Vomiting yellow foam?
 

Thor has thrown up three times in the past week. The first time was last Thursday. It was late in the day, and since I thought the yellow foam indicates bile / empty stomach, I figured he hadn't eaten enough that day.

On Sunday morning, he had diarrhea and vomited again. He also seemed to have a bad tummy ache. I took him to the vet (of course, the second he entered the vet's office, he seemed fine). He's had two poops since then, both normal. He's been peeing plenty the entire time, so I don't think he's dehydrated. I just got a message this morning from the vet saying his fecal came back negative for everything.

I've been feeding him chicken with rice, a little bit of yogurt, and a few Greenie pill packs to get his Flagyl tabs down twice per day. He ate a TON last night.

This morning, as soon as he got up, he vomited some yellow foam again. He's napping now and doesn't seem to be in any distress. Why would he still be vomiting? He can't possibly have an empty stomach given what he ate last night. Is he still just sick? He's supposed to be on Flagyl for 5-7 days. I took him to the park yesterday and he was running around like he was on fire.

He seemed to be doing so well that I was planning to put him back on normal food after I got the vet's call. Then an hour later he's throwing up. :( Any ideas? I did not get any blood work done at the vet's. The vet said that his pancreatic area did not appear tender, so he didn't think it was pancreatis.

Should I just wait until he's finished the course of his medicine and see if he's completely better by then?

Joey did this when he was a puppy, just an occasional yellow foaming vomit. He never seemed sick, and would eat fine, so I just figured he found something outside to eat that he shouldn't have eaten. The only time he really got sick was non-stop vomiting, and it was 3 times before I could call the vet, another 6 while I was waiting on the phone, and several more in the car ride to the emergency room. That vomit seemed very different, almost clear. They never did find out what caused it, thought perhaps he ate a spider, and gave him an IV for dehydration. I thought the yellow foamy vomit was not serious, it just meant some food didn't agree with them. Sometimes adding a different food can cause it. Perhaps keeping a food diary, and writing down every food and or treat will allow you to see if there is a correlation between certain foods and the vomiting. What are Greenie pill packs? Hope all goes well, and he recovers quickly!

By the way, I thought with pancreatitis the pain could be anywhere, not necessary at the point of pancreas. Also, does he get many fatty foods?

It's not happening enough or often enough for pancreatitis to be a major concern. If you continues the throwing up and/or diarrhea after the Flagyl and you are sure that (if it is throwing up) it is not from an empty stomach, blood work should be done. What did they test his stool for?

If possible, you may want to skip the pill pockets. Can you put his pills in mashed white or sweet potato?

Thanks... he does try to eat stuff off the ground at parks. I am pretty sure he Dropped everything on my command, though.

Greenie pill packs are basically soft treats that you can hide medicine in. Since Thor is so small, his pills had to be broken up into sixths, so the bitter inside is exposed. He takes the medicine with a greenie just fine, though.

He also runs around my office sometimes and it's possible he picked up a little snack off the floor without me noticing.

Oh, I hadn't heard of the pill packs, what a great idea. Thor still pretty young isn't he? They seem to eat anything and everything that first year. We had a house guest that gave Joey a piece of donut, and sure enough, yellow foamy vomit, I was kind of glad the visitor saw it because I think that helped him realize, no trash people food for Joey. The smaller the are, the smaller the amount needed to upset the tummy.

He's two years old, and generally not a hoover. I am a little disturbed, because I just ate some chicken and rice in front of him (we're both eating it, ha ha), and he didn't move a muscle. Normally he'd be all up in my grill. He seems relaxed, though.

I wouldn't say that Pill Pockets are bad but in this case, if you are trying to stick to a bland diet, these may have a negative effect.

Thanks. I'll try slipping his pill into a piece of chicken tonight.

Samson threw up yellow this morning. I caught him with...of all things....chocolate! He had gotten up on the kitchen chair and got an easter candy out of one of the baskets that was on the table. Luckily I got it away from him before he ate a lot. It looked like he only got a nibble of a chocolate covered wafer cookie. It obviously did not agree with him!

I hid some easter candy in my closet before easter (so my kids wouldn't find it) and don't you know Samson got in there and stole a Reeses peanut butter egg! My son got it away from him just after he tore the wrapper, so he didn't eat any. Man they are sneaky and fast!!

maybe a small snack right before bed. A few bites of a cracker or something?

I know you don't like this subject :p, but what are you feeding him? How long has he been on it? And what has he been on in the past?

Well, he just cleaned his bowl of chicken and rice so I guess he's feeling a little better!

To be honest, Thor usually gets a pretty lavish diet. He eats maybe 1/8 a cup of Halo kibble per day. I'd say he gets at least half his calories from Solid Gold jerkey treats. I also give him soft liver treats (potty treat) and dehydrated lamb lung. I also do give him tidbits of what I eat (I KNOW), but I try to keep the tidbits super-small, usually they can fit on the tip of my pinky finger. He might get rice, scrambled eggs, green beans, peas, fat free yogurt, full fat yogurt, milk, 1/4 tsp of ice cream, or a little piece of bread very occasionally. I'll also give him most meats: turkey, low fat ham, roast beef, chicken, little bitty bits of bacon, etc. If I give him a lot of meat, I might add a couple beans to keep him regular. I guess I subscribe to the idea that both humans and dogs benefit from some variety in their diet.

