# Vomiting today, should I be concerned?



## tangerine (Mar 13, 2013)

We have an older male husky who is 12. He has been eating raw since the beginning of the year along with our other two. He has vomited the end of a leg quarter here and there but this morning he threw up a significant amount of his dinner if not the whole thing. And he just threw up again a couple hours after eating dinner. I know dogs don't feel well every now and then but incidents like this make me think about going back to kibble. I've only been doing this for a short time and get concerned about whether they are getting everything that they need, if i should be adding any supplements and internal damage and parasites that bones and raw meat can possibly cause. Because he is an older gentleman I am especially concerned about him. He ate the same meat as the other dogs and neither of them have thrown up. Should I be concerned? Is there anything I should give him to try and settle his stomach?


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## FBarnes (Feb 17, 2013)

what did you feed him? Was it different? How is he acting other than the throwing up? Is he pooping, drinking, peeing? What do his poops look like? how much are you feeding him? Is what you gave him something you haven't given him before?

Senior dogs do great on raw. However, some dogs are sensitive to meat that other dogs aren't. It is very common for a dog to have an intolerance to a cut of meat that other dogs have no problems with.

I understand your nervousness - it is normal. Once you know what is going on you can fix it. However, if he's lethargic, bloated, acting funny - that is something to be more concerned about.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

He could have eaten too much too fast. You haven't really been feeding raw long and it is normal in the beginning. One of my girls, Copper just has a sensitive stomach and sometimes she will suddenly regurgitate, or even throw up a little while after eating. I just try not to give her a whole lot, and I am careful about making sure she is settled down at least an hour before and after eating. That will trigger it also.

A lot of times after they have thrown up they will re eat it. So, when it happens again give him a chance to see if he will re eat. Honestly, it's not a reason to go back to kibble. You are still in an adjustment period, and switching back is going to cause more digestive upset.


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## tangerine (Mar 13, 2013)

I've been feeding a boneless meal in the morning and RMBs in the morning. Every now and then I do two boneless to one RMB. RMBs are usually leg quarters, sometimes bone-in breasts. Boneless has been a beef/tripe mix lately. He threw up Wednesday morning. Wednesday night around 10pm and a couple more times around 2 or 3am. When he throws it up it is pretty much liquid, it smells terrible and the female husky will eat it if we just leave it sitting around. I've been feeding the same thing for at least a couple of weeks. He gets 2% of his body weight so about 1 lb/day split up into two meals.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Is the skin and fat removed from the chicken? If not you may want to try that, but if it keeps on that much you may want to make a trip to the vet to be sure nothing else is going on.


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## tangerine (Mar 13, 2013)

I do remove a good portion of the skin. I'm sure if we have to take him to the vet they will blame the raw diet. I don't want to be the cause of something happening to him.


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## FBarnes (Feb 17, 2013)

How long have you been feeding him beef? Has he been acting normally otherwise?

And yes, they might blame the raw diet and I had a dog once who threw up and it was as simple as feeding his bony meal in the morning rather than the evening. It's not the raw diet, but it may be what he's getting, when he's getting it, etc.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

I think I would cut out the beef for now, and feed bone in chicken and turkey for about a week and see how that goes. The beef may be just too rich for him right now.


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## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

I am going to give you a bit of a different opinion. I have 4 dogs 2 that are on PMR and 2 that eat raw and kibble with either canned or something home cooked mixed in. I do not mix the raw and kibble some people do. I have my reasons for this I will not go into.

You questioning yourself is not so good to me. While I do understand worrying about giving your dog everything it needs I am worried about you thinking it could just be the raw. I guess I would like to know why you went to raw feeding in the first place? Because for me raw just makes sense. I wish I was doing it for all of mine but I am not and one of mine is 13 and she is one I feed all the stuff to.

I am just thinking your dog is 12 and you know he is not going to live forever, not that it is his time but are you going to blame raw on it if and when something happens to him? I think you need to rethink why you are doing it and if every time something happens are you going to blame raw then maybe you should go back to kibble. It maybe your just new to it and I also understand you worrying about what your vet will say. Just remember YOU are paying him, but I think you need to know in your own mind if it is the right way or the wrong way.

Then you will be confident in what you are feeding. When I was taking Turtle in for her ears the vet I went to didn't like the fact that I was feeding her raw but she also told me that she really didn't know that much about it. I just didn't say much and let her go on knowing that I would never go back with the Turtle.

