# A vomit a day keeps the doctor away



## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

Or, maybe not.

For about a week now, every day Cujo pukes up. Only one in a day. He skipped a day, I think Thursday, but other than that he's been consistent.

No food comes out, it's only yellow slimey crap.
Stool is fine and regular.
Appetite is fine.
No more lethargic than usual. Still excited to run around the yard and chase bugs.

The other day he was a little obsessive about eating grass each time I let him out in the yard. 

I gave him a bunch of chopped up chicken breast (about 0.8lb) last week which he puked up about 15 minutes later totally undigested.

I sat in the garage with him for a few hours watching a movie on the laptop while spying on Tiko the poop eater. I don't think he got into anything there. The only thing that he could have gotten into was a spray thing of roundup, but I don't think he licked at it, and there's not much to lick at anyway.

Those are the only out-of-the-ordinary things he's done in the past few weeks.

Normally I ignore it when my dogs puke up, but once a day, every day... that's kinda weird isn't it??

_FYI: Yasko's scabby things seem to have disappeared with a good shampooing (different brand to before) and a thorough raking + furminating. Canned pineapple in the food seems to have helped with the poopface Tiko, but he doesn't consistently eat poop anyway so I don't want to jump for joy too soon. Today is Day 2 of the pineapple experiment._


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## Sam Trinh (Jul 31, 2006)

how often does he eat? I have to feed my dog 2x a day or else he pukes up slimy yellow stuff like you describe, i think it is bile or something. W/e it is, if he eats 2x a day he does not puke and I am happy.


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## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

He eats once a day. I was gonna try the 2x a day feeding, but I always forget to feed him in the morning because it's not part of my usual dog-routine.

I will start that tomorrow and see how it goes.

And yes, bile, thats the word I was trying to think of!


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## Chase Mika (May 2, 2008)

That's been my experience too....if my working dog goes too long w/o eating, he'll eat grass or puke up some bile. On our days off I can feed him in the morning, but on days we work, it's just not practical (don't want bloat). I've found that he's fine if I make sure to give him a biscuit in the morning though. (I use the Cal Natural large bars). I've found it's just the right amount to keep his stomach settled, yet small enough that he can still work without me worrying about bloat.


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## Jamielee Nelson (Apr 24, 2008)

My dog did the same thing when I 4got to feed him in the morning. So he gets food twice a day now. 
Every now and then he decides to puke up his whole breakfast undigested... that's always fun to clean up. But it's not all that often since I started feeding him twice a day.


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

I'll echo the others on the 2x day feeding. Cyko used to sporadically puke bile like that, not in any particular pattern and only maybe once a week. A couple of tablespoons of yogurt in the morning worked for him. I feed the main meal once a day, at night.


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## Kris Dow (Jun 15, 2008)

Anna Kasho said:


> I'll echo the others on the 2x day feeding. Cyko used to sporadically puke bile like that, not in any particular pattern and only maybe once a week. A couple of tablespoons of yogurt in the morning worked for him. I feed the main meal once a day, at night.


Live-culture yogurt, or any old kind?


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Kris Dow said:


> Live-culture yogurt, or any old kind?


Not to answer for anyone else, but giving yogurt that does not have active cultures is pretty much a waste of money. No real benefit to a few tablespoons of cultured milk that gets heat-treated after culturing.

Plain unsweetened live-culture yogurt has a lot of benefits.

JMO.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Anna Kasho said:


> I'll echo the others on the 2x day feeding. Cyko used to sporadically puke bile like that, not in any particular pattern and only maybe once a week. A couple of tablespoons of yogurt in the morning worked for him. I feed the main meal once a day, at night.


I think that this is a particularly good way to give yogurt. Stomach acid production is at its lowest when the dog first wakes up, so there is a better opportunity to get more of the beneficial bugs past the stomach and into the intestine.


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

Kris Dow said:


> Live-culture yogurt, or any old kind?


As Connie said, Plain, live culture, no sugar. I buy the cream-on-top kind with 4 bacteria types. I take half of it with the cream, the dogs get the rest. Delicious! :mrgreen:


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

Connie Sutherland said:


> Stomach acid production is at its lowest when the dog first wakes up, so there is a better opportunity to get more of the beneficial bugs past the stomach and into the intestine.


I didn't know that. I remember hearing somewhere that milk products take longest to digest, so it made sense to give it separately. I usually eat yougurt in the morning, so it was easy to give the dogs some at the same time.


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## Kris Dow (Jun 15, 2008)

Connie Sutherland said:


> Not to answer for anyone else, but giving yogurt that does not have active cultures is pretty much a waste of money. No real benefit to a few tablespoons of cultured milk that gets heat-treated after culturing.
> 
> Plain unsweetened live-culture yogurt has a lot of benefits.
> 
> JMO.


That's what I would've guessed, but I figure better to ask silly questions and understand what I'm doing.


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## Al Curbow (Mar 27, 2006)

So now you have poopface And pukeface? lol


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## Lee H Sternberg (Jan 27, 2008)

That's funny, Al.


