My dog was sick... again :(

aoife2k

Hi everyone,

I'm posting here as I'm hoping someone will have more knowledege of options.
I've posted here a few times before and I'm a regular visitor for a nosy.

My Boxer Bailey (2 1/2yrs old) was sick this morning. I know when she's going to be sick as she licks her lips constantly before she'll move to actually vomit somewhere. I managed to get her on the lino and she puked.

It was like bile, bright yellow/orange and she couldn't get far enough away from it afterwards.

I'm worried about this because this has been happening a bit too regularly for my liking. I've tried to figure out why she's being sick but it's not her food, she eats it and isn't fussy. We don't give her many left-overs (usually we have to just pretend to scrape our plate into her other food and she eats away)

I read another thread on here about insurance and holding my hands up I have none but it's when Bailey is sick like this I feel so guilty for not having any. The reason is, I can bearly afford food or anything like that for myself.

I'm hesitant about bringing her to the vet as I'm sure they'll want to do tests that I can't afford without insurance.

So I suppose I'm asking what could be making her sick (she hasn't been eating grass) and can anyone recommend a good insurance company?

ppink

How often is she being sick?

1st thing I would do is cut out everything for 24 hours then give her nothing except her food. No treats etc.

She has not eaten a toy or anything, has she?

Allianz are pretty good for pet insurance, as in I never had a problem with them paying up. The do have an excess though and we only went over that for fairly major things.

keno-daytrader

aoife2k wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I'm posting here as I'm hoping someone will have more knowledege of options.
I've posted here a few times before and I'm a regular visitor for a nosy.

My Boxer Bailey (2 1/2yrs old) was sick this morning. I know when she's going to be sick as she licks her lips constantly before she'll move to actually vomit somewhere. I managed to get her on the lino and she puked.

It was like bile, bright yellow/orange and she couldn't get far enough away from it afterwards.

I'm worried about this because this has been happening a bit too regularly for my liking. I've tried to figure out why she's being sick but it's not her food, she eats it and isn't fussy. We don't give her many left-overs (usually we have to just pretend to scrape our plate into her other food and she eats away)

I read another thread on here about insurance and holding my hands up I have none but it's when Bailey is sick like this I feel so guilty for not having any. The reason is, I can bearly afford food or anything like that for myself.

I'm hesitant about bringing her to the vet as I'm sure they'll want to do tests that I can't afford without insurance.

So I suppose I'm asking what could be making her sick (she hasn't been eating grass) and can anyone recommend a good insurance company?

Hi Aoife, I use Allianz, there is also 123.ie petinsure.ie agus petinsurance.ie Insurance can be as little as a tenner a month. Read all the terms and conditions as some wont cover pre existing conditions. If you do a search of this board there is lots of info on pet insurance. Hope your dog gets better

toadfly

Aoife just be aware that there is a timeframe from when you take out insurance until you can claim, could be wrong but we are with Allianz and it's 2 weeks after you sign up.

Wisco

I urge you to get pet insurance, however they will not cover anything for which she has been treated previously.
Perhaps you could ring your vet and ask for an estimate? Alternatively, you could explain your budget if you did take her in for an exam, and you and the vet can discuss the most important tests to do (if any) on the budget you have. Many pet owners have similar limited budgets, so it's a topic vets are well used to dealing with.
If you want to avoid the vet visit route for the moment, I do suggest fasting for 24 hours and then gradually introducing something bland like boiled chicken and rice, or something like a prescription diet for gastro intestinal problems (eg sensitivity from royal canin or i/d from hills or something similar). The nursing staff at your vets can often have good economical diet suggestions for your situation too.

mymo

I don't have pet insurance, it was too expensive (last quote was €450+ and one of my cats is too old to insure), so instead I put any loose change in a jar, €1 and €2 coins mostly. Its for my pets and I don't touch it unless they need a vet visit, I'm currently up €247, so not putting any in for a while.
It really depends on your dog and your vet. My vet is quite cheap, and has no problem with me paying a few euro a week if I have a big bill, I discussed pet insurance with him and he assured me that we'd work something out if anything did happen.
Appart from vacc's last year I spent €110 at the vets, that included a cat breaking a leg (€90 total), my advice is think it over and talk to your vet.

By the way I have a bitch that pukes like that quite often, the vet said she's fine, its never much and only once or twice in the day, she's usually fine next day. He told me too watch for lethargy or not drinking, anything abnormal with her, and if it lasts more than 24hrs or she keeps vomiting bring her in. If you're worried speak to the vet.

the_syco

OP: how much water does she drink? Measure the amount of bowls of water she'd go through per day.

