[Stomach noise and dry gulp]

On 7/2/2021 at 9:27 AM, greysmom said:

The sound you're hearing is more than likely because he has nothing on his stomach - like hunger growls in people.  Most dogs with sensitive stomachs do much better on a strict eating schedule, eating the same thing with few outside treats.  They also do better when there is something on their stomach, never letting it get really empty.  If he's vomiting yellow bile in the mornings it's likely because he has excess stomach acid that can be helped by giving him an acid reducer (omeprazole or generic) once a day.

Lots of info not provided in your post though:  What has he been in the hospital for so many times?  The same thing or each a different emergency?  Have you been seen by a canine gastroenterologist or internal medicine specialist for a consult or treatment (not just as an ER doc)?  How old is your dog and when did he begin having issues?  What kind of food is he being fed?  Have you done a food trial to try and discover if he has a food allergy or intolerance?

Cook him up a nice bland diet - overcooked rice or pasta plus a low fat protein (turkey, chicken, white fish) - and see if he will eat anything.  Start with a very small portion - a 1/4 cup of each - and see how he reacts.  If he keeps that down for an hour or so feed the same again, and follow that schedule for the rest of the day, gradually increasing the amounts.  You can ususally begin adding in his regular diet on the 2nd day.  If he vomits or has diarrhea, he needs to go to the vet for some meds to settle and protect his stomach.

Thank you for all the suggestions! 

We fed him some bland food (rice+boiled chicken) and that solved his stomach gurgling issue so you were absolutely right he was hungry.

We fees him dry kibble with some treats throughout the day. He is 3 yo, and probably has pica. The hospital visits were all caused by eating random things (small plastic parts, mushroom, human food not suitable for dogs). We asked our vet if he has some parasites issue that would cause this behavior and she thought this was just behavioral. 

His gulping has gotten better after coming back from vet (who just did a quick exam which did not reveal any issue) but not completely gone aways so I do think we still need to work on it.

 

[Stomach noise and dry gulp]

15 minutes ago, macoduck said:

How often do you feed him? Twice a day? How long before bedtime is he fed? 

A simple solution may be to give him a few cookies at bedtime.

3 times a day, one at 7am, a small snack at noon, one at 8pm, a cookie at 9:30pm. That's why I'm surprised when I saw his only threw up white foam.... I thought I'd see some cookies residual.

 

[Stomach noise and dry gulp]

Hi friends, I wanted to ask this before heading to our vet appointment to see if anyone has similar experience. We have a very food driven retired racer who eats anything if you let him. Today before our usual get up time, he vomited some white foam. After that, he started to do his "puking gulp" without throwing up anything (probably because there is nothing to throw up) every 5-10 minutes. His "puking gulp" is what he does everytime he is about to vomit. It's a lip smacking + gulping thing as if he is trying to swallow something. We haven't fed him since (16 hours past since dinner) and his gulping seems to subside now he is on the bed , but his stomach has been making the loud watery gurgling sound constantly. The sound is similar to the sound I make when drinking cold water too fast, but louder.

What is this? Poor guy has been to hospital 5 times in the past 6 years and 4 times out of 5 was due to GI issue. I feel like a terrible dog parent seeing him so miserable

Any insight is appreciated!

[Am I Doing Everything Wrong?]

I'm a new greyhound parent too (3 months in) but I wanted to share my experience so far and hopefully it may offer you some comfort.

Our adoption group described our dog as "confident and independent". But when he came to our home, he was extremely velcro and would bark and cry nonstop if I walk out of his sight for more than 2 seconds (tried to do some SA training). We gave up after a few attempts because it was pretty obvious he was stressed out. At about 4 weeks in, one day he miracally stopped following us around or cry when we go out of his sight. Now sometimes he would just stay on his bed in the living room while we are on the second floor working. Now I can see a bit of his confident and independent self.

My humble opinion is that your dog is still really stressed out with the constant change of environment, therefore the barking and separation anxiety. These behaviors are fear based so with time, training (which builds up his confidence and self control) and your love and patience, he will settle in and you will have a different dog.

A side note: dear husband also grew up with dogs. During our first two months he was also going through a lot of stress. our dog also snapped at him once when he manhandled the dog. DH was so upset at one point he was considering returning the dog as well. On the contrary I did not grow up with dog so our dog's "onboarding" was way easier on my simply because I did not have any expectations.

 

[Newly adopted hound eats everything (Is this pica?)]

1 hour ago, GreytNanaimo said:

Hello!