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## Gerry Grimwood (Apr 2, 2007)

Mike Schoonbrood said:


> I sat in the garage with him for a few hours watching a movie on the laptop while spying on Tiko the poop eater. I don't think he got into anything there.


And I thought I had problems :razz:


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## Gillian Schuler (Apr 12, 2008)

So did I    

Mine throw up bile but not every day even though I feed them twice. If I leave a meal out I can hear the older one's stomach rumbling from afar. I've heard of various cures from cider vinegar to Limburger cheese.

As for spying on the pooping, mine watched me watching him - I got to hiding behing a tree and I could see him looking to see where I was before he pooped so I took him out in the garden only on a long lead and literally waited until he'd pooped, praised him and gave him a biscuit. It got so that when he was running free again, as soon as he'd pooped he'd come running for a reward. I've always told mine to "go and poop" and when my patience ran out I'd get ratty which worked. Better than the garden tour was a short walk on the lead, loosening the bowels quicker. I'd never had a pup that kept it up so long before and I guess it gets to be a bit of phobia for both dog and owner.


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## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

My house is a weird design, I have a garage downstairs for 1 car (or in my car, 3 kennels and 2 crates), and a garage upstairs at street level for 2 cars. My dogs "never look up." So I just sat behind the window upstairs which looks directly over the dog kennels.

Tiko doesn't eat poop in the yard, he doesn't eat poop when I am in sight, and he doesn't eat EVERY poop, I have no idea what his criteria is. I'll feed him to Lyka if he does it again.

ha ha Al, Pukeface....  I'll tell Cujo you said that.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Al Curbow said:


> So now you have poopface And pukeface? lol


Still, though, he has 50% regular dog-face dogs. :lol:


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## Erica Boling (Jun 17, 2008)

My dog used to do this too. I found that feeing him small meals throughout the day helped a lot. Another time when there were problems, I changed his dog food and the vomitting stopped.


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## Anne Jones (Mar 27, 2006)

Mike, my female used to puke early in the morning if I feed her too late. (yellow stomache bile) I feed my dogs 2x a day (pups under 6 mo 3x a day) I found that if I try to keep her on a pretty regular schedule, she does better. My vet also suggested that I give her a Tagament tablet each evening. (the people pill) I did that in the begining (about 2 years or so ago) but now I give her one every few days or so. It neutralizes the acid in her stomach. Some dogs, just like people produce excess digestive acids. Dogs have much stronger stomache acids than people due, as they are designed to eat & digest whole chunks of food (dogs are designed to bite & swallow not really chew their food) & they have a short digestive track so that the food needs to be broken down more quickly ergo the stronger acids. As far as heavy training days....I just get up a couple of hours early so that I can feed my dogs & still have 3 hours before heavy work. I never felt comfortable feeding a whole days worth of food in 1 meal...so I have always feed 2 meals. You might try giving him a tagament or similar medication for a short time & then taper off & see what happens. Good Luck. 

Edit to say: I forgot to add that my dogs are on a raw diet & always have been.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Anne, I discussed this same thing with my GI physiology professor and it's the high stomach acid that helps take the calcium out of the bone so it's springy and easier to digest. It is also one of the safe guards against bacterial infection. After our discussion, I personally wouldn't feed a dog a raw diet, especially with whole bones, if you were upping the pH of the stomach with something like Tagamet or Pepcid. I'd grind it and cook it first. 

I would also personally not recommend telling people on an open forum to go try a medication without guidance of their vet, even if it is OTC for people. Generally regarded as safe neutraceuticals like fish oil and vitamin C is one thing. Acid reflux drugs are another, especially when the website recommends not using it longer than 2 weeks. JMHO.

http://www.tagamethb.com/faqs.aspx#treatment


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Maren Bell Jones said:


> ... I personally wouldn't feed a dog a raw diet, especially with whole bones if you were upping the pH of the stomach with something like Tagamet or Pepcid.


Neither would I.

The relative lack of susceptibility to food pathogens enjoyed by dogs is related to two big factors: The short digestive system that zips the food from one end to the other and give pathogens little opportunity to colonize, and the very caustic stomach acid (which is that way for a reason).


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Anna Kasho said:


> I didn't know that. I remember hearing somewhere that milk products take longest to digest, so it made sense to give it separately. I usually eat yougurt in the morning, so it was easy to give the dogs some at the same time.


I didn't know about the stomach acid production cycle either until I started researching probiotics last year (thanks to Mike Armstrong on this board, who recommended a couple of very good books on the subject).

Probiotics -- to me, a subject almost as interesting as long-chain Omega 3s because of the huge number of benefits from a homely old food item.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Gillian Schuler said:


> ... I took him out in the garden only on a long lead and literally waited until he'd pooped, praised him and gave him a biscuit. It got so that when he was running free again, as soon as he'd pooped he'd come running for a reward.


HAHAHAHA. I was telling Mike (re his other dog, Poopface) about a dog I had once who ate poop. I started distracting her with a recall, a sit, and a treat as soon as she pooped. This did indeed break the habit, and ended up with her running over for a treat after every poop .... no recall or other distraction needed. :lol:


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