'Our dog came back from the dead three times after I spotted condition'

It was a typical Thursday evening in July when dad Mathew Kerr served dinner to his dog Leo. But something seemed off.

"Leo always eats his food straight away, but after I put it down for him, he only ate a bit before looking up at me and leaving it," said Mathew, 30. "He was whimpering and whining and he kept going in and out of the back door before going back to his dinner and not managing to eat it. Then he went into the living room crying, yelped and lay down."

Mathew suspected 'bloat' straight away. It is an extremely serious, life-threatening condition that requires urgent veterinary treatment.

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Mathew felt Leo's belly to find a hard mass and a trunk which was "rock solid on one side". His fiancée Louise was in bed at their home in Sunderland, after having looked after three-year-old Cindy and nine-week-old baby Harrison all day, but Mathew miraculously knew about the dangers of 'bloat'.

Bloat is known as gastric torsion or gastric dilation volvulus, whereby a dog's stomach twists and expands with gas. Mathew got Leo to his emergency Vets Now clinic in Gateshead before the blood supply was shut off to vital organs and the condition became fatal.

Within 30 minutes, Leo was being seen by emergency vet Conrad, who carried out tests and confirmed GDV. "I was beside myself. I tried to hold it together, but I was in bits. I felt sick to my stomach," said site manager Mathew.

"I couldn't believe that one minute he was having his dinner and was absolutely fine and suddenly we were facing the possibility of him not making it through the night. I prepared myself to say goodbye."

Conrad attempted to manually reverse the torsion, but the procedure didn't work. He informed Mathew that an operation would be necessary to undo the twist.

Mathew spent a sleepless night at home, anxiously waiting by the phone for any news. At 3am on Friday morning, Mathew received the news that the operation had been successful. However, Leo's spleen had been irreparably damaged and had to be removed.

He breathed a sigh of relief and tried to catch some sleep before going back to pick up Leo in the morning. Mathew was overjoyed at 8am when he saw the groggy-but-cheerful Leo.

He lifted the 50kg dog into the car to take him to his local vets in Sunderland for ongoing monitoring and recovery. But that evening, Mathew and Louise received more bad news.

"The vets told us he'd lost an alarming amount of blood and that we needed to get him back to Gateshead in case it got worse," said Mathew. As six-year-old Leo was prepped for discharge, he suffered further haemorrhaging.

Fearing for his life, the Sunderland vets took him themselves to Vets Now Gateshead so they could monitor him and keep him on a drip. Leo, a beloved family pet, fell seriously ill once more. Lisa, the duty vet at Gateshead's Vets Now, expressed her concern about the amount of blood he had lost after examining his gums.

Around 24 hours post his initial surgery, Lisa informed that another operation was necessary to stop the bleeding, suspecting it might be from an artery. Despite undergoing further surgery, Mathew received another distressing call; Leo urgently required a blood transfusion.

Mathew proposed to Lisa that their younger retriever, Gamble, could possibly donate some blood. Incredibly, Gamble, who isn't closely related to Leo, was a match and they hurried him in.

"Gamble was absolutely brilliant. They sat him down, shaved his chest, and he sat there calmly, and just allowed them to take blood. They administered it straight away and within half an hour, Leo started to make improvements," Mathew recounted.

"That fresh blood made such a difference when there weren't any other options. If it weren't for Gamble, Leo wouldn't be here," said Mathew, who showered him with plenty of treats upon his return.

However, on Saturday morning, as Mathew was preparing some chicken and rice and getting ready to collect Leo after another terrifying and sleepless night, he received another devastating call. "Lisa told me that he'd been doing really well until that point, but that he was starting to bleed again and we were running out of avenues," Mathew shared.

"She told me she didn't want to prolong his distress if he wasn't going to pull through. We had a decision to make about whether to say goodbye to him. I rang Louise and asked her if she thought it was time to put him out of his misery.

"It was a really difficult decision to make. He still looked strong, even though his stomach was cut open and he'd been shaved all over. But Lisa said he was still wagging his tail and eating, going for a wee on his own. So I decided to go and see him and make the decision then."

When Mathew turned up, Lisa explained their last hope was to request some platelets from the Pet Blood Bank. Mathew thankfully agreed and Lisa made the urgent call.

Tragically, there was further devastating news - only three bags remained in the entire country. Fearing there wouldn't be sufficient supplies to rescue Leo, Mathew once more braced himself to bid his final farewells.

When the platelets finally reached the clinic at 6pm, Leo was frail, sluggish and battling critically low blood levels, yet desperately holding on.

"We were waiting at home, unable to do anything as we waited for another call, expecting the worst," said Mathew. "But Lisa called and we were overjoyed to hear another miracle; the transfusion had worked and Leo was looking great."

At this stage, Lisa had devoted 36 hours caring for Leo and when Mathew and Louise visited to see him, they were "over the moon" with his remarkable recovery.

They brought him home on the Sunday morning. "Lisa was so happy that we all kept on going and didn't give up on him. Bringing him home was surreal," said Mathew.

"He'd been through so much and we'd said goodbye so many times. More than once, the grandparents came to look after the kids so Louise could go and say goodbye."

When Leo returned home, Mathew positioned his bed in the lounge and slept beside him on the floor for five nights, keeping a watchful eye on him. Meanwhile, Gamble was permitted to sleep upstairs for the first time as a reward for his life-saving donation.

"It has been a terrifying time, but Leo has now made another miraculous recovery from GDV and is doing really well," said Mathew. "Though he's still being monitored, he's eating well and going on walks. He's the dog he was again and we're so happy to have him home and healthy. To have him at home is another miracle.

"Leo came first - before Gamble and before the children. He's been through it all with us, through moving house and starting a family, and to lose him would have been awful.

"We are so grateful for the help from our vets and Vets Now and the effort and commitment that they all put in. We can't thank them enough. His life has been saved over and over again. And we are so grateful to the Pet Blood Bank - and all the dog donors - because they saved his life too. If it wasn't for them, Leo wouldn't be here."

What is bloat?

Bloat in dogs is a severe, life-threatening condition that requires immediate veterinary attention. It happens when a dog's stomach twists and fills with gas.

Sadie Spencer, the head vet at Vets Now, said: "This is such a serious issue - and fairly common, but we still see owners who have never heard of bloat or GDV. No one knows exactly what causes it but there are certain risk factors that make it more likely, particularly for larger breed dogs, eating a large meal very soon before or after exercising.

"Signs of bloat in dogs include restlessness, faster or more laboured breathing, drooling, unsuccessfully trying to vomit and abdominal bulging. If you are concerned your dog may be affected, call your vet or, out of hours, your nearest Vets Now pet emergency clinic immediately."