IOkay - first off, let me tell you all, this story has a very happy ending! No need to fear!

Yesterday afternoon I was giving a kennel tour. We were taking our time talking dogs and visiting with each one while we worked our way through the yard - the usual.

When we got up into the bitch section and started to walk over to Roary, she didn't seem all that happy to see us. I asked her what was wrong and she moved away from me to sit down in another section of her area. Not normal at all for our friendly little redhead.

I coaxed her to me and reached down to put my hands on her belly. As I touched her stomach and noticed it was tight as a drum, she let out a yip and moved away from me again. These symptoms are typical of bloat and torsion, very dangerous conditions in dogs. Roary's gum color was very good and she still seemed quite 'bouncy' for a dog to be in critical condition, but we take no chances. I called the vet, who as always, found room in their busy schedule for us and loaded Roary into the van. She was very happy on her walk to the van, but yipped a few more times, especially when I picked her up to load her into her crate. Mark and she headed off to Westlock.

Apparently once they got to Westlock, she yipped again when Mark placed her on the scale. When he got her into the exam room, she let out a big burp as Mark put her on the exam table. When Collin started to go over her, she just stood there and wagged her tail at him. No tenderness in the belly, no tightness, no yipping. His professional opinion - "She had a fart go 'sideways'" - and the burp had fixed her.

Mark paid the bill and drove the 40 minutes back to Perryvale. Roary is a red dog already, but I'm hoping under that red fur she at least had the decency to be blushing about the whole incident!

Karen