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Vomited Twice in 2 Days??

3K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  eeerrrmmm1 
#1 ·
Hey all,

So I'm at a bit of a loss right now with this vomiting situation...it seems very odd to me so I wanted to get advice.

Yesterday I returned home from work at 4:00 and found that Denver had pulled a throw pillow off the couch and pulled out some fibers (the pillow was woven material) and the fibers were all over the floor. They were very short in length (maybe 2 inches maximum) and about the thickness of regular yarn...so it is possible that he ate some, but I was able to recover them from the floor....and if he did eat them I don't think they would cause a blockage. There were only about a dozen or so missing from the pillow and I picked about 12 up from the floor.

I took him outside and took him on a nice long off leash romp like I do every day. He had a soft poop, but not diarrhea. It was pretty hot outside, so we didn't stay outside too long (maybe 30-40 minutes). We came back inside and Denver GULPED down a lot of water very fast. I had to tell him "enough!" to get him to take a break. He laid down and was able to cool off. About 25 minutes later he stood up and heaved a couple times and then threw up partially digested breakfast and a LOT of water. I attributed this to chugging his water. I withheld his dinner to be safe. His mood/energy level was normal, wanted to play, was drinking normally, and was hungry and begging for scraps when we sat down for dinner.

This AM on our 6:30 walk he had a totally normal and firm poop. Fed him breakfast, and he ate all of it and kept it down. He went to work with my partner, who said he had another normal poop mid-day.

It's been thundering so he didn't get his usual off-leash walk at 4:00 when I get home. Fed him normal dinner at 5:30. He ate it all, not terribly fast, but not too slowly either. I was playing with him (tug and playing with some toys) when he randomly stops as we are playing and proceeds to vomit up his entire dinner (6:30). Went outside and pooped normally. Still mood is normal, not acting as if he's in pain/discomfort. I've felt his belly and it isn't hard or distended...so I am at a loss for what could be causing this random vomiting.

His poops are normal. Ate his breakfast today and then pooped normally. Could this be from gulping water/eating quickly? Or maybe from playing hard and eating too closely together? Could we be over-feeding him? Right now he gets 4 cups/day (PPP SSS). He is very very active and his last few ribs are visible when he's running and are very easily felt, so I doubt it's really too much. Should I take him to the vet to be sure?

Needing some thoughts or advice!

Many thanks!
 

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#2 ·
Hhhmm.. kind of weird but as long as he's pooping/eating normally I wouldn't be super concerned about an obstruction just yet. I'd keep a close eye on him though. If he has a third episode of vomiting or anything is abnormal about his pooping/eating/behavior generally, I would take him to the vet.

It may be a good idea to return him to his crate or puppy proof area when you're not home to supervise. He still looks like big puppy. :)
 
#3 ·
Hhhmm.. kind of weird but as long as he's pooping/eating normally I wouldn't be super concerned about an obstruction just yet. I'd keep a close eye on him though. If he has a third episode of vomiting or anything is abnormal about his pooping/eating/behavior generally, I would take him to the vet.

It may be a good idea to return him to his crate or puppy proof area when you're not home to supervise. He still looks like big puppy. <img src="http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" />
Yes he’s usually perfect when left out of the crate. It was my fault I usually pick up all of the pillows and anything else in his reach, I just had forgotten that one in the corner on a chair.

We usually leave him in the crate while we we’re at work though, but my partner seems to have a harder time doing this than I do (face palm ;)) especially if I’m not home to “remind” him that Denver will be just fine in the crate.

We are keeping a close eye on him, and so far he’s acting completely normal. Romping around with his tennis ball currently. Thank you for the advice!
 
#6 ·
the problem w yarn, string, anything skinny and linear is that a linear obstruction is not a typical one, it doesn't stop the gut from working, but instead causes the intestines to plicate on themselves, making a bunch similar to what happens when you pull the waistband string of a pair of shorts while holding one end. Then that string or whatever gets scrubbed back and forth as the body tries to remove it. String is dangerous. I'd be watching the vomiting, and take pup in if it continues alerting the vet to the possibility of a linear body obstruction.
 
#7 ·
We’ve been watching him closely, and he ate all of his breakfast no problem and kept it down as well as pooped normally afterward. Would a leaner obstruction show up on an ultrasound or X-ray?

He’s been on this food for 6 months and thriving. So I don’t think it’s the food. I’ll give the vet a call and see what they think. It’s just odd that he’s thrown up twice around dinner time the last 2 days but eaten breakfast and been fine. The first day he threw up he hadn’t even had dinner yet. Just came inside from playing, drank a ton of water really fast (it was hot out) and then threw up mostly water and mostly digested food.

