Poor Murphy, Sick on his Birthday :( UPDATE, UPDATE #2 UPDATE #3 FINAL UPDATE, I hope

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Today is our Murphy's 5th Birthday! And as some of you already know, he was born on my birthday, so its a double celebration! He usually gets Pupcakes and treats and visits from his brother and other family doodles.
But not this year. He and Bella did a bad thing last friday and pulled down a 5# bag of flour off the counter, and proceeded to tear it apart and spread it ALL OVER the house. After 2 hours of cleaning up the floors, most of which had a flour and water mixture which we all know makes PASTE! It appears they had emptied their water bowl and dribbled water all through the flour! Of course, eating flour will make you very thirsty so the next project was cleaning up their beards, paws and of all things thier tails. I guess they decided to lay in the flour and they were just so happy with themselves, they swished their tails back and forth in the wet flour too!!!!
Some of the dough balls were so deep and thick in their beards, I finally just started trimming beards and chins to get it out. It was thick in between their toe pads and as hard as dried paste would be.

I figured no harm though as I've never heard of an adverse reaction to flour, but then, no one on DK probably ever had this happen yet either. I fed them dinner as usual, we all go to bed and Murphy wakes up at 2:00 AM vomiting. Then the diarrhea started the next morning, and he ate breakfast (Now rice and boiled Chix) as usual, but then have runny stools and vomit dinner again, and then Sunday both he and Bella vomited late in the afternoon, and both had runny stools.
Monday, Bella is fine and Murphy vomits his breakfast twice, as he re-ate the first round, and then stools are fine and he keeps dinner down. Tues the same, and today the same. I gave him Pepto Bismol mon and tues after the morning vomits, so that might have helped keep his dinners down but I just don't get it. He is eating, drinking, has normal stools, is acting his old self, although he was a little whimpy on sat and sunday.
Can flour do anything to their stomachs that would cause this type of reaction so sporadically and without any other symptoms? I will try giving him the Pepto in the AM before breakfast tomorrow and give him just a little rice with some broth and see how it goes. Any other suggestions?
As for his birthday? Well, he still got pampered. He had a warm bath, and blow dry and a nice long doggy massage that he just melted into the floor while I did it. So not so bad for a birthday after all.

UPDATE:
Murphy did get sick with his morning meal and waited about 30 minutes and tried a little rice with broth, just so he wasn't hungry or have an empty stomach. He took that fine and has maintained it so far today. The Vet suggested Pepcid and even smaller, frequent meals of the chicken and rice, or even just the rice and broth for a few more days and watch. Of course she suggested blood work and tests for other things it could be, but he is stooling fine and drinking as usual, so I see no need for that as yet. Karen in her great wisdom suggested wheat intolerance, and that actually makes sense since he never gets wheat products. So we shall wait and see what the next few mornings bring and go from there. I will take him in if things change or if it continues for much longer. Thank you all for thinking of him.

UPDATE #2 DEC.21
I gave Murphy the Pepcid thurs night and friday morning. I waited one hour to feed breakfast and he did great. Chicken and rice stayed down. DH gave him dinner and that was fine as well, and did not give him a pepcid, but dinner really hasnt been the issue. DH, or I will call him Dr.DH said "he doesnt need pepcid, he's fine". So I didn't give it this morning......HOW STUPID AM I FOR LISTENING?????
So a few minutes after breakfast, he vomited it all again this morning. He got his Pepcid after that and will until I can get him to the Vet on monday as Im thinking I need some tests now. It;s been 8 days of vomiting. I can't imagine it's wheat sensitivity any longer. Otherwise, all is well and he is drinking, playing, pooping normally. What a strange thing.

UPDATE #3 DEC.26
We have had Murphy on Pepcid for one week today. He does well with his morning meals as long as he gets it beforehand and now we realized on tues night that he can get sick with dinner too, so we give the Pepcid every 12 hours. He had not been having a problem with his evening meal so we stopped giving the Pepcid twice a day, a few days beforehand, but he just wasnt quite ready for that to happen. He ate the flour on Dec. 13th, so it will be 2 weeks tomorrow and saturday will be 2 weeks of vomiting. He still is otherwise just fine in every other observable way.

