Vomiting Bile

[jin]

My seven month old puppy has started retching and vomiting bile. It happens omnce or twice a day, usually in the morning and when he wakes up. His toileting is normal and until this morning his appetite was normal. He's alert and active. He has had no change in diet but this has been happening over the last two weeks. The only significant thing that happened two weeks ago was that he got neutered, and the vet said his wound has healed just fine.

This morning was particularly bad. He threw up a lot of bile and he didn't want to eat anything. He was also quite somber and flat although when I went to take the trash out he came with me happily enough. We went on a slow very short walk and he was fine then too.

I took him to the vet on Sunday and she said it didn't seem like he'd swallowed a foreign body based on feeling his abdomen and because his poo was normal. She also didn't think it was viral because he was alert and interested in food. She suggested I slowly change his diet and she gave me hills science wet food for him for a couple of days and zantac.

Ordinarily he's on royal canin for small breeds with veggies or egg at night and i'd also started to give him bits of raw food-but that was more than two weeks ago. I want to transition him to eagle pack. He is a bit of a fussy water, always has been, but it's not really been a problem, eventually he eats what he's given.

I should also mention that he is fully vaccinated.

Would really like to hear if any of your dogs have experienced similar probs? If this doesn't pass in the next day or so the vet will xray him.

Edited June 9, 2009 by jin

[puggy_puggy]

Ordinarily he's on royal canin for small breeds with veggies or egg at night and i'd also started to give him bits of raw food-but that was more than two weeks ago. I want to transition him to eagle pack. He is a bit of a fussy water, always has been, but it's not really been a problem, eventually he eats what he's given.

I would see it as more important to add bones (chicken necks & lamb bones) to dry food then veggies and eggs.

What veggies are you feeding and are they whole or food processed?

How is the egg fed? Raw? With it's shell? Mixed with the veggies? I would probably suspect that it's the egg that is making him sick if you are feeding him a whole raw one every night.

[jin]

Ordinarily he's on royal canin for small breeds with veggies or egg at night and i'd also started to give him bits of raw food-but that was more than two weeks ago. I want to transition him to eagle pack. He is a bit of a fussy water, always has been, but it's not really been a problem, eventually he eats what he's given.

I would see it as more important to add bones (chicken necks & lamb bones) to dry food then veggies and eggs.

What veggies are you feeding and are they whole or food processed?

How is the egg fed? Raw? With it's shell? Mixed with the veggies? I would probably suspect that it's the egg that is making him sick if you are feeding him a whole raw one every night.

Hey thanks for the quick reply- sorry I should have specified- I cook the egg on a non stick pan with no oil. No shell. I only give it to him occassionally. So you think the issue is diet? I haven't changed his diet in the last two weeks, or for months really. But can these things have latent effect?

[jin]

The veggies I've given are broccoli, peas and carrot. Just washed and cut raw, although one time ages ago I gave him steamed baby carrot.

[puggy_puggy]

Ok maybe not the egg. How are the veggies prepared?

I would try him with just the dry food for a while to see how he goes?

Occasionally the pugs with vomit bile if they have eaten something they can't digest properly.

[Stitch]

It may be that he is a dog that can't take a lot of fat in his diet or that he needs more of a low residue diet.

I have a bitch that was doing the same thing and when I changed her to a low residue diet plus chicken broth she hasn't had a problem since.

I know that every dog is different in the amount of fat etc. they can tolerate in their diet.

I gradually weaned her over to a senior diet, even though she isn't senior, and she is doing very well so far.

I also used to feed Eagle Pack but it was a bit too rich/fatty for my lot.

Edited June 9, 2009 by STITCH

[jin]

Thanks heaps everyone, appreciate the comments. Stitch, what does low residue food mean?

[puggy_puggy]

The veggies I've given are broccoli, peas and carrot. Just washed and cut raw, although one time ages ago I gave him steamed baby carrot.

Are you giving him this to fill him up because they would provide little nutrients served this way?

Do a little reading and you will find that dogs can not break down the cellulose walls of vegetables and fruit so we have to do it for them. Put them through the food processor or juicer and serve as slops. Green leafy vegetables should make up the majority of the vegtables that you feed. Silverbeat, alfalfa, cellary, spinach, pumpkin etc.