If a linear obstruction shows up on imaging I may take him in to check.

Thanks for all the replies!
 
#9 · (Edited)
If it were me, I'd be in contact with my vet.

The first thing I do is ask them what I should be watching for as a "bring in right now".

That said, that's my route for the first vomit.

Second vomit really worries me - even if he's acting normal.

I had a friend whose golden had a blockage from just a fractional piece of washcloth that was caught in a narrow spot and partially blocking things.
 
#10 ·
If it were me, I'd be in contact with my vet.

The first thing I do is ask them what I should be watching for as a "bring in right now".

That said, that's my route for the first vomit.

Second vomit really worries me - even if he's acting normal.

I had a friend whose golden has a blockage from just a fractional piece of washcloth that was caught in a narrow spot and partially blocking things.
Called our vet. They said that since his energy is normal, he's keeping breakfast down, playing normally, pooping normally that those are all good signs. They didn't seem overly worried but said that if we wanted to get an xray to be sure we would have to go to the emergency vet.

That said, I'm going to feed him a smaller dinner here in a minute and then watch him and see if he vomits again. If he DOES I'm going to take him up to get an xray.

If he doesn't I'm going to just keep an eye on him and check back in with our vet tomorrow.
 
#11 ·
So I fed him dinner (instead of 2 cups I gave 1.5 cups) and I put his kong in the middle of his bowl to slow him down. He ate it all and hasn’t thrown up tonight. It’s been 3.5 hours now. Hopefully he stays relaxed and his dinner stays down so we can relax a bit.

If he throws up later in the night I’ll be trekking to the E-Vet for an X-ray. Reallllyyyy hoping that we can cool it with the E-Vet visits for a long time though!!
 
#12 ·
OK. SO. He vomited again last night around 1AM. We took him to the E-Vet around 4, when they told us the vet was getting out of surgery. Took X-Rays, the vet didn't see any obstruction, just some gas and inflammation. She kept Denver overnight so that the radiologist could look at the rads and perform an ultrasound when he got to the clinic in the morning.

Radiologist didn't see an obstruction and the ultrasound was also clear. He said that everything looked clear, they looked everywhere and did not find any blockage or obstruction. They did say his pancreas was very "prominent", not enlarged or inflamed, but said that since he is so young, and so fit/thin right now that it was just more present because of his belly not being very big. No signs of pain, belly is nice and soft so they diagnosed gastroenteritis. Prescribed anti nausea meds and are feeding him a bland diet. If he keeps it down they are discharging him this afternoon and I'll keep feeding bland for the next several days.

Vet said he most likely licked/ate something that didn't agree with him while out exploring on a walk, and was working its way through his system. His white cell count was slightly elevated. Hopefully we are out of the woods with this. Thank you all for the advice. Now to just keep this boy OUT of the vets office for a while. Sheesh!
 
#17 ·
Yes! He hasn’t thrown up all weekend and he’s acting like his normal goofy self. He’s still eating a bland diet until his poops are back to normal (he had a bit of diarrhea which the vet said is common as his gut normalizes).

The only thing I worry about is if he’s getting enough calories with the bland diet. He’s looking quite thin after this ordeal. Hopefully we can start reintroducing his normal food in the next day or so. Thank you so much for checking in!
 
#18 ·
For what it's worth, Kaizer had a similar issue last year and we never got a formal diagnosis.

It started as yellow bile early in the morning or late at night, but eventually progressed to partially digested kibble hours after he ate (like if he was fed breakfast at 7am, he'd throw up at 3-4pm before dinner). He would vomit a couple times a day (yellow bile first, then the kibble) for a week on end, then it would stop and start up again a couple days later. We took him to the emergency vet a handful of times for the vomiting too - they did an x-ray and we got an ultrasound done. Like your boy's, they both came back clear. The only "odd" thing was that one of his adrenal glands was slightly larger than the other, but the vets (we saw multiple) didn't think it was a big deal. Also like your boy, Kaizer was eating normally, drinking normally, his behavior was perfect, he was peeing normally, and his poops were perfect. He did have some skin issues, so that along with the vomiting made vets think possible food allergies. We restricted his diet to just water and prescription food, but it didn't work (didn't even help his skin). He threw up consistently from December 2017 to October 2018. No idea why it stopped, no idea what caused it either. He did end up being quite the medical mystery - we saw numerous practitioners, an internist, and a dermatologist. Still have no solid diagnosis.
 
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