Bile In The Morning

[Guest montyb]

Hi everyone,

 

First post here, but we've had our Monty for about 10 months now, and he's been the best dog anyone could ask for!

 

But for the last 2 months or so, he's been having a very grumbly tummy some mornings (this doesn't happen every day, maybe once a week) and throws up some yellow bile around 6-7am before I get up (I get up and feed him at 7:30 am). Occasionally there is a small amount of yellow stomach mucus. When this happens, he refuses to eat or drink, which is very odd because this boy loves his food! I have been giving him a famotidine pill, and he is generally ready to eat a bit later around 10-11am. To try and counteract this he's been getting 1/2 of his daily food (a total of 3.75cups) just before bed around 10pm, in addition to the milkbone he has always gotten. Before anyone asks, I took a sample in earlier this month and there are no signs of parasites (his previous 3 fecals have been negative, though I know sometimes that means very little!)

 

He's been on Acana Ranchlands for about 3-4 months, which has been great otherwise (lots of energy, healthy coat, ok poos), but I am wondering if maybe because it doesn't have as many "fillers" its just going through his system too fast? He was on Iams minichunks before we made the switch to Acana, and he didn't do this as often (maybe once a month), but his poos were very bad.

 

If it has anything to do with anything, sometimes when I let him outside after a throw-up he immediately has a poop. Like he really had to go. Could that be upsetting his tummy? His last out is around 10-10:30pm. Other mornings he just goes out and has a pee first thing, no poop until our walk later.

 

Maybe I just need to stay up a bit later so he gets his bedtime snack later? Any ideas? Thanks for any suggestions!

Hmm, ironically there was a post about this sort of problem just a few down the list. That will teach me not to read!

 

Anyway, if anyone has any other insights please let me know

oh its not 1/2 his food before bed! Just 1/2 a cup!

[JohnF]

I don't think you're doing anything wrong and Acana has an excellent reputation. Perhaps it is a little too rich to make up his entire diet.

My Peggy has similar issues and needs to have 1 Ranitidine tablet around 6pm to get her through the night without waking up with acid reflux about 7.

What I feed her is a mid-range kibble 'Barking Heads - Golden Years' which makes up 2/3rds of her diet and then she gets this topped with a 1/4 tray x2D of Forthglade Beef (wet real 100% beef and no additives) and mixed with Canagan 'Country Game' which is like your Acana and has Rabbit, Venison and Trout in it. I give a little of this as a last thing at night treat too.

[XTRAWLD]

Ryder throws up bile every morning like clockwork - he's my alarm system UNTIL I started giving him bedtime cookies regularly.

 

Basically, he just needs a little extra in his tummy overnight to get him to the morning hours and brekkie time. Problem resolved.

[DonnaBehr]

I had one boy who threw up bile if he had to go out to make and he was holding it in. Had nothing to do with him being hungry.

[Guest montyb]

Thanks for the replies!

 

Since he is getting a fairly significant snack before bed, I don't really think its that he's too hungry. If it is that he just has to go for a poop badly, I'm not sure how to deal with it as this seems to crop up randomly and does fine most nights with his usual outings. Just a quirk I suppose?

[greysmom]

It's not a matter of him being "too hungry." It's that his stomach empties out overnight and stomach acid builds up with nothing to work on, making him nauseous and barfy by early morning. You can address this in two ways - giving him a significant snack later at night before bed, and/or by including an acid reducer (generic pepcid usually) 20 minutes before this feeding. You can also try the acid reducer alone before bed, but this isn't as successful generally speaking. The large bowel movement in the morning probably has nothing to do with the vomiting issue (unless your dog has some sort of bowel blockage going on).

 

Either hold back 1/4-1/2 his dinner, or use a special snack item - cottage cheese, a couple large milkbones, peanut butter Kong - and give it to him right before bedtime.

 

I agree with John above re-high end foods: Many dogs just can't handle commercial foods with too high of a protein percentage. Anything above @22% protein, unless your dog is particularly active or doing a performance sport daily, is too "hot" for them. This is particularly true if you dog has bad gas on a daily basis.

[cleptogrey]

i have a good friend whose male was vomiting bile a couple of times a day- he's a big boy- 80# and nothing was holding him for more than 5 hrs. he's on 3 different acid reducers( what can I say, he's not my dog) after a good year of trying every combination in the world.

 

how about splitting up your dogs food into 3 meals a day, and give him his last meal late as suggested. also, some oatmeal, yams, or rice to help hold him over- kibble and yams are a big hit in my house. the cold oatmeal and rice just needs to be mashed w/ a potato masher after hot water is added to the mixture. they seem to love that and oatmeal cooks up in 15 min. i make 8 cups at a time and always add extra water to the recipe.

 

i also agree w/ the individuals who go for a lower protein food- 22-24% is more than enough. as always count calories and figure out exactly how much you are serving. the carbs mentioned above will add some weight, so be careful.

Edited February 24, 2016 by cleptogrey

[XTRAWLD]

It's not a matter of him being "too hungry." It's that his stomach empties out overnight and stomach acid builds up with nothing to work on, making him nauseous and barfy by early morning.

Agreed. It's got nothing to do with hungry. It's excess stomach acid. The extra acid has nothing else to digest, therefore it comes up because there is too much and there is nowhere else for it to go but out.

[Guest normaandburrell]

Our Iceman did the same thing. He just needed half of his daily intake in the morning and half in the evening, about twelve hours apart. I needed to not give in to his begging to be fed early in the evening. It is called "empty stomach syndrome" and some greys are prone to it.

[Guest montyb]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've split his evening meal in half to increase his before bed snack from 1/2cup to about 1cup. Worked well last night (one data point wooo), I'll see if the good trend continues.