Routine Vomiting

[Guest shanozdog]

My 4 year old girl Rocca has been vomiting intermittently for a while, about a week or so. She will vomit once, then days go by and she does not vomit at all. She does not act sick, eats with gusto but noticed she is eating grass. We switched to Kirkland Lamb and Rice about 3 weeks ago and she has nice solid poop. She just threw up on the glass coffee table - no warning at all and it was bile and kibble. I am thinking it is the food, the yard guys may be spraying something in the yard (scary-going to call them) or do greyhounds get reflux? I think we need a vet trip. What to you think?

[Guest Energy11]

Yes, a vet trip is in order. The vomiting is NOT normal :-(

 

The grass-eating shows she has an upset stomach. While you are waiting to take her to the vets, you COULD try (1) Pepcid AC/10 or 20 mg/generic is fine, about 35-40 minutes before she eats, to see if that would help.

 

It is hard to tell just WHY she is vomiting, but, if she were mine, I would vet her. Good Luck, and I hope she feels better soon!

[TheFullHouse]

Eating grass will cause them to vomit. You might want to try and stop her. Some greys also get upset stomach's if it's been a while between meals. Try giving her a little treat or snack a couple of hours before dinner. You may find that this stops all together.

[Ragsysmum]

Agree with the above. This throwing up mostly yellow bile often seems to be a sign of 'empty tummy syndrome'. Does it happen at a specific time of day? I've had dogs do this first thing in the mornings on waking up and giving them a handful of their usual kibble or a few small biscuits right at bedtime has always cured it in the past for me.

[greytpups]

Bailey throws up a lot too, mostly in the morning. And she eats a lot of grass. I talked to our vet many times about it and he says she simply eats grass because she is hungry. So when she has vomiting episodes we know it's time to increase her food intake. We usually give her a larger snack at bedtime to hold her over at breakfast.

 

when dogs throw up bile, it's usually not a concern, however, when they throw up food, it can indicate a problem, or it can just be that they ate too fast. It wouldn't hurt to discuss it with your vet thought. If she vomits bile in the morning before breakfast, I suggest giving her something just before bedtime to hold her over and see if that helps.

[lovinggreysslp]

One of my hounds loves to eat grass on our morning walks. He always throws up the grass and some bile when he eats grass so I have to watch him carefully to prevent the grazing. I found that giving him a small biscuit before walking in the morning helps.

[Guest kydie]

I have one I think is 1/2 cow, I have to monitor him, or the vomiting starts, empty stomach can cause it too, try to give a snack at bedtime, see if that helps

[Guest momto5greys]

One of my girls, Rose is a grazer. There is no reason in the world that they need to eat grass. She did that vomitting and she would come in and drink and spit it all back up too. This was intermittant then she got to the point that she was losing weight and quit eating. She spent a week in ICU where they discovered that she has IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). She is currently on 10mg of famotadine (sp?) which is generic pepcid twice a day and a novel protein diet. Her novel protein is duck and she is eating Natual Balance Duck and Potato formula. We went through all this back in 05 and she's still with me today. She just turned 11 in August. I do muzzle her with a stool guard in place because I think she must have the sense of an upset tummy and wants to eat grass and that just make things worse. And she is one that after she eats the grass, she wants to get back in the house as fast as she can to show me what she's been doing!

 

If you do go to the vet, they need to do a biopsy of her gut to find out for sure if she has IBD. Hopefully they can give you some options that will stabalize the issue before it gets to the week's stay in ICU not knowing.

[Guest FordRacingRon]

I have one I think is 1/2 cow, I have to monitor him, or the vomiting starts, empty stomach can cause it too, try to give a snack at bedtime, see if that helps

 

This,,Leia is exactly the same. Eats grass and will puke,,cookie at bedtime and no yellow bile. So no grass and bedtime cookies.

 

BTW,,,,Leia eats the Costco Lamb and Rice,,,no problem with that food.

[Guest shanozdog]

Thanks so much for all the info. Rocca eats at least one cup of food with a little canned for flavor 3x a day. She eats super fast and often eats the other dog's food if not supervised and frequently finishes what the others leave. She is a bit hefty, close to 70# for an average size female. She is the piggyest dog I have ever see and eats anything that hits the floor including fruits and vegetables. She has the last meal of the day within 30 minutes of bed, with a big cookie for dessert. She does not have diarrhea at all and does not seem to be in any discomfort. But I am going bring her to the vet. Don't want to keep worrying.

[Guest shanozdog]

Update. Vet did not see anything wrong with Rocca. He is Greyhound vet and has been very accurate in his assessments. He feels the problem was the food, so I went back to the $$ Pro Plan instead of the reasonable good quality Kirkland. She is fine now. Amazing how this became an issue when I am out of work. In the mean time Rocca bit the Whippet in the lip after he had a seizure because I could not get to the muzzle fast enough. After stitches at the evet the muzzle is now conveniently located. She is very good with the Whippet, but he has Epilepsy and thankfully does not have seizures often. This last one freaked her out. I usually muzzle the greys when he has a seizure, just in case.

[fsugrad]

Toby used to throw up because he wolfs his food down like there is no tomorrow. He's been off the track for almost 2 years now but he still inhales his food.

I used to feed him 2x/day. But then I switched to feeding him his daily allotment of food divided into 3 (smaller) meals per day. He also likes to graze on grass every once in a while.

I think the 3 smaller meals per day helped take care of the vomiting.

Plus he and Robin are absolutely overjoyed to eat, so now they're overjoyed 3 times a day!