I do keep pushing the kibble because his teeth are so insanely bad and I want to do anything I can to forstall his next dental cleaning.

However, the past few days I've been really careful to limit his diet. He's had as a primary staple chicken and rice, with a little milk or yogurt; a couple bits of celery; a couple greenies; and one or two liver-flavored treats, which he has tolerated in the past. He had a touch of vanilla ice cream, which was my first attempt to get his medicine down (failed). And he chewed a couple chicken bones he found in the park, though he did drop them.

He loves the chicken and rice so much, I don't know if he'll ever eat kibble again after this. That's partly why I was looking to switch him back as soon as possible. No more dog treats for the next few days!

Alrightie..... well there could be your problem! So many different food types for such a tiny pup!! We went through about six months of gastrointestinal problems with Ranger last year, with symptoms starting as you have noted, and ended up with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, which is very serious.

What actually ended up being the culprit was a food intolerance to turkey. Once that was eliminated from his diet, he has not had one problem. We actually fed him some chicken with turkey last fall (NV raw chicken) without thinking about it, and he threw up the next morning. Always yellow foamy bile.

Anyway, I (and just cuz I would do it doesn't make it right for you) would elimate everything from his diet aside from one main protein. Say chicken-based kibble, chicken-based treats, etc. It is controversial to have so much going on in the diet, becuase if something like this or allergies occur, it makes it very difficult to find the offending ingredient. But, if it works for you great. However, if you finish the flagyl and this is a persistant problem, you may want to consider an elimination diet. Also, the treats may just be too rich for him and contributing as well.

Good luck, we have had far too much experience with gastro problems and they are NO FUN!!!!

He could just be fighting a little tummy bug right now - I've heard of two other folks whose yorkies have tummy bugs. Also, flagyl can cause nauseousness, so it might not help there even if it helps w/ the poo. I hope he feels better soon, it's just awful when they're sick.

Yeah, before this happened, I thought Thor had a stomach of iron. As long as he got a decent amount of kibble, he had "Goldilocks" poops, not too hard, not too soft, and at the same time every day.

I do believe that variety is good for the diet, though Thor does get a fair amount of rich food. I guess I justify that because he is a skinny little thing. It's ironic that he was sick today given that he's had much LESS variety than usual for the past few days. Maybe he's still working something out of his system.

Oh, and thanks for the tip on Flagyl and nausea, I didn't know that.

Yeah, I agree, way too much variety. I'm really not sure variety is as good for dogs as it is for humans either. Also, some of the meats you mentioned, are they lunch processed meats, many have more fat than the label suggest. Also the salt content can be too high for a dog. The majority of calories should be coming from a balanced diet that you would find in a dog food. Rice and chicken are ok for short term, but they don't have the balance that a dog requires, remember a balance human diet is not the same as a balanced dog diet. He shouldn't be getting half his diet in jerky treats. I think Ellie May can tell you the percent of calories from treats and extras versus the real food, I can't recall offhand. I would say from reading the diet you are giving him, that he will get pancreatitis when he around 5, if not sooner. I would really not give him any ice cream or full fat yogurt, high fat leads to pancreatitis. He's telling you this diet isn't working.

Feeding a little bit of what you eat is just fine. That's not going to hurt a thing as long as the food is dog-friendly. Ham and bacon do not fall into that category. I would not feed every protein known to man or every grain because if you ever need to do an elimination diet, you will have nothing to go to. Sadly, I have an example. Ellie has gotten rice, barley, pasta (so wheat), oats, probably flax in cereal...so now if she develops another intolerance, where do I turn? Probably couscous, quinoa or millet but since those aren't common and can be pricey, it isn't the best scenario.

When you feed more than 10% treats, the diet can easily be unbalanced which can lead to a whole bunch of issues for different reasons. In puppies it can lead to nutritional cataracts. So while variety is good, it has to be balanced.

I see nothing wrong with giving canned food all the time as long as it's AAFCO approved.

Oh and Ellie loves ice cream too. :)
Of course she can't have it now with all of her issues but a very small bite occasionally shouldn't be a big deal.

So sorry little Thor is not feeling good. Bile would be the first thing you would think of with the yellow foam. I would just make sure he eat something in the morning and at nite before bedtime. Just IMO, I would not feed any type of pork and I have had my schnauzers really get sick on the greenies. I only bought them one time and now mine only get the bully sticks for snacks along with Mother Hubbards tiny bones. They are holistic and they really like them. Maybe just try putting his meds in a piece of cheese. Pancreatis is really bad. We lost one of ours to diabetes 2yrs. ago. He was on 2 shots of insulin a day and survived alittle over 2yrs. after being diagnosed. He ended up dying of pancreatis. It just scares me I guess and I'm real picky about what mine eat. Hope you find out whats wrong and that baby gets to feeling good again. Its so scary when they are sick.

