Very sad to hear this. Thanks to King for his service and condolences to the officers.

Very sad news. Condolences to Officer Del Prado and the entire staff at ECPD.

So sad. What a noble dog.

We enjoyed meeting him at the safety fair. He will be missed greatly! Rest in Peace King!

My condolences to everyone who knew and cared for him and loved him. So sorry.

I'm very sorry to hear this. My thoughts are with Officer Del Prado and the El Cerrito Police Department.

I'm so sorry to hear this. Condolences to all who cared for King.

RIP K-9 Officer King...you will never be forgotten. Thank you for protecting your fellow officers.

A shame to have such a nice animal dying so young.

But was it related to his prior condition when he was first acquired by ECPD?

"The new police dog was also much thinner when he first arrived in the city, weighing 68 pounds, with his ribs showing. " (earlier patch article)

Adult dogs should not have their ribs showing. Did the 'dog recruiter' hired by the city not do his due diligence and select an animal in healthy condition?

@ Paul D. King was in top condition and excellent physical shape. The condition leading to his death was simply bad luck.
DMorey DVM DACVECC
Attending Veterinarian to King on Friday Night.

@deb morey DVM, what was "the condition leading to his death"? It must have a medical name other than "bad luck". The vagueness and secrecy are very odd. It sounds like internal bleeding from eating a sharp bone, but the PD says it wasn't anything that he ate. What was it? We should know, before the PD is authorized to get another dog.

King did a great deal in his short tenure as an El Cerrito police officer. We're sorry for his loss. Condolences to ECPD and to all of the folks who loved him. He will never be forgotten.

Smiley, Emmett and Furby Coakley (and their two humans.)

The diagnosis was mesenteric root torsion. I know the PD would not mind me revealing this, but I did not ask their permission. Google it for more info. Press releases are often limited in medical jargon/ lingo. I am very supportive of the PD getting another dog. I intend to donate to that goal.
Deb Morey
DVM DACVECC

Mesenteric volvulus is a synonym, for those interested in learning more. It is indeed, very bad luck.

Deb Morey

Personally I am confident in the decision of Kings human partner that the right decision was made...with this medical condition there is really no choice and one would not want the dog to suffer...medical conditions like that come up and it is pretty much out of your control...and even if it had been a bone..things happen
I have no doubt that the veterinarians did all they could do and I really hope the ECPD will try again and get a new canine member...
Growing up in Germany I remember fondly the many German Sheperd Dogs that were part of our local police

This GSD may have died of mesenteric root torsion but that is just a fancy word for a form of Dog Bloat, a condition that is almost entirely preventable. To say that this dog's death was just "bad luck" is disengenious to say the least. Police departments are famous for acquiring fancy GSD K-9's and then putting them into the hands of awful police handlers.

If you want an example of how suburban PD's get in over their heads by trying to maintain a K-9 patrol just look to the Alameda Police Department which managed to kill both of it's GSD's within a matter of two years. One was left locked in a car on a warm day for over three hours, and the other was shot after by the handler after it attacked another officer while trying to sniff out a burglary suspect. Both incidents could be blamed upon improper dog handling. I suspect that El Cerrito's K-9 death could be attributed to much of the same cause. These dogs are trained to bite and kill, a hardwire response in a domesticated animal. They are not easy to handle and most casual police departments do a horrible job.

Bloat is caused by a poor feeding regimine and treatment of the dog. I blame this incident entirely on the K-9's handler.

Bloat is thoght to be caused by:
•Once-daily feeding
•Rapid eating
•Exercise after eating
•Consuming large quantities of food and/or water
•Fearful temperament
•Being underweight
•Eating from a raised feeding bowl
•Stress

I live with a breed that is also associated with GTV (gastric torsion with volvulus) and read the abstracts and conclusions of any study I can get my hands on. Sometimes you can do *everything* right, and the dog will still suffer GTV due to its physical anatomy: deep chest, long axis from esophagus to gut. Once the stomach twists and the digestive gases are trapped inside the stomach/intestines with no way of escape, tissue death begins.

Who would want to have an animal suffer creeping tissue toxicity and agonizing death from such a cause if the suffering could be prevented? I'm sure that Dr. Morey, Ofcr. del Prado, and everyone else did the best they could.

