetite, does all her business nicely, smiles and has her positive and goofy attitude back. She gets a lot of rest during the day and her wound is healing very well. She still has stitches and we have a vet appointment for March 13 to remove the stitches. She's getting her normal food again 4 times a day (instead of being fed twice a day). She gets Wellness canned dog food formula (natural, moist diet) and vegetables and fruit that are good for dogs.

She also plays gently a bit too. She’s getting bored with sitting at home and not doing all the activities she is used to. Sne normally leads a very active life that's filled with lots of diverse things and she is used to having plenty of both physical and mental stimulation. She's VERY interested in playing, but we're just teling her to take it easy for now. Shakti's a very strong girl in many ways. We're very happy to see our "bright sprite" back.

Now, we've been receiving a lot of emails from Friends and Fans with the questions about what symptoms of bloat Shakti had. I'm sorry that it took me so long to respond to your questions, but that's because we were very busy with Shakti at home...

Anyway, I'm happy to finally be able to share more details with you and I hope that you'll never have to experience this with your beloved dogs.

If it's bloat there are a few different symptoms, not just one. I observed a few different ones happening at different times or together at the same time.

SHAKTI'S SYMPTOMS OF BLOAT

• making repeated attempts to vomit every 5-10 minutes with nothing coming out (dry vomiting / dry heaves); there were breaks with no dry vomiting attempts
  
• akward behavior that doesn't happen normally and acting in a very strange and unnatural way
  
• significant anxiety or restlessness and inability to settle down anywhere
  
• heavy salivating or drooling
• showing signs of abdominal pain or discomfort
• heavy panting
• apparent weakness (her back legs started to getting weaker but she was able to walk at all times)
  
• refusal to lie down or sit down
• pacing
• weak pulse
• rapid heartbeat
• licking the air
• seeking a hiding place (she'd come to curl around my feet as she does normally, but she'd start crawling around my feet and she never does that)
  
• curling up in a ball (she lay down right next to me in this position)
• pale colored gums

More info to come soon...