Well, he hasn't had any problems since I started caring for him in mid-December, so I'm not convinced that sickness in the past week indicates a major dietary problem. I am also very judicious with the amounts I give him - like if he gets ham, it's literally 2 calories of ham. The jerkey treats are well balanced, which is why I let him get away with eating so many. Also, just so it's clear, it's not like he gets that much different stuff every day! One week he might get some roast beef along with his kibble and standard treats, and the next maybe some scrambled eggs with green beans.

I know there are a lot of people who believe passionately about how to feed their dogs. I happen to believe that dogs should get "real food" and were probably healthier when they ate table scraps (shrug). That's my food religion. I know there are many different faiths.

I'm feeding chicken and rice now to keep him on a bland diet until his stomach problems subside.

Also, I would never give Thor, say, a Cheeto. I believe in feeding foods that have a small number of understandable ingredients. But if I'm making a soup that has a couple different veggies in it, a little butter, milk, rice, chicken stock, and maybe some shaved nuts on the top, you have a dozen ingredients right there. I still think a couple tablespoons of that soup could be good for him and help round out his diet.

Update
 

Hm. Well Thor has seemed fine for the past few days. This morning he seemed on the verge of being sick again: acting restless and refusing to eat. I remembered that he seemed better the second we left to go to the vet last time, so I decided to take him out for a walk. I did force feed him a little mashed potato, just in case.

As soon as we got outside, he perked right up, and when we got back inside, he ate some chicken and potatoes.

Usually we go out for a big play session in the afternoon, and then have an indoors play session in the evening. He's never been big on morning walks.

I'm still a little concerned because he seems to be acting unusally, but at least he's not throwing up!

Oh, poor little guy. I wish I knew of something that might help. Hope he gets back to normal soon!!

I'm glad Thor's doing better; I still think it's a good idea to keep a food dairy, since you are giving him a wide variety of food. This will really help you see a correlation between certain foods and vomiting. As a comparison, Joey only vomited the little yellow foamy stuff about three times total, as a puppy. He hasn't ever done it since. I would say that a dog that is vomiting once a week has a problem that needs to be addressed. Also, I'm not sure if you are aware of it, but if you are not feeding a dog food, and over half his calories come from human food, than most people recommend supplements. Dogs need as much calcium as grown women, and there is no way to get that much calcium into them without supplements. Commercial dog foods contain the calcium, but if you are using more human food, I hope you consider giving him supplements. Not meaning to criticize your methods, I just want to share information I found useful.

Thanks, I do appreciate it. Just to be clear, nothing close to half his calories come from human food. I am feeding him him chicken with a starch this week to keep him on a bland diet and give his digestive system a rest.

Also, he has never vomited before in my care. He vomited three times in the past week, and obviously I am concerned. I'm still giving him the Flagyl.

Oh sorry, I misunderstood, I thought it was kind of an ungoing thing. Great, he's such a little darling!

Yeah, if Thor was vomiting once per week, I would definitely be re-thinking his diet! We'll see. I would have expected him to be completely better by now, so if he's not completely back to normal by the end of the week, I'll get more blood work done and go from there.

I'm sorry about your little guy. My Pia was vomitting yellow foam every morning for four days in a row. However, she was not acting sick at all. Today was the first day she didn't vomit. Pia does NOT have a sensitive belly so I found this very strange. She seems to be compeletly back to normal now and I hope it stays that way. I hope your little guy is back to himself very soon. Not knowing what's going on can be really upsetting. Hugs to you and Thor.

Oh sorry to hear about your furbaby, glad that is doing much better:aimeeyork

Update #2
 

Well, he woke up with some of the same behavior today, restless and not interested in his usual foods. This time I tried Breathies Minis treats, broken into 32nds :rolleyes:.

That seemed to settle him right down and he's sleeping again. I wonder if maybe his schedule is just off. Normally he sleeps until the early afternoon, at which point I take him to the park for an hour or so, then he sleeps again until the evening, and we play for another hour or so, and then if he still has energy before bedtime, I give him a flossie.

I wonder if his rhythms have been thrown off because I have been working very late hours recently... not sure why he wouldn't be hungry in the morning, though. Oh well. Saturday morning will be his last pill. I can certainly give him little bits of Breathies in the morning... I just don't want to mask an underlying condition. :confused:

Update #3
 

Thor seems to be all better. He completely his Flagyl course yesterday, he has not been vomitting, and his stools remain normal. He's also gone back to being a lazy bug in the morning. :)

On the bright side, I've found that he really loves Breathies Minis, and he only needs a tiny piece to be happy.

I am going to make an effort to stop feeding him some of the richer foods he gets. We do a lot of trick training, and I sometimes need something he's really excited about to get him motivated for a difficult trick. But Breathies just might be that treat. :)