Kearney – There are times in life when our tummies are in knots, but for our 4-legged friends, like “Bart”, they can suffer from GDV, gastric dilatation and volvulus, a condition where the stomach dilates and flips. If this happens in your pet, you are racing against time to get surgery done. “It's a 50/50 when you walk in the door and whether you're going to survive or not,” said Dr. Brandon Beebout from the Beebout Veterinary Medical Center.
Dr. Beebout recommends a procedure, prophylactic gastropexy, to prevent that roll over or flip. Prophylactic gastropexy surgery takes the stomach to the body wall so it doesn't have the ability to flip. GDV, gastric dilatation and volvulus can be seen in both larger and smaller breeds of dogs. Dr. Beebout said there have even been reports of flipped stomachs in guinea pigs.
This condition happened to Bart. Bart has a unique story. He had had the surgery performed and then very shortly thereafter, got really sick with vomiting, decreased appetite, and lots of diarrhea. Bart was just a sick kid losing about 35-40 pounds. “Thankfully, he was as big as he is so he could handle it,” said Dr. Beebout.
Bart was seen by numerous specialists, at different states outside of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. “There's a paper that actually his mama sent me and it was from UC Davis, which is really a veterinary school in California, a tertiary referral facility, meaning specialists refer to that facility, and this paper was talking about a mispositioned surgery.” Dr. Beebout said.
Bart came to the Beebout Veterinary Medical Center an extensive medical record. BVMC took a look and ruled everything else out. Dr. Beebout said he thought it was worth it to see if there's a malposition. The BVMC team, went in and sure enough, there was a kink in Barts stomach. However, the way it healed against that body wall, Dr. Beebout decided to break that surgery down, re-performed it and today, Bart is about 90%.
Common signs and symptoms of GDV include: vomiting, decreased appetite and lots of diarrhea. Number one sign of GVD is trying to vomit and we can't. That's something that you're going to want to look for. And then it's not, "I'm going to wait and see", it's "get us called right away". Dr. Beebout said BVMC's preference is to get out in front of it and do prophylactic pexi, but if you're somebody that hasn't had that done, BVMC typically does it at the time of spay and neuter.
Beebout Veterinary Medical Center (Formerly Hilltop Vet Clinic)
4507 First Ave. Place
Kearney, NE