# Bile puking



## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

Benji vomitted bile this morning (yelloe liquid). It had bits of grass in it. I think I read somewhere that animals eat grass when they have upset stomach or don't feel well. He has never done this before- that is eating grass. He is back to his usual bouncy self. His stool is normal. He regulates his eating, so sometimes eats once a day or sometimes 3 meals a day. He ate only one meal yesterday. 

Is it true that dogs eat grass to settle their upset tummies.

Thanks in advance for any comments and advice.


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

A lot of our dogs eat grass on a regular basis, so I don't think they do it due to having irritated stomachs.

I have one small area where bermuda grass always tries to start to grow and Hillary runs over there to nibble on it. I don't know if it is softer, or tastier, but that's her patch and she tries to beat the others to it.

I love your new avatar of Benji!


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

Hi Kimberly,
Thanks for the compliments on my avatar and your input! 

What surprised me was that he ate grass. He has never done it before, he eats twigs, bark etc but leaves the grass alone.


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## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

Poornima, My Jassy went through a phase where he wouldn't eat very much and would eat grass and then vomit bile-- the vet said he was vomiting out of hunger. was yesterday a one meal day? maybe he got few treats and one meal wasn't enough- I woudn't worry too much unless it happens again.


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

Hi Missy,
Yes yesterday was 'one -meal -a day' day. I will keep an eye on him. Hopefully he will eat his morning meal today.


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

My guys all eat grass all the time. I think they are half COW.


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## The Fussy Puppy Gang (May 21, 2007)

If Benji's acting fine I wouldn't worry. Some of our dogs are regular grazers, eating what's left of our poor lawn every chance they get. Others will eat some and then vomit bile, usually before breakfast or dinner. We call that 'empty stomach syndrome'. 

Wanda


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## Cosmosmom (Jan 12, 2007)

Cosmo does it on occasion - and yes you are right he does it just before breakfast when I take them out for their morning constitional . We usually walk before breakfast - it cleans them out .
Cosmo occasionally eats grass - get the heaves and vomits the grass and bile .. I used to worry but he seems fine and he eats ok .. He has always been the sensitive one even though he is the big one .. I used to be concerned but he seemed realize it was the thing to do ..
Glad to know their is a terminology for it .
Now if we could come up with something for his barkitis it would be great !!:frusty:


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

*update: bile puking*

Thanks for your caring comments! Happy to report Benji enjoyed his morning walk with his daddy and ate a hearty meal and his favorite treat- Gouda cheese. He is sitting by my side and chewing on the Trader Joes's pork jerky as I type this :whoo:


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

Gouda & TJ's jerky. No, Benji's not spoiled! LOL


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

Kimberly and Kara,
I can't tell you enough how wonderful this forum is to share all Hav stuff and continue to get more IDEAS too to indulge our furbabies :biggrin1: Our friends and family think we've gone crazy! 

Kara, why don't you move here....we have fabulous weather, a wine country, sea and mountains within a couple of hours, fabulous Havs and their doting families and Trader Joe's :becky:


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## Cosmosmom (Jan 12, 2007)

Yes and we have Whole Foods too ..
OOps forgot to mention Starbucks but we have stores such as Peets coffee : that actually have better coffee and their is a place near me where people drink organic coffee and men do eat Quiche ..:biggrin1: 
What do you think Kara - we do have beaches and you can still walk on them !


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## Thumper (Feb 18, 2007)

I would LOVE to! But gosh, way too many *ties* here.

I do live in a very populated area. Virginia Beach has around 500,000 residents! And the neighboring towns, which make up "Hampton Roads" puts our area population at over a million!

But here's the thing...

Places like Whole Foods and Trader Joes put new stores in areas that have a relatively high income bracket. Since the area I live in is FULL of military, that brings the "average income" down quite a bit. This area isnt' considered "wealthy enough" for them, even though...I'm sure plenty of people would shop there. It is silly, IMO. But our area just doesn't meet the criteria since the military is so prevalent here.  Bummer!

