This will be the 5th time over the years that Loki has had bloat, now don't confuse bloat and torsion .. Torsion is an instant emergency situation, torsion is get to a vet now! Maybe I shouldn't say I'm lucky to have seen torsion three times, but maybe in the light of the situation last night you'll understand what I mean. Blade survived torsion twice, Storm did not. Bloat is when the stomach fills up with air/gas, torsion is where that stomach twists and you have a life-threatening situation.
Loki paced, vomited, fell over, farted, burped, ate grass, drank water and continually repeated the process. He was blown up like a balloon, distressed and panting. The whole time I was so close to calling the vets, but then he'd settle for a few mins before the whole thing started again. I gave him charcoal biscuits, but they didn't help, still the fact he ate them helped me. I got him to lie down and spent a good 20 mins rubbing his belly, that helped I think. His tongue continually flicking out like a snake made me think some air was coming up. Again he improved for him only to blow up again a short while later. Steve and I discussed what to give him, I tried to syringe some bicarb and water into him, it made him vomit in seconds, a huge amount of grass ... and things settled .. but not for long. I went back to rubbing his belly and I think eventually that was what help turn the corner. It was now after midnight and Steve went off to bed. I sat with Loki until he stopped panting and eventually his head dropped to sleep. I left him and went to bed, we checked him every 2 hours and he was OK. This morning he's back to normal, but we've cancelled his physio for today. I'll ring the vets later and see if we can have something here to give him if it happens again. This has been the worst he's ever been, I was so so scared that he was heading for a torsion and he's far too weak to survive that.
