Morning sickness...

[Mag 8]

Steve,

Man it's great to just be able to write you when things occur regarding Lily our chocolate lab...

The last few mornings, when I let her out of her kennel after a good nights sleep, she's happy to see me then goes fairly quickly into "barf mode" by retching for about 15-20 seconds before coughing up a bilious yellow-green coloured bile.

She's honked plenty of times before but usually it'll have bits of holly-hobbie doll parts, or a sock or that kind of thing in it.

This is just straight bile - wondering at what point we should become alarmed...your professional insight appreciated.

[Derek]

Not a vet , but does she have a chance to eat a bunch of grass before bed???

[Mag 8]

Well bro-D, you may be on the right track.
This afternoons Barfapalooza (left right at the front door as I returned home from picking my wife up from work on my motorcycle...I was tired and hot in receiving it in the front foyer)...yeah, had some grass in it.
Kids saw her honk it up but didn't bother cleaning it up so I got to step into it. Ahhhh, good to be home.

[Derek]

Mine do that occasionally, but that don't mean somethin ain't ailin her.?.?.? I just heard that dogs eat grass when they either need extra minerals or nutrients or have an upset stomach and need to puke. Kinda like a person stickin their finger down their throat...

[HEMISFEAR]

Interesting...

[HEMISFEAR]

When I first read the title, I thought, "Whose prego in the Mag8 household"? lol. Thanks goodness no one, you have enough kids haha.

[Mag 8]

Yessir, enough already, you're right.
Unlike some guys (ahem) I was fixed a good few years ago and was lucky enough to not have "an accident" in the couple of years' lead up to getting the work done (our last kid was almost 2 years old and I was still holding out cuz I was chicken).

[SRTgirl]

So now that we know Joe's been fixed and has no more kiddos coming, how's Lily doing? Did you figure out the problem?

[Mag 8]

lol, better, Deb, thanks. I spoze Steve didn't see the thread or may be too busy, but she seems fine now - likely too much grass. Derek kinda nailed it too, with his earlier guess.

[Mag 8]

Bumpity Bumpers, Steve, I hope you get a chance to eventually respond as she's back at it again.

[Derek]

send him a pm...he might get it through e-mail.....one of mine was honkin this mornin and I just let her go outside.....

[Mag 8]

good ideer...not everyone's as attached to the MMF site as us freakazoids

[SRTgirl]

Poor Lily, it sucks to be getting sick all the time. Hope she gets better soon. And I agree with Derek, PM the good Dr. I've seen him on here lately he probably just missed the thread!

[Dr.Steve]

you got me pegged Deb, just happened to miss the thread and for that I truly apologize, perhaps Milan should spank me???

Anyhow - on to the real issue at hand, Joe's house of puke; as far as Lily goes, I certainly have some ideas, but I also need a little more info. Derek and you are correct that eating grass for dogs is like a natural remedy for an upset stomach, but unfortunately, it usually just makes them puke. The goal here is to find out why the animal has GI upset to begin with. Some dogs have food allergies (have you changed anything recently?), others can have foreign objects stuck (even for months at a time if they are not causing an obstruction) in the stomach that cause occasional vomiting, still others can have parasites or more serious, structural diseases of the stomach or the intestine. If Lily is a young dog and fed a good diet with no people food, I would at least recommend a set of abdominal X-rays to rule out a foreign object and definitely recommend if the vomiting is first thing in the morning that you try feeding her a small meal ( a few pieces of white bread usually does it ) late at night prior to bed as well as give her 0.5mg per kg of famotidine (pepcid), if her problem is reflux, this should help. The last possibility is a disease called bilious vomiting syndrome that is usually seen in younger dogs and is characterized by persistently vomiting bile, usually first thing in the morning; if this is the problem, testing will show no problems and the vomting will respond to anti-emetic meds (but you have to get these from your vet!) If you are reluctant to go to the vet, first try the pepcid and bread, if that fails, it's x-ray and bloodwork time (maldigestion panel). Let me know if you have any more questions, and feel free to shoot me a PM anytime if I miss a question!

[HEMISFEAR]

How cool is that!??! Thanks Steve! Oh, and I'll leave that to the wife kthxbai

[Mag 8]

As always, your advice doth rocketh, Steve...thanks a bunch man.

We'll look at the least invasive option that you've described first (bread/pepsid) and see if that remedies things.

I think that I might have found a potential issue - my fault - In commanding her to go "night night" which has her zip happily right into her kennel because she knows she'll get a tiny piece of kibble, I inadvertently started snatching a teeny piece of dry cat-food from our cat, Molly. I have a sneaking suspicion that the fish-based cat food has been causing upset.

So that's stopped and the sickness has lessened, actually nearly entirely abated. Now if I could just get my Father-in-law to stop feeding her at dinner we'd be all set!

Thanks again, man - I'll bring an update if things worsen

[Dr.Steve]

sounds good Joe, and threaten your dad-in-law with the vet bills when Lily needs a work-up if he keeps feeding her that crap!

[SRTgirl]

Nice to hear Lily is doing a bit better now Joe!

And WTH Steve, you said I could spank you next? How come your letting Milan go next! :Disappointed_anim::spank2:

[Mag 8]

sounds good Joe, and threaten your dad-in-law with the vet bills when Lily needs a work-up if he keeps feeding her that crap!

lol, good idea, Steve - he's lucky that I married his youngest, wildest and prettiest daughter, otherwise I would !

[Mag 8]

Nice to hear Lily is doing a bit better now Joe!

And WTH Steve, you said I could spank you next? How come your letting Milan go next! :Disappointed_anim::spank2:

Thanks, Debra...I have an idea - let's just have a spank-fest!