Today, about mid-afternoon, my dog threw up several times. Having had many dogs, this didn’t concern me too much, until he couldn’t keep water down. I called the vet, who made some time to see him. She decided that since he was acting OK we should monitor the situation, no food til morning, the usual.
Well, now it’s 11pm, and the poor guy is heaving bile. At the vet’s suggestion, I gave just a little water and that came up about 90 minutes later, looking medium brown (color of coffee ice cream) and smelling horrible, not unlike the stuff that usually comes out the other end
Naturally, I will be calling the vet in the morning, but in the meantime I am wondering what the best course is through the night, and if anyone has any thoughts on what it could be. I like my vet, but I sometimes think she approaches everything like money is no object.
He’s a standard schnauzer, 5 years old, no history of GI issues. He does have a history of eating socks when he was younger, so of course I fear a blockage (the vet saw no signs, but just did a visual poke n prod). However, back in his sock-eating days he always passed them.
Agreed with above advice, with emphasis. I had a dog who presented a lot like that while going into kidney failure. There are many possible causes for those symptoms, few of them appropriate to a wait-and-see approach.
Yup. He needs xrays and fluids, and hopefully not surgery. It does sound like a foreign body though, especially when there’s regurgitating and when it starts to smell like anything other than vomit. It was cool your vet saw him earlier on short notice, not cool to skip the rads, though that’s more often declined by the client.
I’m a vet. If I have a Schnauzer presenting as yours did, it is pancreatitis until proven otherwise. This does require hospitalization for IV fluids, anti-nausea injections, and just as importantly–pain meds. It can be very expensive to treat, and sometimes it becomes a very nasty battle, so I hope your poor guy got to the vet last night. Best wishes for a good outcome.
