advice please. dog being sick

[_daisy_]

I have a border collie who is 4. shes wierd to say the least. personally i think she was starved of oxygen at birth

as shes dopey as sin at the best of times but others shes actually quite bright.

now the problem ive got with her is that she is (and has been since bright) regularly sick. ive narrowed it down to the following reasons:
drank too much water
drank cold water too quickly
eaten raw meat
eaten something quite rich (my dad has a bad habit of giving the dogs things to lick, like jugs that have made sauce in (like cheese sauce)

so we try to keep an eye on her when she has a drink - if you tell her to be careful, she a little bit to drink then wanders off and goes back for more later and all is fine.
we try not to give her any titbits as we dont know what she might be fine with
i dont give her anything to eat bar dog food and have to keep reminding my dad not to give here anything bar dog food or a dog biscuit.

now the problem is that when she is sick - take for example last night at 5.30:
she was sick in too many places - she seems to walk whilst shes doing it - i wish shed stand still to do it as i hate clearing sick up . so the dog beds in the utility room got it first - now it was her breakfast which she got at 6am, it was undigested. she does chew her food but it wasnt digested. the rest of sick was bile.

i cant think of anything i can do to help her. vet doesnt seem bothered by it as it isnt a regular event, more just when weve not managed to keep an eye on her. shes a healthy weight, great coat, bright eyes, pink gums, active, fit.

can any of you help or give me advice.

i have PM'd H's mum to see if coligone is suitable for dogs just incase cos ive had wonderful results with one of my horses

 

[brightmount]

I always have a supply of Canine i/d for when my dogs have upset tummies. You can get it from the vet. I use the canned version. Generally I don't starve my dogs unless they are really unwell, but just feed at normal intervals with i/d in small quantities. Or sometimes I will feed more frequently but just a spoonful at a time until the dog is back on track.

Make sure the dog stays hydrated. You can mix some water in with the feed, or another trick is to swish out the dog food can or foil tray to make meaty water which you can put in a saucer and it goes down the hatch very well.

 

[_Acolyte_]

Hmmm - normally I would say starve for 24 hours after each episode, pop some ProKolin (a kaolin/pro-biotic paste) into her, and problem solved

But it seems to be a more behavioural thing rather than an ill-health thing? So you could do this each time but it wouldnt really solve the problem - and you are doing all you can to limit the problem by regulating her behaviour.

So perhaps not worry too much, but shut her in a room with an easily washable floor if you think she might be sick? Sorry I'm not being flippant, I'm just not sure what else to suggest!

 

[_daisy_]

no i realise youre not being flippant, i really havent got a clue as to what to do with her. luckily where the dogs are in the house is all laminate so very easy to clear up then mop all the floors, just anoying when she wont do it in just one room. if im lucky and hear her gipping i boot her outside then all i have to do is get the hose on it.

do you think its odd that her food isnt digested within 12hrs?

 

[Louisex]

plain boiled rice and thats it and it always does the job for our dog.

 

[nijinsky]

Agree with L08 - whenever any of ours are sick we just give them plain boiled rice instead of their normal food.

 

[_Acolyte_]

[ QUOTE ]
no i realise youre not being flippant, i really havent got a clue as to what to do with her. luckily where the dogs are in the house is all laminate so very easy to clear up then mop all the floors, just anoying when she wont do it in just one room. if im lucky and hear her gipping i boot her outside then all i have to do is get the hose on it.

do you think its odd that her food isnt digested within 12hrs?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm trying to think now about when mine have been sick - although they all seem to tend towards the diarrhoea route instead

We did have a lurcher who would be sick when he had over-excited himself (he was a gormless great muppet with very small brain cells

) and I would say that I wouldnt always have expected him to complete digest his food within that timescale, especially if he had been being silly in the meantime?

I do feel for you though - like you say, one place is bad enough but when they helpfully do it then move on it is a nightmare to clean up

 

[sloulou]

What food does your dog have?

I would feed boiled chicken and mashed potato or rice (slightly undercook the rice for sick - overcook for diarhoea).

Is unlikely to be raw meat

seeing as my dog eats that every day and is never sick... unless you think the raw meat was off... I don't feed dog food very often as I do a natural/ homecooked diet. But if it was my dog I would wonder about:

1) Stress?
2) Food intolerance of some kind?
3) Allergy/ sensitivity to something like beef in the food (some dogs react to that)

I'd seriously consider changing dog food to a different brand eg. to Burns - if she having trouble breaking it down

Or look at other factors that happen when she is sick - eg. is she scared by something? Is there soem other thing that triggers a sick response?

 

[_daisy_]

but giving her boiled rice on a permanent basis wont be a healthy diet for her. She isnt unwell just has moments when she is sick and i would say she isnt ill sick just either hasnt chewed ehr food properly or drank too quickly.

silly border collie - thought they were supposed to have stomachs that could cope with anything?

 

[_daisy_]

thanks acolyte. i think with her it is overexcitment of what shes doing - usual gets excited at having fresh water put down, she dives bombs it first before the others, or if they are having titbits, they wait in line and i think she must think theyll steal it off her.

 

[_daisy_]

[ QUOTE ]
What food does your dog have?

I would feed boiled chicken and mashed potato or rice (slightly undercook the rice for sick - overcook for diarhoea).

Is unlikely to be raw meat seeing as my dog eats that every day and is never sick... unless you think the raw meat was off... I don't feed dog food very often as I do a natural/ homecooked diet. But if it was my dog I would wonder about:

1) Stress?
2) Food intolerance of some kind?
3) Allergy/ sensitivity to something like beef in the food (some dogs react to that)

I'd seriously consider changing dog food to a different brand eg. to Burns - if she having trouble breaking it down

Or look at other factors that happen when she is sick - eg. is she scared by something? Is there soem other thing that triggers a sick response?

[/ QUOTE ]

she was started on Hills science plan but we found that all the pups (all the collies weve had) didnt do well on it. she was always loosing wight as a pup but would refuse to eat things so we tried everything. Shes now on Supadog pet either beef or chicken. she seems happy to eat it and does look well on it.
the raw meat is bits like trimmings off chicken we cook for our own teas, or bits off ham etc. none of it is off and the other 2 collies dont have an issue (1 is her sister out of the same litter)

i like your thinking about stres//food intolerances etc. i was wondering if excitement could be a trigger.
Burns? never heard of that but will definitely look into it as i would expect her to digest her food better than what she is doing.

 

[sloulou]

I've just looked up the ingredients on the website:

Ingredients (Chicken)
Cereals, meat and animal derivatives (min 14% chicken, min 2% meat juices), oils and fats, minerals, derivatives of vegetable origin, with antioxidant and colourant EC additives.

Ingredients (Beef)
Cereals, meat and animal derivatives (min 14% beef, min 2% meat juices), oils and fats, minerals, derivatives of vegetable origin, with antioxidant and colourant EC additives.

Just for interest

Have you noticed if she is always sick with the beef variety or doesn't it matter? Cos you could try just the chicken and see if she is sick - then try the beef? Quite alot of dogs are senstive to beef

Although - could also be stress - in which case it wouldn't matter about the food... can you think of anything that migth be triggering the sickness in terms of stress?

ps - chappie is supposed to be a good food for senstitive tummies

Or Naturediet or Natures Harvest are high quality foods - but they are more expensive.. Burns is a good quality dry food

 

[samstar]

My dog was always sick after she'd been on the beach as she likes playing with stones in the sand. Found she'd take quite a bit of sand into her stomach which upset her.