FINAL UPDATE Jan 1
We stopped giving the Pepcid on Monday, dec 30 to test the waters and see if we needed to take him to the Vet for his Tues morning appt. He ate his regular kibble on monday, both meals and retained it just fine. Same with Tues morning and evening and this morning. I did cancel the Vet appt. as the problem seems to have resolved with the Pepcid and chicken and rice and small meals. Unless it happens again, I am going to chalk it up a Wheat overload and intolerance with ensuing GI inflammation. If it does reappear, I will just take him in as then I will know it is an ongoing problem and he will need a treatment plan. Thanks again everyone. All your suggestions and support helped us through this little dilemma .

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I  agree that he could have ended up with a very inflamed G.I. tract that just needs some time to heal. But it does seem like he would have some diarrhea if that were the case-unless it just involved the upper G.I.

Are you certain there was no chance that he consumed an item that could still be in his stomach? Any plastic wrappers or that sort of thing?  A giant dough ball? ;)

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Oh Ricki, if I could just be certain of what these two clowns put in their mouths, I'd be a lot less worried. Wrappers? Yes! Plastic? Yes! Kids toys? Yes! A giant dough ball? I thought that last week, but geez, how long can dough be in a GI track and not get dissolved with gastic juices???? This is just a puzzle. I need some medical testing now to feel confident I am doing the best for him.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

 And they look so sweet in their picture! LOL Yeah, I agree that it's time to get the pros involved. I'm sure curious to know what is going on with him.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This was my thought too...plastic or paper that's sitting in his GI tract. 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

well, there are too many questions and no clear answers, so I will take him in on monday morning. They will start with X-rays I'm sure and go from there. Nothing really makes sense when he only does it in the morning. Unless the empty stomach is more irritated, but they eat almost exactly every 12 hours every day, and no treats at all through out the day. Other than what they can take off the counter!!!! Ok PetPlan.....here I come!!!!!

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

Hmmm...plastic or paper, hope not, but that would be my thought too.  Just fyi though: in humans white flour can increase your triglyceride levels, which can irritate your pancreas and cause an attack. Who knew? But it seems strange that he's only vomiting.  Poor Murph. Fingers crossed all is well. So sorry you're going through this. Happy Birthday Handsome. Feel better soon.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

That is very interesting Cheryl, and I will see what the Vet says about that too. Thank you for that little nugget of info.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Dogs don't produce amylase, the enzyme necessary to digest starches, in their saliva, like we do. In dogs, amylase is only produced by the pancreas, and enters the digestive process relatively late in the game so to speak, in the small intestine, whereas we start breaking down starches before they ever get to our GI tracks. A recent study showed that individual dogs vary in the amount of amylase they produce and in how effectively their digestive systems can process starches, which is one reason some dog do better with grains than others.  I was thinking maybe Murphy couldn't produce enough amylase fast enough to effectively break down such a large amount of starch at one time.  

[F, Calla & Luca]

But then I would think he would pass a lot of undigested starch which does not account for his symptoms I think. 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

This really has us all thinking, that's for sure. And I greatly appreciate it, as there hasn't ever been anything this confusing going on with my guys. All I know is the Pepcid might help him keep his food down, but what if he does have something going on in there that needs treated and Im just masking the problem? I just don't think it could be related to the flour incidence any longer. But it may be and then we will all learn from it, especially if all tests are negative and it resolves on it's own with the treatment I am already doing.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Trust me, if there is anything major going on in there, the Pepcid alone isn't masking the problem. I think controlling the vomiting until you get to the vet is a very good thing, much better than the alternative. :) 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

I do trust you and I will continue with the Pepcid every 12 hours. DH gave him his regular dog food this evening while I was at work. He thinks the chix and rice is making him sick because he is vomiting it up in the morning!!!! I didn't even try to explain it to him.....I'm home now till friday, so I will take it from here. He did say there was some soft poop in the yard, but not sure who's. I Have my nieces Lab here for 10 days, so now I really have to sort through poops!!. I will be on poop patrol tomorrow. Thanks again for everything