My dog vomits once a day. Help!

[mason204]

Hi everyone:

We adopted a bichon frise, 2 months ago from the Humane Society. All was well for the first two weeks then my dog started to vomit at least once a day. At first we thought it was because he would raid our garbage cans even though we thought we'd doggie proofed them. We finally found a way to keep him out but the vomiting continues.

We're at the vet almost twice a week. He's had bloodwork done and a full exam. The vet says he's slightly anemic but other than this his bloodwork is fine. He had gall stones removed before we adopted him and our vet has done a urinalysis and tests of his stool and says that both test normal. We've changed his food and put him on gastro soft food that we've bought at the vet. It seems to help but he still vomits first thing every morning before he's eaten. After that, he's fine for the rest of the day.

He's not lethargic or sick looking. He has a ton of energy for a dog his age (he's 9). We have noticed that he seems to have a lot of "gas". His stomach "gurgles" and he passes smelly gas. Especially at night. He doesn't get any treats or people food (poor guy), and is on a strict diet.

The vet said the only alternative left is x-rays. We've already spent about $800 on this dog in the last month and have no more funds left for x-rays. When we got him from the humane society two months ago, they did do x-rays at the time and they were fine.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could try to stop the vomiting? Perhaps this scenario sounds familiar. I'm at the end of my rope and I just want the dog to be well.

Help, please.

Cheryl.

[badger]

When do you feed him in the morning? Maybe if you give him a healthy snack at bedtime and feed him a bit earlier, this would stop. I think someone posted about this before and it's basically because their tummy gets too empty and the acids build up, leading to vomiting. Worth a try.
If it turns out to be that simple, at least you know he's 100% healthy.
Thanks for adopting an older dog.

[Tommysmom]

Hi, my name is Tommysmom and I have a throwy-upy doggy too.

Seriously, we've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on tests for our doggy and everything keeps coming out fine. He's healthy, he just throws up, and nobody knows why. It's always in the mornings or, if he sleeps in late, shortly after he gets up. Once he's thrown up, he's fine and will usually just go and eat! Here are a few things we have done that have taken it from throwing up every day to every week to now just once every month or so:

1 - rule out food allergies. We put him on a food that was one protein source, one carb source that he had never had before to ensure it wasn't an allergy. Vet food didn't help, it often contains crappy ingredients and common allergens. Looking at all the foods he'd had and ingredients they had in common helped us determine that he does have a few allergies, although removing the allergens hasn't stopped the vomit - it's a separate issue for us.

2 - we started giving him digestive enzymes and acidophilus that we sprinkle on his food to help his digestive tract and help him make the most out of the food he eats... these helped out HUGE.

3 - we encourage him to eat (even if it's just cookies) before bed, empty tummies lead to increased tummy acid which leads to morning vomit. His food is left out all day too, so he nibbles a bit whenever he's hungry... going too long in between meals can lead to tummy gurgles in small dogs.

4 - we have him on an antacid twice a day to cut down on the gurglies and acid. Check with your vet, we have our pup on pepcid ac but you need to be sure of the dosage. There's a stronger one you can get by prescription too. We found that an hour or so after his dose he really wants to eat, so we time the doses to ensure it will make him eat before bed!

5 - yogurt helps the tummy feel better for us too, plain probiotic yogurt. Tommy LOVES the yogurt, but I have to put a smear on his nose every time to get him to taste it and then he'll eat it straight from the spoon. For some reason the initial smell makes him run away if I don't do that - my dog is strange, LOL. The yogurt made an almost immediate change and cut out the smelly gas and gurglies.

Just a small caution - PLEASE keep in touch with the vet. Our original vet didn't see a problem so he didn't believe me when I said he vomited EVERY DAY... just kept telling me he was fine. I missed the signs of dehydration and my pup ended up in a very expensive emergency vet with serious dehydration and pneumonia along with a slightly burnt esophagus. There's a liquid that the vet can give you to help prevent any burning and damage caused by frequent vomiting - I can't remember the name, but it's probably in one of my gazillion posts about my pukey puppy! Our new vet is wonderful and I call him when the vomiting gets a bit too frequent, he checks him over to ensure we're not missing anything else.

