Vomiting Up Breakfast

[Amy and Annabelle]

So 6 weeks ago Annabelle vomited up her breakfast almost as soon as she ate it. I also gave her a chewable flea/tick med in with it at the time as I always do on med day. I attributed it to that at the time even though she had never done it before. Then 4 days ago she threw up breakfast again within minutes, just her food no meds, then again this morning. It is always a few minutes after breakfast, never dinner. Not sure it warrants a trip to the vet yet. Should I just start feeding her 4 times a day instead of 2?  Then take her in if she does it again soon. She eats Orijen Six Fish and the current bag is the Canadian formula. She has been eating Orijen since a couple of weeks after we brought her home as a puppy. So I would be surprised if it was the food itself. Other than the one with the med in it, there is no reason for her to do this as nothing changes. It was raining this morning, so she didn't go out very far to do her business, therefore she didn't even do any running before she ate. Thanks

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I also doubt that it's the food. 

Some dogs will bring up bile in the morning, which is caused by their stomachs being empty for too long a period. This could be related to that same early morning nausea. You could try giving her a small snack about 30 minutes before bed in the evening. 

Also, eating breakfast too quickly or drinking a large amount of water immediately after eating can cause them to regurgitate their food, so if that's the case with Annabelle, you could try slowing her down and/or limiting the amount of water she has with breakfast. 

Regurgitating food immediately after eating it can be a sign of GI disease, but if that were the case, I don;t think it would be happening only after breakfast. I think this is possibly just a case of too much food/water coming into an empty stomach too fast. 

[Carol and Banjo]

I agree with Karen.   Over the 7 years we've had Banjo, he has had "bouts" of this morning regurgitation.    Sometimes, it will happen before he has his morning meal, and it is bile....other times it's right after he eats, and it appears to be his entire breakfast.    A before bedtime snack seems to do the trick.      Then, we get out of the habit and he will go many, many months without incident.   If it starts again, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to why it happens out of the blue, we go back to the late night snack.

[Amy and Annabelle]

Carol jogged my memory on the bile. We had one incidence a month ago of that as well. She threw up on our bed comforter before we even got up, no food, just bile. So there have been 4 times in 6 weeks.

I will try giving a small snack before bed and hope this helps.

After throwing up her entire breakfast, she is now hungry. She walks over to where I store her food bowl and stands there looking at me.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

She probably is hungry. Try giving her breakfast again, maybe a little at a time. 

If it works with your schedule, feeding her 3x a day might also solve this problem. That way, you could give her the last meal later in the evening, and each meal would be smaller. There's no problem with that if it works for you.

But you could try the evening snack first. 

[Amy and Annabelle]

I am going to cover all the bases. I will feed 3 times a day, the morning meal will be in a slo bowl, and I gave her a bit of chicken before bed last night. Annabelle is a very smart girl, and I have a feeling that when the slo bowl arrives and I start giving her food in that, she will flip it over like her treat puzzles, so all the food falls out. Hopefully this will all do the trick and no more barfing. Thanks for your help Karen and Carol.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amy, please keep us posted on how it goes. 

[Amy and Annabelle]

Annabelle had been doing well. I give her a snack before bed, usually a couple of bites of chicken, like last night. I feed her morning meal in a slow bowl, since mornings are her preferred puking time. This morning after we had been up awhile, but before she had eaten, she puked up bile. She had been inactive and laying down when it happened. Now I am wondering if it is stress induced. When I think back to the times she has puked, it has been right after a situation. Last night it was strong storms that lasted for hours with lots of loud noise, pretty much all night long. In the past it has been day after Christmas houseguest arrived, and us leaving her for several hours. January 23rd when I first inquired about this, we had left her with our daughter for 8 hours while we went out of town the day before. She loves our daughter and grandkids and sees them all the time, so at the time I never even considered this, but now I am. She is never away from us for more than 3 hours about once a month. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm glad she's doing well. I would continue with the changes you have made. 

Stress can definitely contribute to GI issues.