[izoazlion]

Hey guys,

We have Blue, a 1.5 year old GSD, hes our world.

This last 3-4 days he's been less interested in his food and - once every couple days or so - has a throw up containing predominantly half digested or undigested food. His pooping habits have been normal, his poop is of normal quality but not as big, which I might say is due to the lesser quantity of food going in. He's eating once a day at the moment with about 1.5-2 cups going in. Normally on 4 cups a day of Acana Pacific.

He has chipped an incisor tooth next to his top left canine, we took him to the vet for that but the vet didn't think it was a problem at least in the immediate. I can't tell whether maybe he ate something at the dog park that isn't digestible, or what is going on. His character is great, he's interested in doing stuff, but he's not consuming what he should be and he's bringing it back up sometimes too.

Where to start?

Thanks guys

Izo

 

[eddie1976E]

If this is consistent and it was my dog, I would get some diagnostics done. Blood work to begin with. If you think he ate something that he shouldn't have I would look at xray. He has normal bowel movements, so unlikely that there is a blockage or anything. But if something is irritating his stomach, maybe the xray will shed some light.

Good luck.

 

[Kazel]

I just had to have emergency surgery on my dog due to a blockage. He sounded like he was going to throw up on a Wednesday morning but did not. Appetite and behavior was normal. Thursday he threw bile up twice very early morning. I didn't feed him as normal, later at a reasonable hour I took him outside for a walk. He was active and alert, wasn't bloating and had normal stools. I fed him a small amount of food later in the day and he threw that back up. When I palpated his stomach he threw up and seemed uncomfortable so I followed my instincts and I took him into the vet. They took an x-ray which showed metal so surgery it was but the real culprit was a long piece of plastic working it's way down his intestines blocking them. My best guess is he snarfed down a piece of garbage when out on a walk around town as I don't have anything like what they took out at my house and the snow melt has revealed a ton of litter and trash. Based on symptoms and time period the only day he could have eaten the garbage was on a Tuesday and he had normal stools that Thursday despite a blockage. They can just be partial.

So if I was you I'd take your boy into the vet. My guy would likely have died had I not taken him in and had surgery.

 

[2S1H]

If this was my dog, I would also look at Megaesophagus. Why? It can show from birth or show later or show up at any age, GSDs seem to be creeping to the top of the list of breeds that are more likely to be affected. I’ve raised 2, Diva, AKC registered and Jersey “must be a pure bred” cause she was a Black & Tan

If you research it, it might look scary at 1st glance, don’t be scared. It also can be quite manageable.

Suggestions at this time, record what/when feeding, and the results of keeping it in. Any change in schedule, type of food, or the norms (probably a lot out of the norms, at this time as everyone is facing right now) keeping simple “written” notes lets you be able to look back & see if there might be a trigger of sorts.

There are others on this forum that have dealt with this.

Please keep us updated

 

[izoazlion]

Sorry for the slow response, we monitored it for a couple more days and it continued - I hadn't seen a couple of these messages actually. Anyway we went to the Vet, he's not immediately worried - Blue showed no signs of pain or anything, he's still passing poop, so we're trying some meds to calm his stomach and a different, stomach-happier food. We'll do that for a few days and see, but Vet said if it remains the same or gets worse, we'll do blood and xray. I feel better but we are monitoring by the day.

The nice thing about this virus shenanigans is that we're with him 100% of the time.

 

[izoazlion]

Final update - He threw up again yesterday so sure enough X-ray today and what do you know, a small tennis ball in his stomach. Awesome. Endoscopy removal, he's all good now. Phew.

 

[McGloomy]

Oh wow. Great to hear that. And it's good that you found a vet at this time!