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vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:52 am
by nanney1
One of my dogs has started vomiting while eating her food. Sometimes it hits the floor of her crate and she licks it up, and sometimes it stays in her mouth and she continues to chew. Very thick consistency.

My best guess is that she is inhaling her food too quickly and either sucks in too much air, or either gets a piece stuck in her throat. Then she regurgitates a little. Doesn't happen every time she eats, but enough times in the last month or so that I've noticed it. Maybe 7-8 times in the last 6 weeks.

Anyone have a dog do anything similar?

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:25 am
by Sharon
I'd start by talking to the vet but I'd bet you're right- eating too fast. Put something in the bowl - clean LARGE rock ? :) to slow down the eating. You can buy bowls with the centre raised to slow down eating.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:43 am
by RoostersMom
Try a brake fast bowl or just put rocks or tennis balls in her food dish so she slows down.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 11:21 am
by deseeker
If you are going to use rocks---make sure they are big enough not to swallow or you might have more problems than just eating too fast :roll:

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 1:17 pm
by Sharon
That's why I said ROCK, and not stones. You're right - make it a large enough rock to fill 1/2 the bowl :)

nanney1: You could also divide up the total food into 2-3 servings a day.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 5:11 pm
by MonsterDad
This sounds like it came out of the blue. I would go to the vet.

Did you change foods to something with a smaller kibble? Dogs eat smaller kibbles much faster than larger kibbles.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:29 pm
by nanney1
Happened before, but irregular. Then, a couple of times last week. And now back to back feedings this week.

Had a dog bowl that I could turn upside down and spread the food around. Tried that and slowed her down. She frantically nosed the bowl around but it took her much longer to eat. No vomiting. Will continue to see if that helps.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:32 pm
by Sharon
nanney1 wrote:Happened before, but irregular. Then, a couple of times last week. And now back to back feedings this week.

Had a dog bowl that I could turn upside down and spread the food around. Tried that and slowed her down. She frantically nosed the bowl around but it took her much longer to eat. No vomiting. Will continue to see if that helps.
Not a scientific study, but sounds like you found out what's causing the problem.:)

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:58 pm
by cutty72
Had the same issue with the wife's dog.
Started with a tennis ball in the bowl, didn't help.
Found she had an allergy to corn.
Switched food, kept the tennis ball in the bowl (she still eats too fast) and no more issues.

Best of luck finding a solution!

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:07 pm
by Fun dog
I just add water to the food. They get to eat the food and extra hydration as well.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:22 pm
by Scott Linden
The root cause of our similar problem years ago was a wad of swallowed grass - it would wander around in the belly, blocking the food's entrance to the stomach periodically. Wouldn't show on an x-ray, but one day up it came and the problem went away. Good luck.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2016 6:58 pm
by nanney1
Use ofthe upside down bowl only worked for a brief period and the gagging returned as she figured out how to gulp with that bowl. At some point, I switched her food to something different than the other dogs. Turned out the kibble was smaller and seemed to help. I guess at some point the issue went away and I forgot about it. Later, I switched her back to what the others were eating and she has started back with the gagging and vomiting.

Picked up a puppy food that is a much smaller kibble than what she was eating. Mixed it half and half with the old with the new on top. No problem with the puppy food and then gagged when she hit the portion of the bowl with the old food. Maybe the smaller kibble will stop the gagging again.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:34 pm
by Sharon
Wow. Bizarro. Always something with dogs; sounds like you have discovered the problem.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 5:33 am
by shags
My old dog choked on large kibbles, but has no problem with the same food in the small breed ( small kibble) variety.
Have you looked into megaesophagus?

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 9:23 am
by nanney1
Haven't done anything other than what I observe. When she gets in too big of a hurry, she starts gulping her food instead of chewing. It seems to be a matter of how quickly she eats and whether or not she chews all of the the kibble or starts to swallow whole pieces without chewing. When she gulps, she seems to throw up whole pieces of kibble that seem to get lodged in her throat. She sounds like she is gagging and then up comes whole pieces of kibble, completely unchewed.

She does chew most of the food, but gets to going too fast and then inhales a few pieces in her rush. It's really annoying more than anything, although it could potentially be dangerous. If she was a larger breed, I would definitely be concerned about bloat, because of sucking in air.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 2:35 pm
by AZ Brittany Guy
I've had similar problems. I noticed you said "one" of my dogs. Do they eat together? Feeling competition and rushing? Do they eat in separate areas? Put her feed in a large shallow pan. I just spread the feed out on my concrete dog run floor.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 5:47 pm
by nanney1
She is fed separately from the others. She receives her food in her crate first. And then the two others are given their food. So she has a head start and is usually finished before the others start.

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:31 pm
by kninebirddog
A large brownie sheet and spread the food out and feed elevated makes it harder for them to horde food
Can you tell if it gets balled up in her throat? If so check for Megaesophagus

Re: vomits while eating

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 2:02 am
by polmaise
Sharon wrote:Wow. Bizarro. Always something with dogs; sounds like you have discovered the problem.
Two years later :D