She also got into something a couple of months ago ...yes she is my problem child......but never in all the stuff that has happened to her have I worried it was raw. So I am saying you need to make sure you want to feed raw or not, because at least in my eyes the raw feeding world doesn't need people that jump into it only to second guess themselves every time something happens. Things happen on kibble also.

If you want to feed your other dogs raw and go back to kibble for your old guy so be it. I for one won't judge you nor do I think anyone here will. And I hope you don't take this post as being rude because it was not meant to be this just popped into my head when I read your post.

You also might want to feed him a pro-biotic, I am going to look into milk kifir for my dogs.


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## tangerine (Mar 13, 2013)

I had tried prey model last year and ended up going back to kibble because I was too overwhelmed. This time around I feel like I have a better grasp on how to do it. My main reason for switching is that the female husky has seizures and either because of the medicine she is on or the food we were feeding she was waking us up every night because she had to poop. And she was just pooping way too much and my dachshunds breath was terrible. I can't say that her breath is minty fresh but it's not as bad as it was. I have read about people that stopped feeding kibble and sometimes their dogs would stop having seizures. I know kibble is just not a great option and home cooked seems like there is too much involved, having to add back in everything that you cooked out. Raw seemed like I could actually handle doing it. That doesn't mean I don't have concerns or doubts from time to time. I'm still afraid of bones causing damage, intestinal blockage etc.. and possible parasites that they can pick up from raw meat. But for now I'm continuing on.


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## FBarnes (Feb 17, 2013)

tangerine said:


> I had tried prey model last year and ended up going back to kibble because I was too overwhelmed. This time around I feel like I have a better grasp on how to do it. My main reason for switching is that the female husky has seizures and either because of the medicine she is on or the food we were feeding she was waking us up every night because she had to poop. And she was just pooping way too much and my dachshunds breath was terrible. I can't say that her breath is minty fresh but it's not as bad as it was. I have read about people that stopped feeding kibble and sometimes their dogs would stop having seizures. I know kibble is just not a great option and home cooked seems like there is too much involved, having to add back in everything that you cooked out. Raw seemed like I could actually handle doing it. That doesn't mean I don't have concerns or doubts from time to time. I'm still afraid of bones causing damage, intestinal blockage etc.. and possible parasites that they can pick up from raw meat. But for now I'm continuing on.


I think it is natural to have fears at first. Goodness knows I did. I waited for weeks for something horrible to happen and still today sometimes I think "OMG I can't believe I just gave my dog that. He will surely have a bone come poking out of his stomach at any minute." I think I project my fears about what would happen if I ate the bone onto my dog. I know I would die if I ate a raw chicken leg - if not from salmonella, from the bone itself. Dogs are truly amazing creatures!


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

I won't weigh in on the vomiting because I am not a vet and dogs can vomit for any number of reasons but I will comment on your other fears. 

The parasites, blockages, internal bleeding/damage, etc. isn't something you need to worry yourself over. I have three dogs on raw and two of them were puppies (8 weeks and 10 weeks) when I transitioned them. Dogs eat so many other things like balls and socks that are much more dangerous than food they were naturally meant to eat.

I hope your old guy's issue is just a simple deal that you can figure out quickly. Our older guys are special.


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## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

Ok then on you go. I think for me it was not so much of a surprise because I grew up on a ranch and our dogs eat dead things all the time so it is no big deal to me. And I still live in the country and we run into dead things all the time and yes they get them before I can stop them.

When I first got my bullmastiff she was 9 months old and she would try and eat my underwear and she did eat one of my garden gloves. Luckily it came out the back end just fine. I chose not to reuse it. 

I hope your older fella will be fine and I think he will. And I would also try PMR if I had a dog that had seizures. Two of mine have allergies, that is why I feed them PMR.