Sassy58

I am not sure where you are based but if you are in Dublin why not bring Bailey to St. Francis Animal Clinic in Inchicore. They have a fully qualified vet, and he is great with the animals and they don't charge as much as a normal vets as they are a Charity (they still charge). But it might be an option for you.

aoife2k

Wow thanks everyone for your replies.

I'm not based in Dublin but I think fasting her is a good idea.

She only usually pukes once then that's it and is back to her normal bouncy self after a few hours sleep.

I rang my Mum to tell her as sometimes I leave Bailey with her when I am doing a gig or away for the night and she said that Bailey found an old bone in the shed that she used to chew but actually ate a bit off it so Mum put it in the bin.

I reckon that's what made her sick. I don't give her bones here but she roots out old ones at Mum's and then is usually sick.

I've read about Allianz a lot so I think I'll go with them.

Thank you all so much!

Tranceypoo

Also, I think boxers are prone to sensitive tummys. Our second dog (formerly known as 'our foster dog' ) is a boxer cross and once in a while (I mean once every 6 weeks or so) she will puke up and go off her food for a day then the next day she is fine again, she hasn't actually done it for a couple of months now (tempting fate) but it could just be your dog has a sensitive tum and that bone you said she ate may be the culprit, I think if she's not off her food and still drinking and bouncing around it wouldn't anything too serious (although disclaimer alert, I'm not a vet!!)

aoife2k

Thanks Tranceypoo,

I'm a bit worried about her now though as she was sick again this morning. I brought her out to the grass as is usual in the mornings and then she proceeded to eat grass (which is not unusual for her) then after about 20 minutes she couldn't get outside fast enough to get sick (which was mostly just the grass and some foam).

She came back inside and was her normal self, playing with her Kong bone, jumping around the furniture and generally playful.

I'm going to fast her today and see how she gets on then tomorrow a wee bit of bland chicken and rice.

andreac

If shes getting sick regularly then i would take a guess that whatever shes eating food wise, or treats etc isnt agreeing with her.

What brand of food do you use and what other food, treats etc does she get on a regular basis?

aoife2k

We feed her TopDog which is a dry musli type food with lots of yummy things in it and we mix it with a little bit of gravy and she loves it, she's been sick on any other type of food I gave her.

She gets a treat once a day (when going to bed at night) and they're the Lidl dog treats (like Shmackos). Anything else makes her sick even pic 'n' mix treats from the pet shop so she only gets the Lidl ones.

ppink

Did you give her food last night?

sambuka41

My Westie had a sensitive tummy, he got hold of an old bone and he was sick for months after. The vet said the bacteria could still be in his stomach and intestines Maybe its that?

Or is there anything in your garden that she could be eating? My current dog had a thing for eating poo it was horrible, she was sick for a few days in a row before we coped why. Had to run out after her and clean it up straight away!!!

GALWAYINDOOR

how often is she wormed ? does she eat grass ???

andreac

aoife2k wrote: »

We feed her TopDog which is a dry musli type food with lots of yummy things in it and we mix it with a little bit of gravy and she loves it, she's been sick on any other type of food I gave her.

She gets a treat once a day (when going to bed at night) and they're the Lidl dog treats (like Shmackos). Anything else makes her sick even pic 'n' mix treats from the pet shop so she only gets the Lidl ones.

I would start by cutting out the treats and see does that help. If you want to give her treats then try some sausage or boiled chicken.

You need to try and find whats causing this and by eliminating whatever she is fed on a regular basis.

Borderfox

We got our guy from the Dog Rescue and used the food they had given him (lamb based) this gave him a lot of problems with getting sick, also he loved those white chews (rawhide) and they caused a lot of problems for him. Same type of vomiting as you say with yellow bile coming up. Cut out the rawhide chews and changed food and after a couple of weeks he was right as rain.

DBB

OP, I have one question to ask you!
Does your dog tend to only get sick in the mornings, and/or before she has something to eat?
By this I mean, is her tummy likely to be empty when she gets sick?

aoife2k

Ok to answer some questions!

She's usually sick in the mornings when her tummy is empty.

She (for a few months while we find a new place) hasn't got a garden to roam about in here but when I bring her out to pee in the 'common grass' (which is only used by us because we're the only people in the building) I let her have a sniff around as she knows (and has briefly met) the stray cats.

