Dog Failed Vomiting Behaviour

[ktn]

Hi all,

My ten year old Bob has been doing this for some time about 2-3 months. He will try to puke but nothing ever comes up. He's very healthy otherwise, eats, poops, and as alert as normal. Just slowing down in walks as he's getting on. Vet said not to worry as it could be due to the food he's eating.

Oh, and when I pick him up, and put him down again he will also do the same, but this is in the evenings after meals.

I guess the only thing we've changed when I first noticed this is I moved to Artemis kibbles recently to try it out. The kibbles are smaller pieces. I've tried soaking them first but it didn't make a difference.

Any ideas, or should I not worry?

thanks heaps!

Kat

[persephone]

Hi- I would perhaps get another vet to have a look - it is certainly not normal behaviour... and if that is what your vet said - then it's not a satisfactory explanation :D

[Erny]

I don't understand the thread title. "Dog Failed Vomiting Behaviour" :D .

I think if the attempts to vomit have been continuing for 2-3 months, the situation deserves more investigation than what is indicated as having been given.

[SchnauzerMax]

Are you sure he's trying to vomit and not just cough / gag ?

Some dogs develop less rigid windpipes as they age. This means that the receptors on the inside of the windpipe get triggered easily and they cough/gag easily. It can appear that they are trying to vomit but nothing "comes up".

There is a fancy name for this but I can't remember it :D . From memory, small dogs are more prone to this than larger ones.

[ktn]

Hmm, I could indeed be confusing a gag with attempts to vomit - nothing ever comes out. He did get a clean bill of health from the vet check, and they're usually very good.

[missmoo]

I would take your dog to the vet.....trying to vomit or vomiting can be a sign of early stage kidney failure, the dog feels sick so throwing up or trying to is a dogs way of trying alleviate the feeling...i am no expert and i am certainly not saying your dog has this but you should probably get another opinion from a different vet

cheers,

MM

edited for bad spelling and even more shocking grammar

Edited June 7, 2010 by missmoo

[Dagmar]

Hi all,

My ten year old Bob has been doing this for some time about 2-3 months. He will try to puke but nothing ever comes up. He's very healthy otherwise, eats, poops, and as alert as normal. Just slowing down in walks as he's getting on. Vet said not to worry as it could be due to the food he's eating.

Oh, and when I pick him up, and put him down again he will also do the same, but this is in the evenings after meals.

I guess the only thing we've changed when I first noticed this is I moved to Artemis kibbles recently to try it out. The kibbles are smaller pieces. I've tried soaking them first but it didn't make a difference.

Any ideas, or should I not worry?

thanks heaps!

Kat

I have to agree with the other ones here, there are too many possible causes for this kind of behaviour. We can surely scare you will all sorts of assumptions, so best would be if he could see another vet (getting a 2nd opinion). Maybe it is something serious, maybe it is nothing to worry about. To find out one needs a diagnose.

[Mas1981]

Your dog might not be doing this but I had 2 large breed dogs and when they drank water it would often go down the wrong pipe and it sounded like they needed to vomit but nothing would come up.

[SchnauzerMax]

Can you video his behaviour so you can show the vet? using a camera phone would probably be good enough.

[ktn]

Some updates. Spoke to the vet about it and he asked me to try to divide Bob's meal to feed twice a day instead of once during the evening. I'm trying this out. The first night - he only coughed/gagged/vomit attempt once.

Tonight the second night, he has not made a sound yet - wow!

I'm going to see how this goes.

Kat

[persephone]

sounds promising !!. Hope you have found a solution - but it would be nice to know WHY exactly he does it ...