I saw King riding around my neighborhood a few times, watching happily and alertly from the back seat of the K-9 unit squad car. It's tragic that he died so young, but to accuse those involved of doing "a horrible job" is, to my mind, unconscionable so soon after his death.

I remember one experience working as a tech in a vet hospital. A Shar Pei died from bloat that was a result of the surgery itself, not as a result of the primary malady.

The vet said it had been a mistake to just place the dog in a cage after the surgery without stricter monitoring until the dog came out of the anesthesia. It was a major, tragic screw-up on our part.

I hope that wasn't the case here.

Apparently some posters seem to have intimate knowledge of King's care and living conditions to be able to expound on how preventable bloat is? Or perhaps this is some one doing an online diagnosis, who obviously doesn't work in the medical/veterinary field. I have since '85. I have known a number of dogs that have suffered bloat/torsion. Some survived, the majority did not. I have even known a cocker spaniel (who didn't fit the "standard" profile of bloat/torsion). So to make such a blanket statement is beyond asinine. It does not take long for circulation to be cut off and organs to begin to become necrotic, add in that many animals are in shock and you have a recipe for disaster. I guess had King, suffered an unusual form of cancer, (and there are cancers that affect young animals, just like people) in these poster's opinion it would have also been the handler's fault? It always amazes me how vicious people can be, I'll stick with animals thank you!

Can you imagine if people were posting this kind of thing in response to the death of a child? Wow. Many people are mourning this animal, and several people here are being thoughtless at best, and mean and judgmental at worst. The article I read said nothing about Dog Bloat, but something else genetic called EPI and causes completely unrelated to treatment. But who cares, really - show some heart, folks.

Sitkabear, I don't know which veterinary college you graduated from. But King was not a "20k piece of equipment" as you state. Show some respect to the deceased and family.

The Cop handler poorly fed his $20k dog. The ECPD doesn't know jack about running a K-9 program. The K-9 "partner" died of Bloat as a result.

This was fully preventable. El Cerrito should seriously review their K-9 program. Is it really that needed? And are they fully capable of managing such a program?

Considering I have assisted in emergency surgeries on bloat dogs, and been in charge or their care during recovery, Yes, I do have knowledge on how bloat/torsion can develop. I also am familiar with many different causes that can make some canines predisposed to it.

This has devolved into one the saddest, most unpleasant threads I've read on Patch, hostile, blaming, nasty. No longer reading.

What kind of local paper is this if you can't even stomach questions about the sudden death of a dog purchased by your local police department?

I suggest you folks take a good hard look at your local police departement's K-9 unit.

Or just continue to stomach the cruel treatment of animals.

I'd also like to add:
1) I own a German Shepherd Dog and know how to handle the breed;
2) I live in Alameda;
3) The Alameda Police Department recently shut down it's K-9 program after two of its dog's were killed by poor handling. The first K-9 police dog was left in a car for over 3 hours during a warm day and died shortly after being discovered in distress. The second K-9 police dog was shot to death by its own handler after it locked onto another officer during a routine burglary arrest;
4) GSD's are great police public relations impliments, but the highly trained attack dogs are not toys and require great skill and dedication to handle;
5) Most suburban police departments are ill-equipped to maintain a properly trained group of K-9 police dog handlers;
6) Unfortunately, the loss of King is indicative of poor police dog handling because with proper feeding and temperment training the Bloat in the dog (or as the handling vet said "bad luck") would never have occurred.

I'm done educating. Go back to being El Cerrito Patch, however I do hope I gave some people pause for thought.

The Veterinarian concluded it was Mesenteric Root Torsion which is not the same as Dog Bloat

Astrid, you are correct. It is NOT the same as gastric bloat, there are some similarities, but again not the same. I am always interested in learning as much as possible about the conditions affecting animals, so that I can provide our client's pets with the best possible nursing care that I can. As for Sitkabear, that IS my name, I choose not to hide behind nicknames. As far as an explanation on dealing with bloat, I don't owe that, not being a vicious, mean spirited troll I choose not to bicker in a petty manner, especially about such a sad and tragic death. My heart goes out to King's handler and family, the ECPD, and the attending veterinarian.

As far as I know MRT and bloat have similarities but are really not the same...MRT can occur especially in dogs with physical characteristics as the german sheperd...and there is not much you can do