Sporadic sickness and poo problems.

[freshstart24]

My 18 month old Labrador has had sporadic occurrences of throwing up and having loose poo, or straining after pooing (kind of bearing down for a while after pooing).

This has been happening occasionally for about 3 months. Maybe once every 10 days. He has always been completely fine in himself and seems totally unbothered.

He's otherwise fit and not overweight. We feed a good quality dry food, no other treats other than occasionally kong spray and a kong biscuit.

The vomiting is always first thing in the morning. Either before we get him up at 6am, or as soon as he gets outside. Twice he has thrown up in his crate.

Until today the poo incidents have also been in the morning as soon as he gets outside. Poo is quite loose (sorry TMI), but not diarrhoea. He then carries on merrily sniffing about and begins to strain without passing anything for maybe 20 seconds.

On the advice of various doggy friends I've not worried too much about this. Seems Labradors have a reputation for occasional issues like this especially as they do sometimes snaffle up gross things.

However this week it's happened twice, and this morning he had thrown up in his crate and pooed too. It is very very unlike him to make a mess in his crate and I wonder if he must have felt quite unwell to do this.

He is only crated at night, and loves his crate so I will leave the door open so he's not out in a situation where he can't get out if he's I'll in the night again.

I want to take him to the vet. DH thinks that I'm overreacting especially as DDog seems so fine in himself. We've decided to try a food for dogs with sensitive stomachs and DH thinks we should see how we go with this.

All thoughts gratefully received. I have form for dashing to the vets about every little thing.

[BiteyShark]

Well I would take my dog to the vets for a check up especially with the frequency, straining and now messing his bed. In fact we have had months and months of digestion issues which were finally diagnosed as inflammatory bowel disease so if I hadn't kept going to the vets we wouldn't have had the diagnosis and treatment and my dog would still be feeling pretty rubbish all the time (even though he seemed fine as dogs tend to be very stoic).

I know you have changed food but you may also want to change the type. My dog cannot digest kibble very well and we found wet food to be much better for his digestion even now he is well.

How often are you feeding him? If twice a day maybe think about upping it to three times as day and possibly giving a small snack near bedtime so he doesn't go a very long time between meals as that can sometimes make them vomit bile in the morning.

[pigsDOfly]

I'm sorry but taking a dog to the vet that has been throwing up and having very loose poo on and off for 3 months is not rushing off to the vet.

Dogs are masters at hiding pain. You have no way of knowing if your dog is in pain or not.

A dog will not poo and vomit in his crate is it is at all avoidable, something is wrong with him and you have no idea if it's something easily fix or something serious.

My dog had periods of vomiting, which the vet I saw at the time dismissed, until she was really ill one time. Turned out she had pancreatitis and had probably been feeling very unwell for some time.

The sensitive food is a good idea, my dog is on a prescription one and it's helped, although she can't take dry food, even the sensitive food one, it makes her very ill. Trying different things might help your dog but you're not getting to the root of the problem, if there is one.

Take him to a vet and get it investigated.

[adaline]

I think you should take him to the vet. A one-off incident wouldn't bother me but if it's happening on a regular basis it shows there's something not quite right with him.

Vomiting in the morning before meals could be because he's hungry. I've heard of dogs who will vomit if they go too long between feeds - could you try a kong or a biscuit just before bed to line his stomach, perhaps?

As for the loose stools - it could be an intolerance to the food. Personally I don't think a diet of kibble is particularly healthy for dogs - no matter how good quality it is. They should be getting meat/offal/bones as part of their daily diet, not highly processed biscuits. Mine came to us on biscuits and we're in the process of switching him to raw. He's already doing great - his stools are better and he's happier in himself too.

Possibly something to consider if the vet tests come back okay?

[freshstart24]

I've taken DDog to the vets this evening and am reporting back.

Vet thinks he has colitis, which sounds like a generalised term for a sensitive stomach.

We have antibiotics, and a paste to help regulate his gut bacteria and bind him a little.

She suggested a food for sensitive stomachs. They sell one there but it was horrendously expensive (Royal Canin), it would have cost about £12.00 per day for him. So she suggested we try a cheaper alternative sensitive food for now.

Off to do some research.

[idontknowwhattohave]

My lab had this and was diagnosed with colitis by the vet. I gave him Autarky dry food the sensitive one. It's wheat and gluten free and not too expensive. www.autarkyfoods.com. He picked up quite quickly once he'd got settled on autarky

[Molecule]

Try tinned Chappie. My young patterdale often had awful poo problems, sometimes resulting in bloody-pooey-mucusy poos, and one of my dog-walking acquaintances said her Labrador was on chappie on the recommendation of her vet, her dog is 11 and looks wonderful. I put ddog on it and he’s never looked back. I’d tried all sorts of expensive things up to then, but none worked, so now he just has Chappie. If he has too many treats etc he has problems the next day, so now I never deviate, and he seems quite happy. He’s very energetic, glossy and looks a picture of health.

[pigsDOfly]

Pleased to hear you've got some answers for your dog's problem freshstart24

My dog is also Royal Canin Sensitivity Control and it's helped her a lot - she's on wet only as the kibble irritates her stomach. Normally, I wouldn't touch Royal Canin but this one is a very pure food that contains just the basic things the dog needs with no fillers.

If you're going to stick with the Royal Canin food, and a dog can be on it for life, clearly buying it from your vet is not on, it's over 3pound 50 a tin from my vet, (pound sign on my keypad seems to have gone wrong). My dog is small so a tin last roughly 3 meals.

I buy it online from Pets at home and pay 2pound 27 a tin. Most other online places I've looked at seem to be the same or more expensive.

However, if you don't want to pay for that Chappie is supposed to be a good alternative for dogs with sensitive stomachs. My vet nurse has suggested it as an alternative for my dog as the ingredients are very similar to the Royal Canin Sensitive, although I think there is slightly less protein.

Might be an idea to ask your vet about it. Don't be put off by the cheapness of it or the fact that most dog food websites don't give it a high rating, apparently a lot of vets recommend it when dogs have colitis.

[pigsDOfly]

Ah cross post with Molecule.