STITCH possibly has your solution in the food you are feeding being to high in fat. Dogs that can't tolerate alot of fat will throw up. When I used to feed pigs ears years ago my boy would throw up bile afterwards everytime because pigs ears are full of fat.

[Stitch]

Low residue means little fibre, cellulose and filler in the dogs food.

The body can then utilise the majority of the food so there isn't much faecal residue.

It is a vet line usually, I used the Eukanuba one and it was good however I believe Hills has a good one too.

I should think that it would also aide in putting on weight too as the body could use most of the ingredients.

I would add that I don't feed anything else other than a little chicken stock that I make up myself by boiling chicken legs and taking the meat off the bone. (Toss the bones out of course). It is beneficial to add water/stock to dry food as it doesn't put as much strain on the body to rehydrate the food. That's something told to me by Eukanuba themselves.

Edited June 9, 2009 by STITCH

[CavsRcute]

When does he get fed?

This was happening to a dog of mine and I was advised to give her a biscuit when I put her to bed. It never happened again and it had been going on for about 2 weeks

[Red Fox]

There have been a few threads on this (or similar)

Here's one-

http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...mp;hl=vomitting

I'll do a search and see if I can dig up a few more

[jin]

Wow, thanks so much all of you, I really appreciate it. I've kept a food bowl in the area where he sleeps tonight with a couple of biscuits and a small amount of the food the vet told me to put him on for the next few days. Hope it helps! I'll also put him on a lower fat diet. It sounds like I should drop the Eagle Pack idea in favour of Hills or Eukanuba maybe? Eukanuba is actually what he was on when he came to me, but he didn't seem to like it so I weaned him off it and on to Royal Canin. Anyway, I'll give all this a go, thanks so much!

It's comforting to me that it sounds like the problem should be diet related, because I can fix that. I didn't know if people had experiences of this type of thing leading to a viral infection or anything like that which would be more disconcerting. Although the vet did say that she didn't think it was that.

[t-time]

Couple of things - even though you are cooking the egg, it could still be that. I always feed my dogs egg but I have one dog which can't even tolerate it if it's an ingredient in kibble! Try the egg for brekky instead of at night and see how that goes. You will be able to gauge the reaction to the egg if you just try the cooked egg by itself and see if your puppy vomits.

The other thing is, I personally wouldn't be putting a puppy on a low fat diet - not yet anyway. Puppies need a higher level of fat in their diets (generally speaking) and I think you should try and eliminate other foods before going low-fat in a growing pup. JMHO.

Next thing that occurs to me is that your puppy might actually be hungry! Vomiting bile indicates there is nothing in his/her tummy to throw up! If possible, start feeding puppy smaller meals more frequently even if it's just for a few weeks to try it out. Good idea to leave snacks at night for the pup, some kibble or something so the tummy isn't empty in the morning.

Just some ideas to consider before getting drastic about food allergy and spending a fortune at the vets!

[Gomez the Norfolk]

Wow, thanks so much all of you, I really appreciate it. I've kept a food bowl in the area where he sleeps tonight with a couple of biscuits and a small amount of the food the vet told me to put him on for the next few days. Hope it helps! I'll also put him on a lower fat diet. It sounds like I should drop the Eagle Pack idea in favour of Hills or Eukanuba maybe? Eukanuba is actually what he was on when he came to me, but he didn't seem to like it so I weaned him off it and on to Royal Canin. Anyway, I'll give all this a go, thanks so much!

It's comforting to me that it sounds like the problem should be diet related, because I can fix that. I didn't know if people had experiences of this type of thing leading to a viral infection or anything like that which would be more disconcerting. Although the vet did say that she didn't think it was that.

Don't drop the Eagle Pack idea before you try it, it's one of the best dry foods you guys have got out there - the Eukanuba is jammed with fillers and all the Hills, Science Diets etc are worse - In my opinion, the Royal Canin is not much better - loads of chemicals and cereals and corn that do not need to bein there- have a look through the food forums in here for a lot of information about dry dog foods or look here: http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

Gomez used to have bouts of bile in the mornings until I started giving him a pieces of kibble before bedtime - it resolved itself almost immediately -

[jin]

Great, thanks so much again everyone. Last night Rocky had a little food late at night - a little bit of kibble and some biscuits, and I also left a bowl with a little kibble and biscuits in the area where he sleeps. No vomitting this morning, YAY! Hope this lasts.