At my Mum's she has a huge area to run about (where she was brought up) and the only other things I can think of that may e causing the sickness is if it's because she's stealing an onion or a gooseberry to play with (then possibly swallowing)

She's been wormed and sometimes eats grass yes. The most recent being yesterday to help her get sick.

Today she's back 100% her devilish hyper self and even yesterday after being sick she wasn't curled up in a ball on her blankie depressed, she was just herself. Confused!

Shanao

Any chance you can post up the ingredients in the food you're giving her, I cant find anything about that brand. I would look at food and treats first anyway- my dog developed an allergy to pork very quickly (I was giving him pigs ears now and again) and his hair started falling out. I then tried him out on a bag of royal canin and discovered (after he pulled chunks of his hair out) that there was pork in the food as well. Its going to take a while to find out what's intolerant of, but cutting out the treats is a good start anyway.

BTW, raw onions are poisonous to dogs so do NOT let her anywhere near them again.

littlebug

My dog was like that on and off since we got her except she would have problems at both ends (sorry tmi:() She had been on red mills leader. I brought her to the vet and on examination ( abdomen palpation etc ie no expensive tests) he suggest there was nothing obviously wrong but it was probably a sensitivity to the food. He suggested Royal Canin gastro-intestinal (prescription food I think) which helped instantly and the problems stopped. Now at 20 quid for 2kg that really wasn't sustainable long term for us unless absolutely necessary so once I knew her tummy was settled I looked into alternatives to try. She's been on White's premium for the past 2 weeks and so far so good. If anything she's doing better than on the RC though she doesn't tuck in to it as readily. She has had no recurrence of the tummy issues since.

DBB

OP, I've had this exact problem before, its nothing horrible and easy to manage, assuming your dog is the same as mine are!
It seems that if the tummy is empty, the stomach acids have nothing to work on, and they actually irritate the stomach wall, and cause yellow-stained vomiting.
The answer is simply to divide her daily food ration into several smaller meals, so that she always has some food in her tum.
My dogs are fed morning, evening, and critically, just before they go to bed.
They have never vomited since, with immediate effect!
I would also look into a food change in case that's causing a problem too.
Good luck!

Edited to add, have just seen you're feeding her a muesli-type food. I have never seen a muesli-type food that's any good, to be honest! Very high cereal content, and I've no doubt that many dogs develop allergies to wheat and other cereals!

aoife2k

Thanks everyone!

She's been 100% since as for TopDog it contains Cereals and derivites of Chicken, Fish and Meat.

DBB I totally get what you're saying. We used to feed her that way (she preferred it that way) but then she was becoming fussy so I was just giving her the one feed and leaving it at that.
I might try giving her little bits a few times a day.

She's at my mums today again so I've told mum to watch for her eating gooseberries, to keep her away from the onions and to dump any old bones that are lying around that she could get to.

Hope she's not sick for a looooonnnggggg time!

Shanao

aoife2k wrote: »

Thanks everyone!

She's been 100% since as for TopDog it contains Cereals and derivites of Chicken, Fish and Meat.

DBB I totally get what you're saying. We used to feed her that way (she preferred it that way) but then she was becoming fussy so I was just giving her the one feed and leaving it at that.
I might try giving her little bits a few times a day.

She's at my mums today again so I've told mum to watch for her eating gooseberries, to keep her away from the onions and to dump any old bones that are lying around that she could get to.

Hope she's not sick for a looooonnnggggg time!

TBH, I would take her off that food as soon as you can. Derivatives can be made from any part of the animal, the head, feet, guts etc, and the meat listed simply as meat, well just what meat is it? Chicken, beef, horse, emu? Who knows. Most dogs are intolerant of ingredients like wheat, if the cereals are listed simply as cereals, then again, who knows just what is exactly is in there? You'd be best off getting her onto a food that has everything listed clearly on the bag what's in it, then you can begin a trial and error process of figuring out what she's intolerant of.

I would definitely only give her small meals throughout that day instead of one big meal

carwash_2006

I would say DBB is spot on here, I have heard of this happening with a few dogs and it always seems to be sorted by not allowing their tummy to get too empty. Break her food into 2-3 meals a day and I would reckon she will be fine.

I would also concur with changing her food though. Look or a food that has a named meat in ingredient as at least the first ingredient, preferably second and third too but very hard to find here. Avoid anything that is listed as derivatives unless it is very far down the list, you want them to be prepared to name exactly what it is not just tell you what it is derived from. Also avoid anything with BHA or BHT in it and corn should be as far down the list as possible also if it is in there.