Good luck... I hope some of this might help your pup!

**oooo, forgot to mention... if you have carpets, those bright yellow stains can be a real b**ch to try and get out. Petzyme pet stain remover is fantastic for that, takes them all out completely! (No matter how hard I try, I simply cannot ever get the paper towel under Tommy's mouth quickly enough to catch it, lol).

[mason204]

Thank you so much for your comments.

Hmmmm..a lot to think about.

You know, I suspect he's a dog that's come from a home where he enjoyed eating "people food" all day long. He was always "mooching" in the beginning and now constantly looks for food to eat. This was even after feeding him 3 square meals a day with some kibble in between. I'm sure his tummy wasn't used to the drastic change. He was somewhat overweight when we first adopted him.

I've been buying some really good quality hard food (at the suggestion of friends) and he seems to be "keeping it down" although he does have the gas. For a while he was regurgitating his food about 20 minutes after each meal so it is an improvement.

I have acidophilus capsules in my fridge (for myself) but wonder how much I should "sprinkle" on his food daily??? I'm lactose intolerant and don't have yogurt but I'd be happy to buy some.

You know, when I mentioned the gas to my vet earlier this week, he did suggest antacids. I was a bit "wary" at first. After reading your posts, I think I'll pick them up tomorrow.

No carpets here, thank goodness. I had a cat who became incontinent near the end of his life (he was 21) and he pretty much destroyed my carpeting. Haven't replaced it since then.

Thanks again!

Cheryl.

[Tommysmom]

I use one capsule of acidophilus for each 1/2 - 1 cup of food. Isn't it great that you can share your meds with your pet? LOL. I use the same acidophilus as my pup, and we share the pepcid ac, and when he gets his shots he gets to share my benadryl.

From what my vet said, it seems there is very little harm that the antacids can do - they'll either help, or they'll do nothing. That's why we gave them a try, and I'm really glad we did.

Hopefully your new pup will get some relief.

[coppperbelle]

Is he throwing up bile? If so, then it is probably because he is hungry. Try, as suggested, giving him a snack just before he goes to bed for the night and feed him right away in the morning.

[bethaliz]

My Aunt's dog Biscut used to do that. He still does every now and again. We changed his food whiched helped a great deal. Although the biggest help was when we started feeding once in the morning and once at dinner time as well as a biscut right before bed. This way his tummy doesn't get as empty. Now he only throws up when he eats poop, or chicken.

I hope your able to figure it out, I know it can be difficult.

[TitoandBaxter]

I had the same problem with both of my dachshunds. I kept eliminating treats and getting stricter and stricter with their portions and food but nothing helped. And just like your dog, mine were throwing up before they ate in the morning.

We also went to the vet, who checked them out and told me that it was caused from food staying in their stomach too long, which stretches out the stomach. Then when they get up in the morning they have an empty, yucky feeling in their stomach which makes them throw up. He gave them shots (I honestly don't know what he gave them) and told me they probably have to continue to get shots periodically. I was very discouraged.

Shortly after that I found out about the BARF diet and almost as soon as I got them started on that, the problem disappeared. They were also both overweight, and the raw diet helped them lose a couple of pounds each.

[mason204]

An update....

I gave my doggie some acidophilus with his evening meal last night. Although my intentions were good, I fell asleep around 8:30 p.m. and didn't give him a bedtime snack. I'm going through cancer treatment right now and sometimes I just nod off. Mind you, I did leave him some kibble after dinner before I fell asleep.

Anyway, my hubby took him out this morning and, guess what? NO VOMITING for the first time in weeks. I gave him some more acidophilus with his breakfast today and his stomach isn't gurgling as it usually does.