I adopted my grey (also a large male) just over a year ago when he was 2 years old and had the same troubles, he would just eat anything he could (including trash, an entire corn husk, a remote, etc.) so much so that he ended up needing surgery! He was (and still does to a much smaller extent) resource guard so I understand the struggle of feeling powerless. I initially started by putting his muzzle on him every time we went outside no matter how long we were going to be out for, but this only kept him from getting large pieces of "contraband". On top of his obsession with eating just about anything he was also gobbling up his food as fast as he could and guarding it from anyone who may "take it away". Additionally, similar to as you say, he was getting sick with a poorly stomach at least once a week in which he was absolutely miserable. I'm not sure if your grey is having issues to this extent, but leading up to his stomach surgery it was many-a trips to the vet for anti-nausea, dehydration, etc. Thant being said here is what I did which helped him! (bear with me its a rollercoaster)

1. I immediately made him wear his muzzle every time he went outside (as you mentioned you do this); however, I took it a step further by only letting him outside while on a short leash (4-5ft.) so that he would be close to me and I could easily redirect him from contraband. (this was a short term solution)

2. I also went ahead and dog proofed the section of house he was allowed to roam freely in (to limit him from getting into anything).

3. I split his total food intake (4 cups of food) into 4 separate meal times of one cup each to see if it could keep him "fuller for longer", it wasn't super helpful for me, but it is something simple to try.

4. Next I started to talk to my vet (who specialized in greyhounds) about potential intestinal parasites. We initially tested for the typical hook worm (and derivates) that tend to ail retired racers; however, he tested negative, but just to be sure we went through a round of deworming. Not super helpful, but it was a good starting point because my vet noticed that his microbiome was not in great shape.

5. After not seeing much progress, I took him back for a detailed blood work test (more expensive but IT WAS WORTH IT). The detailed blood work revealed that he had cryptosporidium a relatively rare parasite that is virtually undetectable and is commonly found in cattle which disrupts the whole digestive tract. After a week long treatment with medicine (it was not a fun week) he bounced back. Not only was he no longer eating every little thing he could find, but his resource guarding had improved tremendously as well.

6. As I have continued working with him, I have found that adding little things to his food (i.e. kefir, bone broth, sardines, fish stock, goats milk, etc.) helps keep him more interested in his food as opposed to the less appealing contraband ( training him with a little reward for eating what he should). It also helped regulate his stomach which has become pretty sensitive following surgery and a parasite clean out.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas on where to start. I hope it is helpful and keep up the greyt work! (if you have any questions let me know!)

Wow! I'm so glad I asked here. Thank you so much for sharing this! Ours has not eaten a remote yet but I fear we are indeed progressing to that point.

I definitely will take him to vet for a thorough blood work.

Also I'm so glad your hound got so much better after the treatment. He is a lucky boy :)

[Newly adopted hound eats everything (Is this pica?)]

21 hours ago, 1Moregrey said:

Do you have a stool guard on the muzzle?  It will keep him from being able to pickup things with his muzzle on but still and drink. 
Might be worth a try while you figure out what is going on.

Thank you for the suggestion! I was trying to avoid the poop guard because he doesn't seem to like breathing with the poop guard but I guess you are right I should insert it back.

[Newly adopted hound eats everything (Is this pica?)]

We adopted our boy about 3 months ago and he’s been pretty easygoing and sweet. However in the past month he started eating random things. So far he had chewed/swallowed small plastic parts, ketchup packets, whole banana peels, pebbles/acorns/who-knows-what in our yard. We have been more careful with leaving things on places he can reach now, but it’s almost impossible to pick up all the inedible things in the yard, let alone on any given day birds or raccoons or cats can drop new things off. 

We’ve also started to put his muzzle on him when he goes to the yard, but today he managed to eat a small pebble even with muzzle on. He also has resource guarding and would growl and snap or bite if we try to take take things away from him. We feel extremely awful because he might get sick from eating inedible things, and in fact once he vomited after gobbling up a ketchup packet from our dining table (poor guy).  We start to feel like we are two really crappy dog parents.

Is this pica? Does anyone have experience dealing with this or have any advice?  We haven’t taken him to see a vet yet because this is pretty recent but at this point it looks like a visit is unavoidable. Thank you everyone in advance! 

Some additional info: he is a 75lbs two and half year old. We feed him 4 cups of kibble with obedience training and treats throughout the day. He regularly freezes on the walk so although we try to walk him 30 minutes to an hour per day, he may or may not get that amount depending on whether he freezes. We live in a relatively big house with a medium sized yard.