Pup Dry Heaving

Denise90

We got a Samoyed pup 4 weeks ago, she's coming up on 13 weeks now. Everything is fine with her eating, she only gets her dry food three times a day, and the occasional treat in her kong like natural yougurt, banana, raw carrot etc. Stools look normal too.

She sleeps in her crate in our room but on three separate occasions (once this morning) we have been woken at 5 or 6am to a very loud "clunk" noise coming from her stomach, repeated eight or nine times until she finally retches but nothing comes up. She might do this two or three times and then go back to sleep. The noises aren't coming after anything specific, she had no treats yesterday and it still happened this morning. She's in good form and everything else is normal with her.

Anybody experience this before? It's only happened three times but is it worth a trip to the vet?

anniehoo

Have you dewormed her adequately? How does she eat her food i.e. eat normally or wolf it down? Does she have a pot belly?

DBB

And what time is her last meal at?

Denise90

She was given a worming tablet 2 weeks ago from the vet. She's pretty good with food, sometimes she'll eat it all in one go at normal speed, other times she'll eat half, sit for a second and then eat again.

She doesn't appear to have a pot belly, she has the typical Sammy big chest and then a waist so looks ok.

Last meal is between 9 and 10pm.. is that very late?

DBB

Denise90 wrote: »

Last meal is between 9 and 10pm.. is that very late?

I'd be wondering if it's late enough actually!
An empty tummy can really irritate the tummy, causing this heaving, though they'll often bring up some froth too. My own dogs do thus dry heaving if they've eaten a lump of something that's hard to digest, like carrot, seaweed, occasionally bits of sticks... But they usually eventually bring them up! Just wondering if either might apply to your pup.

Denise90

DBB wrote: »

I'd be wondering if it's late enough actually!
An empty tummy can really irritate the tummy, causing this heaving, though they'll often bring up some froth too. My own dogs do thus dry heaving if they've eaten a lump of something that's hard to digest, like carrot, seaweed, occasionally bits of sticks... But they usually eventually bring them up! Just wondering if either might apply to your pup.

Well she's constantly chewing, as much as we take unsuitable objects away from her, she always manages to find more, regardless of how much we spend on toys and chews for her :rolleyes:. We're pretty vigilant but the odd letterbox spam escapes us and ends up in a million pieces in the garden.

I'll begin moving her last feed back a bit too and see if that helps.

Melion

Our boxer constantly does it because everytime she is let out to do her business she eats grass!!! Do you watch the pup while she is outside?

DBB

Melion wrote: »

Our boxer constantly does it because everytime she is let out to do her business she eats grass!!! Do you watch the pup while she is outside?

The grass eating is not the cause of the problem here, but another symptom.

Denise90

I do watch her in the garden but not constantly anymore because she seems to have typical puppy issues with being alone so I'm trying to let her do her own thing outside with the door open, which is working thankfully.

She doesn't seem to be a grass eater anyway, she'll pounce on it and dig it alright but I've never seen her eat it.

anniehoo

Denise90 wrote: »

She was given a worming tablet 2 weeks ago from the vet.

Is this the only worming tablet she's gotten? Normal puppy worming begins at 2 weeks and then every 2 weeks until 10 weeks, then every month until 6months. While this mightn't be the cause of her symptoms, if she still has a worm burden it can cause digestive issues such as this, so it'd definitely be worth looking at this as a cause also.

Philip82

Cut out the raw carrots dogs cant digest them so your wasting your time there. Worming is key from an early age so they should be wormed every two weeks from six weeks to 12 weeks. I would buy a bottle of parazole from your vet and dose again, then repeat dose in ten days. that should take care of any worm problem for six weeks then dose again. As regards eating grass never stop a dog eating grass as this is the dogs natural method of getting up bile(fraught) thats built up in its stomach.

DBB

Regardless of what everyone is saying here, don't discount a visit to the vet, just in case there's something else going on.

tk123

I'd go to the vet tbh - to rule out her eating something you don't know about that she's having problems bringing up! What are you feeding her? I wonder if it could be a reaction to the food - the vet would he able to have a look down and see -this happened to a friend's dog..

