Unfortunately Saint Bernards do come with certain health issues, they are mainly

Hip Dysplasia
Elbow Dysplasia
Bloat/GDV (Gastric Dilatation Volvulus)
Entropion
Ectropion
DCM (Dilated Cardio Myopathy)
Epilepsy
Osteosarcoma

There are many websites on the internet that cover these problems in more depth, please make sure if you are thinking of owning a Saint Bernard, that you read up on what you may be taking on.

We do have experience of a few of these problems with our dear Monty.

I will share our experiences, in the hope it may help someone who maybe experiencing a problem.

Entropion

When Monty was about 3 years old he kept having discharge from both of his eyes, it was normally a green coloured discharge, worse in the mornings, we tried many ointments, creams and drops for his eyes, but nothing seemed to work.  We saw lots of different vets who said it definitely wasn't entropion, on the last one we saw he said the opposite it definitely was entropion in both eyes.

As he kept suffering with it, we decided to go for the operation to fix it, unfortunately the operation didn't work, if anything it made his eyes worse.  We then had to see an eye specialist who told us that the operation had now made his eye conformation worse, our poor boy then had to have another eye op to correct what had already been done.  He was pretty sure that it was his tear ducts that were the problem, and they just needed to be flushed.

We were very disheartened that we had put him through the two operations, and it could have been a quick tear duct flush that could have fixed his problem.

After all that had happened, we would be very reluctant to put any more dogs that we have through any eye operations unless it was absolutely necessary.

Bloat/GDV (Gastric Dilatation Volvulus)

We were very conscious of this issue with Saint Bernards, and is always your worst nightmare.  We always wondered whether you would notice it happening, but in our experience as long as you are with your dog, there is no way on earth you could miss it.

Monty's GDV occured on a Sunday, we had been out with both boys at a show for most of the day, we were home and the boys had been rested for a good two hours before feeding them (as we always do).  About an hour after we fed him, Monty started heaving like he was going to be sick, as we had just served our dinner I made him go outside, I kept watch of him, and noticed he was bringing up white froth, I brought him into the house as I wanted to check his tummy for bloating, OMG he was like a massive drum, suffice to say bobby got put in his crate, we rushed him to the van and drove like a maniac to our veterinary hospital, it is best to contact your vet to tell them you are on your way, so they can prepare for your arrival.

After an x-ray it was found that his stomach had not just bloated but twisted aswell, they try to put a tube down to release the air but couldn't as the stomach had twisted so the tube couldn't be passed.  He was rushed into theatre, to open him up and untwist and also to staple the stomach to the abdominal wall, in the hope he wouldn't bloat again.

Ben Johnson the vet said there was minimal damage done, and said it was because we had noticed it so quickly and rushed him to the vets so quickly.  Thank you Ben for saving his life.

He was home the next day and recovered so fast, he was back to normal in a matter of days.

Osteosarcoma

By now you must be thinking, poor old Mo had his fair share of problems, well sadly there was more.  He also had been diagnosed with cervical disc disease, so he had been rested for a couple of months, well towards the end of his house rest, he had started limping on one of his front legs, we had also noticed a lump on his left fore leg, near his wrist/carpus joint, because he had only had an MRI on his neck recently, which means a very long general anaesthetic we were reluctant to have him put out to x-ray his leg, so we even more strictly rested him, and had him checked by our vet every week to keep an eye on it.

When we had some snow in February 2009, I wanted to take them over the road to our village green to have a sniff about, Monty tripped over a couple of times on the short walk back, and thought that was it, we had to have him x-rayed.

It was  on a Wednesday the 11th of February when we found out the news it was very likely he had bone cancer (osteosarcoma), we both just fell apart at the news, he had to have a bone biopsy to confirm it.  He was such a brave boy and never cried once.

Once we had found out for sure that's what it was, our vet Sarah Warren contacted an oncologist to go through the options, no treatment, bisphosphonates (a type of cancer drug that strengthens bone and inhibits cancer cells) or a limb sparing operation (they take out the cancer riddled bone and replace it with a metal plate or donated bone). 

We decided we wanted to do something so went down the bisphosphonate route, it is a major worry with bone cancer that the bone can fracture as it is weakened due to the cancer so that's mainly why we went for it, it is not invasive at all, it is an injection given through a drip over 20 mins or so, we went to see Tom Cave at Cave Referrals who was brilliant.  Monty suffered no ill effects at all, but sadly he only had one treatment before he started to suffer with seizures, it was not fair on our boy to watch him go through that, so we did the kindest thing we could and sent him onto Rainbow Bridge.

The vet is sure that the cancer had spread to his brain, as it is a highly metastic cancer.  Sadly we only had him just over a month from diagnosis.

We hope that nobody had to suffer with the things that our boy had to deal with, the only thing we would say is please please make sure you have insurance, luckily each time he was poorly we never had to worry about the money aspect, in his very short life, Monty probably amounted to about £10,000!!!!