Could it have worked this quickly??

Tomorrow will tell if there's any improvement...I'm just happy that he's had a day without vomiting. Every day he's able to keep his belly happy is a good day.

Thanks again, everyone!

Cheryl.

[Tommysmom]

I started the acidophilus on the same day I started the digestive enzymes so I'm not sure which one did the trick, but one of them DID work that fast. We literally went from pukey every day to pukey every other or every couple of days, then gradually it went a week, then it went down to every few weeks. The day I started acidophilus and enzymes was the first non-pukey day we'd had for months.

It's a cycle, too... gurgly bellies leads to not as much eating because they don't feel so good, then empty bellies lead to more gurgling because acid builds up, etc etc etc. Sometimes you just need to interrupt the cycle to get them back into a good routine.

Hopefully, it will continue to get better and better for you guys... glad to hear you've had a happy belly day. We'll keep all our fingers and paws crossed that it continues for you!

[kommamus]

This thread has been really helpful to me.. My little dog vomits almost every morning, and often later during the day as well. He has done this every since I got him from the shelter when he was 7 months old.. But the frequency is increasing - in the beginning it was more like once a week.. The morning vomit is just yellow and foamy, and later during the day its full of food.. I have tried giving him a snack in the evening just before bed, and also a snack just when waking up.. but it doesn't help.. So now I'll try buying the acidophilus and some digestive enzymes.. I already have the enzymes for myself, but the probiotica that I take is a blend of many strains.. does it have to be pure acidophilus? And I'll ask the vet for some antacid.. I have already seen her about the vomiting, and she gave me some medicine to rule out an infection of the stomach.. but she never mentioned that it might "just" be too much stomach acid.. I really hope this helps.. He a lively and happy dog and I just hate that he has soo much trouble with his little stomach..

[serenamlambe]

My dog, Connor, is a small mixed breed and he used to vomit bile every day in the morning around 5:00 or 6:00 AM when he was a puppy. I took him to the vet and they gave him an antacid medication and something to help protect the lining of the stomach. He took those two medications for approximately two weeks and, after that, he pretty much stopped vomiting the bile. He still vomits bile occasionally, but never in the mornings anymore. Our vet just thought he had an irritation in his stomach of some sort which was causing more acid production and turns out that she was right! Hope this info helps.

[Rgeurts]

My older boy vomited daily, every morning like clockwork. He would also get occassional bouts of diarrhea with blood/mucous (once every few months). We took him to several vets who all said the same thing, they couldn't find anything wrong and he must just have a sensitive tummy. I was picking up food from a vet close to work 3 yrs ago because our regular clinic was closed by the time I get off, then get home (hour commute). The vet there asked me why I was buying that particular food and asked what symptoms he was having. I told him about the daily bile and he said "in the monring, right?". Then I told him the other symptoms and he said my boy had Colitis! Finally... a diagnosis and I didn't even have to pay for tests or an office visit lol. Turns out he was right! I did some research and found a lot of the symptoms were definitely that of Colitis. So we started giving him a probiotic, daily yogurt and a snack before bed and voila... no more symptoms! Hopefully yours will be as easy a problem to fix as ours was. Thorin (and us!) lived with it for almost 9 yrs before we got the diagnosis for him.

We also have a 22 month old with the similar issues. He regurgitates and wretches/throws up on a regular basis, so I'm sure he has Colitis too, but he also has ALOT of issues, so with him... who knows. We're sure a lot of his are food allergy/sensitivity related as well.

[kommamus]

Thanks for your replies - they are really helpful! Since I started giving my dog (Svend) the probiotica there has been no vomiting.. It might just be a coincidence, but I really hope that they are helping.. If it comes back I'll go to the vet and see about some antacid and the stuff to protect the stomach lining!
Happy New Year btw

[MaxaLisa]

I'm a big believer in probiotics, glad they are helping