Denise90

anniehoo wrote: »

Is this the only worming tablet she's gotten? Normal puppy worming begins at 2 weeks and then every 2 weeks until 10 weeks, then every month until 6months. While this mightn't be the cause of her symptoms, if she still has a worm burden it can cause digestive issues such as this, so it'd definitely be worth looking at this as a cause also.

She was wormed before we got her (unsure how many times) and then two weeks ago so I'll get her another tablet this week, thanks!

Philip82 wrote: »

Cut out the raw carrots dogs cant digest them so your wasting your time there. Worming is key from an early age so they should be wormed every two weeks from six weeks to 12 weeks. I would buy a bottle of parazole from your vet and dose again, then repeat dose in ten days. that should take care of any worm problem for six weeks then dose again. As regards eating grass never stop a dog eating grass as this is the dogs natural method of getting up bile(fraught) thats built up in its stomach.

She's not eating most of the carrot, just chewing on it, which I was hoping for but I will stop giving it to her if she cannot digest any of it.

DBB wrote: »

Regardless of what everyone is saying here, don't discount a visit to the vet, just in case there's something else going on.

tk123 wrote: »

I'd go to the vet tbh - to rule out her eating something you don't know about that she's having problems bringing up! What are you feeding her? I wonder if it could be a reaction to the food - the vet would he able to have a look down and see -this happened to a friend's dog..

I might just give it a few days to see if these changes stop it and if not I will bring her to the vet, as I said, she's happy and herself the rest of the time and never heaves during the day.

I was wondering was it the food maybe, or something in it. I will ask the vet that too.

Thanks for your help everyone

ISDW

Have you spoken to the breeder that you got her from? She may have been doing this before she left there, or some of the other pups may be, and they could possibly have some good advice for you.

Any chance of some photos? Sammy pups are soooooooooooo cute.

tk123

You could maybe try something bland like chicken and rice/potato for a few days - if it is her tummy that should help settle it.

Kloecor

This happened my little Bichon a few months ago, I didn't know what on Earth was wrong!

Someone suggested not giving him any treats and no food in the evening (before bed) and it worked!

My dog started off retching in the morning to actually vomiting (once was on my face :-( )

I think the treats I was giving him just didn't agree with him.

Also... dogs are NOT supposed to have any dairy at all, the same as cats, as their digestive system cannot digest it properly and it can be toxic, so that itself could be the problem. You could try putting peanut butter in to your dogs kong instead :-)

Denise90

ISDW wrote: »

Have you spoken to the breeder that you got her from? She may have been doing this before she left there, or some of the other pups may be, and they could possibly have some good advice for you.

Any chance of some photos? Sammy pups are soooooooooooo cute.

I hadn't thought of that actually, I might give them a ring tomorrow, thank you.
I have some photos up in the Post Your Pet Pic thread

Kloecor wrote: »

This happened my little Bichon a few months ago, I didn't know what on Earth was wrong!

Someone suggested not giving him any treats and no food in the evening (before bed) and it worked!

My dog started off retching in the morning to actually vomiting (once was on my face :-( )

I think the treats I was giving him just didn't agree with him.

Also... dogs are NOT supposed to have any dairy at all, the same as cats, as their digestive system cannot digest it properly and it can be toxic, so that itself could be the problem. You could try putting peanut butter in to your dogs kong instead :-)

I've stopped all treats for now so I'll see how that goes.
The only reason I used live natural yogurt was because I've read it numerous times that it is good for beneficial gut bacteria, but then others say disagree.. it's so hard to know from reading online She hasn't had that in about 2 weeks so I'll probably just cut it out anyway

DBB

Don't worry too much about giving natural yogurt. Adult dogs are lactose intolerant, but natural yogurt is very low in lactose... Take this from this lactose intolerant human!
Now, there's always a small chance that the yogurt is affecting your dog, but as long as you're not giving loads of it, it's unlikely to cause problems.

Kloecor

Well if she's doing it after 2 weeks of no yogurt then that's definitely not the problem! It's just like humans, some can't eat it and some can, but dogs can't tell you, unfortunately :P

I say give it another week and see if it stops. And try not giving her food after around 8? Even just for a few days and see if it stops, it worked for my dog. It's worth a try :-)