[oakley]

Oakley is doing great on raw, except for one thing- shes been burping and throwing up small amounts at a time for hours after meal time. This happens after chicken, also happened after one pork meal. Just introduced pork last week... but she has been doing this pukey thing for 2 weeks. She doesnt always do it... sigh I'm trying to figure it out! :frown:

Any ideas?

 

[RawFedDogs]

When he throws up, if you leave him alone does he re-eat it? Is it mostly bone or mostly meat or mostly liquid? Does it have bone in it? What chicken parts are you feeding when he throws up? Have you tried feeding less? Does volume of food have any effect? How often do you feed him? There ... that should keep you busy for a while. :smile:

 

[oakley]

She sheepishly trys to lick it up. For the most part its liquid... on Sunday I noticed a piece of chicken fat in the vomit, she had eaten half a back before that. Which isnt a lot, so I wouldnt think it was too much..

Trying to remember what else shes been fed when doing this... I have 4 days off this weekend so should be able to get a grasp on this.

She is fed 3x a day.

Shes going to doggydaycare today so I'll have them keep an eye on her... I'm taking boneless skinless chix breast for her lunch since I'm not sure if they keep an eye on them while they eat. I will be asking that. They will leave her kenneled for an hour after she eats before she goe sback out with the other dogs.

It also doesnt seem to matter if shes running or jumping or at rest.. she does it either way.

:/ Hesitant to call the vet as I know he'll say "Stop feeding raw meat and your problem will be solved!"

 

[RawFedDogs]

Is she vomiting close to the next meal time? Did she have this problem when eating kibble? Have you tried removing fat/skin from chicken? Did that have any effect? How are her stools? How old is she? Have you ever fed her twice a day instead of 3 times? Are you feeding 3X because of this problem? As you can see, I'm cluless in this case but eventually one of your answers will turn a light bulb on and we will know how to solve this problem. :smile:

 

[oakley]

She starts vomiting about 45mins-an hour after the meal... its almost more like a big burp and then spit up. (Not piles and piles.) She will continue this for 2-3 hours after eating the meal... sometimes every 15 minutes, sometimes every 5, sometimes with an hour in between!

I am wondering if its the fat.. as from what I can remember most of these problem times she ate chicken backs. The backs I have are fatty. I removed most of the fat on the one this morning and she had a few burps but managed not to spit up and swallow what came up- before it came out. Her stools have been very good, firm, 3x a day.

However, this past week she has been holding out on me and only pooped once one day, twice another, once the next... at which point we had a couple looser stools. But she also was introduced to pork last week, it also got FREEZING cold, it also SNOWED. and shes getting bigger and can hold it longer. She is now 4 months old. I do not believe the stools are related in this case as she has been doing this pukey/gaggy thing since the first of the month and her poos were fine back then. But who knows..

I have always fed her 3x a day as she gets hungry and she will get hunger pukes. These post-meal pukes sort of remind me of her hunger pukes, but shes just finished eating... ? I could try feeding her two times a day this weekend, but I think she still needs a small midday meal. Shes growing like a weed and is a late bloomer.

Today she ate a whole back for breakfast, cubed chicken breast for lunch (daycare), and a pork chop for dinner. The breast and pork chop were about .5 lb each, the back was smaller. I aim for a bit over a lb a day. Shes looking really good right now.. not too ribby, not fleshy. Just all legs like a boxer pup should be! I know the boneless breast isnt the best but I don't know if I want her chompin on bones at daycare just yet. So I made sure she got her bone with that back for breakfast.

She did not have this problem on kibble. I am going to keep trimming fat from the chicken as much as possible to see if that solves the problem.

 

[RawFedDogs]

She did not have this problem on kibble. I am going to keep trimming fat from the chicken as much as possible to see if that solves the problem.

OK, continue to trim fat from the meals for a few weeks and let's see if this clears up. You can also remove skin from chicken as it's high in fat also. Right now I suspect her young body is just having trouble learning to produce whatever enzyme it is needed to digest fat. This shouldn't be a permanent problem.

You might want to join the rawfeeding yahoo group. There are people who are much better at solving problems like this than I am. I'm sure you can get some more ideas over there. I need to hang out over there more than I have been for the last few years just so I can see these problems get handled.

 

[DaneMama]

Is she retching and then vomiting? Or just regurgitating? Sounds to me like regurgitation...

She might have a mild form of megaesophagus, which is where food gets stuck in the throat and never makes it to the stomach. Hence her need to spit up or puke after eating...I am definitely not making a diagnosis or anything, but this is the first thing that popped into my head while reading through this thread.

Hope she gets to feeling better soon!

 

[oakley]

Natalie, there is not any retching. Maybe once as stuff comes up.. but its usually liquid.

 

[tom e]

My dog occasionally throws up chicken meals. Doesn't seem to cause him much discomfort though, he happily re-eats the mess. I think it's when he's drunk to much water with it, though I'm not sure.

 

[DaneMama]

Natalie, there is not any retching. Maybe once as stuff comes up.. but its usually liquid.

If there is no retching, it makes it more likely that she is just regurgitating food that she ate. And if she does have a mild form of megaesophagus, regurgitation can happen for a few hours after eating. Does she ever have really, really stinky breath?

 

[oakley]

Her breath usually has the same smell: a metallicy smell?almostlike metal