Gastropexy... Is It Necessary?

[a_daerr]

Truman is almost 8-months-old, so I recently had a conversation with the vet about having him neutered. I've decided to wait until he is at least a year old. Because he is a monorchid (only one testicle is descended), his neuter surgery will be a little more complicated. A friend of mine suggested having his stomach tacked (gastropexy) during the neuter surgery, as he will already be under anesthesia and they will need to make an abdominal incision. Our regular vet does not do this particular surgery, so she referred me to a specialty vet in the city. Both of the ones I called quoted me between $800-$1000. Truman is an AKC dog, and I know AKC greyhounds have a higher prevalence for bloat. But is this necessary? I don't want to put Truman through a lengthy and complex surgery, nor do I want to incur such a big expense for the one in a million off chance he bloats. I also have pet insurance on both dogs in the event of an accident or emergency. However, if it's going to be helpful and will likely prevent bloat in his lifetime, I will find a way to make it happen. Any thoughts?

[tbhounds]

I have assisted with this surgery-- personally, I don't feel bloat is a high enough risk in Ghs to proceed with the procedure.

[Guest WhiteWave]

I had it done on my Doberman after he bloated and torsioned. He still bloated after it, but they were able to relive it with a tube instead of more surgery. I personally wouldn't do it unless I knew for a fact in ran in the dogs pedigree.

[JJNg]

I'd definitely consider this option more seriously for an AKC grey, but I do think knowing how common GDV is in your dog's bloodline is an important part of the decision. I have a friend who lost several related AKC greys to GDV.

 

Regarding the tacking surgery itself, it's really not a "lengthy and complex surgery". Especially when done by a specialist, it's a fairly quick and simply procedure.

[tbhounds]

Should have read the original post more clearly-- didn't see that this was an akc hound- yes, try to see if it bloat runs in the family line. jjing mentioned it wasn't a complicated procedure in the correct hands- agreed but, it does increase the anesthesia time and there us a higher risk of post op complications so there is a lot to consider. If you decide to go forward with the procedure as already mentioned seek out a specialist.

[greysmom]

A cryptorchid surgery is quite a bit mor extensive than a regular male neutering. It's more along the lines of a female spaying as far as the length of the scar, and they really don't know how far they will have to go until they start. My boy Copper was a crypt, and, though he was an adult at the time of the surgery, his recovery time was about two weeks, and his incision site was about five inches long.

 

If you can check out the rest of the family, that will be your best shot at guessing if your pup will have a tendency to bloat. Genetics play the biggest role in this. If mom or dad, or their siblings, have either survived a bloat incident, or died, I'd be more inclined to do a prophylactic surgery. If there's no first or second degree bloat, then I would probably not.

 

We had a Great Dane female survive a bloat-with-torsion incident when she was about 18 months old. Her littermate brother, who we also had, never bloated. Out of their litter of nine, four pups died of bloat before they were three years old. Their sire also died after a bloat incident when our pup was about 5 years old (he must have been 9 or 10 at the time of his death).

[MP_the4pack]

I'm not in favor of doing the surgery, but what if he dies of bloat later on in life when you chose not to do it? Can you handle that?

 

I'm still upset that I didn't have that "one more ultrasound" for Pearl. We might have found her cancer and removed her spleen before it spread.

[racindog]

My beloved soulmate Slim succumbed to bloat/GDV. I still would not opt for the "preventive" surgery because the fact is the preventive surgery in and of itself can kill them- all kinds of stuff can happen. Would never have any surgery like that on my hound unless it was medically required. In Slim's case for instance the immediate cause of death (short version)was DIC which was apparently induced by the bloat/gdv emergency surgery performed to save him.

[4My2Greys]

I don't know if you already have insurance on him, but one thing I thought of was if you have this procedure done the insurance companies might see it as evidence of a pre-existing condition and not cover anything with regard to future events. So I would recommend looking into having him covered before you have it done.

[LuvAPuppy]

I had it done for my Dane when she was spayed. Not that much longer of an incision for a girl and she was under anyway. I did it just because that breed can be very prone to it and because her sire bloated and died while the breeder was at work for the day. Fine when he left, gone when he got home. So little is really understood about bloat....