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## Rvent (Apr 15, 2012)

I wouldn't worry about the raw not being good for your old man, I have two old ladies both are 13 now I put them on raw about a year ago, it was the best thing I have ever done for them, we do have times when they vomit or even have diarrhea it happens for many different reason, be it medications, the food is to rich or sensitive stomach which happens to all of us as we get older. I give a probiotic and digestive enzyme at least 3 times a week. I think if you go very slow with him and maybe even give him smaller portions of bone in maybe that would be better for him.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

how much does your dog weigh and how much are you feeding him?

has he had any episodes of diarrhea?

are his gums nice and pink and the conjunctiva of his eyes?

i'd make a nice chicken broth for him and add in some coconut water to replace electrolytes and feed him a wee bit every few hours.

chances are it is not the raw.....when we're new, and understandably so, we have this tendency to concentrate on the raw feeding, and maybe we can miss an upset stomach. dogs get them, just like humans....

when that happens, treat the symptoms.....has he vomited more than the two times you mentioned?

has he been vaccinated recently? that can upset a tummy.....


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## tangerine (Mar 13, 2013)

It turned out the be just to be a passing thing. He is back to normal although he did throw up last night and this morning again. I think he has trouble digesting larger bone parts like the ends of a leg quarter. Not the problem when he was throwing up originally but possibly todya. Both him and my other husky have liquid poop today. 

What does a chicken broth and coconut water do for them? Wouldn't you need a cooked chicken to make chicken broth? And would I just add in a little coconut water? Can you buy that at the store?


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## FBarnes (Feb 17, 2013)

Yes, you need chicken - less than 100mg sodium per 4 oz serving. You can buy coconut water at health food stores but you can buy pedialyte almost anywhere - you can use that. Slippery elm is very handy to keep on hand but you need to get that at a health or natural food store and you don't give it more than a couple of days because it coats the stomach.

Slippery elm - calms a hyperactive digestive system
Pedialyte or coconut water - replaces lost electrolytes through vomiting and diarrhea
Chicken broth - gives them some nutrients without agitating their stomach and intestines.

How big are your dogs? I give my dachsund a couple of teaspoons of pedialyte/coconut water per day, and 1/2 capsule of slippery elm morning and night. Yes you can put it in the chicken broth.


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## Dobelover (Mar 14, 2013)

You could try grinding the bones with the meat. But if it were me, I would also do some bloodwork on him just to rule out and medical conditions. He's 12 and could potentially be having some health issues unrelated to the diet.


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## tangerine (Mar 13, 2013)

FBarnes said:


> Yes, you need chicken - less than 100mg sodium per 4 oz serving. You can buy coconut water at health food stores but you can buy pedialyte almost anywhere - you can use that. Slippery elm is very handy to keep on hand but you need to get that at a health or natural food store and you don't give it more than a couple of days because it coats the stomach.
> 
> Slippery elm - calms a hyperactive digestive system
> Pedialyte or coconut water - replaces lost electrolytes through vomiting and diarrhea
> ...


I have a dachshund and two huskies. The huskies are having issues, the male is around 50 lbs and the female 40. He is the only one throwing up, but they are both having liquid poop. The dachshund is fine.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

how much are you feeding the huskies? are they active? how old are they?


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## tangerine (Mar 13, 2013)

The male is 12 so he's not so active. The female is around 2 and she is more active. They each get around 1 pound of food per day split up into two meals. The only thing I can think of is they haven't been g etting leg quarters because I haven't been able to find any so maybe they aren't getting enough bone. For bone they've been getting split breasts or thighs.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

tangerine said:


> The male is 12 so he's not so active. The female is around 2 and she is more active. They each get around 1 pound of food per day split up into two meals. The only thing I can think of is they haven't been g etting leg quarters because I haven't been able to find any so maybe they aren't getting enough bone. For bone they've been getting split breasts or thighs.



when did you start feeding raw?

what are their weights? i'm sorry. you might have mentioned it and i am old today. 

it sounds as if they are not getting enough bone.

we use slippery elm as a bandaid for diarrhea if it's due to a condition whereby the runs won't stop because the intestines got a little hyper excited.

we use coconut water rather than pedialyte, since coconut water has more natural electrolytes and pedialyte has chemicals and not much more, although in a pinch, pedialyte will do.

chicken broth (made from simmering a chicken for a few hours) is soothing to the gut and helps to calm an excited intestinal tract, rather than fast the dog.


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## tangerine (Mar 13, 2013)

Started raw at the beginning of the year. 
Male is 12 years old and around 50 lbs
Female is around 2 and around 40 lbs


I found leg quarters and fed them last night, it doesn't seem like they are having diarrhea anymore. So perhaps it was just they aren't getting enough bone. Although I don't know why the male was throwing up.


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