Kara


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## MaddiesMom (Apr 1, 2007)

Poornima- Glad to hear that your darling Benji is feeling better. Maddie vomited a little yellow bile a couple of times a while back. It was first thing in the morning when she hadn't eaten. I started to give her a tiny bit of food before bed to prevent the empty stomach syndrome, and she hasn't done it since.


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## Jane (Jun 2, 2007)

Hi Poornima,

I'm sorry to hear Benji vomited (and I can guess who had to clean it up!)

Lincoln has vomited bile once before when his stomach was really empty. It doesn't happen that often.

My neighbor's dog (lab mix) loves to eat grass, but it made him extremely sick. He started having bloody stools. His vet told my neighbor NOT to let him eat a lot of grass because the fibers in the grass are actually very hard on the dog's stomach lining - it was tearing it up, resulting in the the bloody stools. So, I would discourage Benji from eating grass.

Give Benji a big kiss from me!


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## Laurief (Nov 7, 2006)

Poornima, I am so sorry that Benji has not been feeling well. I can say that with three dogs in this house, each week at least one of them is eating grass & then vomiting. My guys have always vomitted bile when they are over hungry or seem to have an upset stomach & very often will eat grass and then get sick, and them be fine!!! If he has only done it once or twice, I would not worry. Lily used to do it regularly in the morning until I started giving her a snack at night. If you find that they do it when they are almost due for a meal, I think is is no problem, but if it is only a short time after they have eaten, then you might want to check with the vet. 
Laurie


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

Hi Jeanne,
I think giving a small snack before bedtime does help with acidity but Benji is not into eating, if he feels full, he doesn't even eat his treats. So it is sometimes challenging. Hopefully, we won't have to deal with it too often. 

Jane, I will tell Benji that Auntie Jane is sending him :kiss: I think he spends too much time watching the cows graze in the open space beyond our yard. He is fascinated by calves, and perhaps decided to checkout their cuisineound: No more grazing if I can help it.

Laurie, I think his vomitting was due to the grass eating. His stomach was empty too. I plan to feed him some Charlee Bears tonight to make sure he doesn't have an empty tummy.


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## Beamer (Jan 29, 2007)

Beamer vomited monday morning which looked all bile like.. 
That was the 1st time and last time..so far... I guess its pretty common!\
Ryan


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## irnfit (Nov 21, 2006)

Laurie, thank goodness it is only grass they are eating. Shelby ran to the pee pad and before I could get there, she ate her poop. About an hour later, we went to bed and she uke: it all up. It smells worse the 2nd time around.


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## Laurief (Nov 7, 2006)

Oh my gosh Michele!! My guys have never done that! That is horrible. They will eat deer poop but they keep that down!! Yea, I will take grass any day. We worked outdoors all day yesterday, and till noon today and the guys are, leaves, sticks, grass, acorns and God knows what else they found. and they kept it all down, thankfully!!


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## Paige (Sep 12, 2006)

irnfit said:


> Laurie, thank goodness it is only grass they are eating. Shelby ran to the pee pad and before I could get there, she ate her poop. About an hour later, we went to bed and she uke: it all up. It smells worse the 2nd time around.


I bought Excel deter coprophagia treatment at petsmart. I caught Nigel doing the nastyuke: . I depooped the yard and I'm giving it all three. It seems to be helping so far. I think he has done it once since , but not sure because it wasuke: But he has light fur on his mouth, so I check him out after he has been outside. THIS IS SO GROSS, I thought I was done with the I can't believe I'm talking about this , since my kids are older. I guess with kids and dogs I should never be surprised with what I find myself talking about.ound:


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## Cosmosmom (Jan 12, 2007)

Hi Kara 
I know it seems odd - we have the reverse - we can have trendy food stores - if you call Trader Joes trendy .. I am not so sure - but it is popular so I guess they have good quality at the right prices .
We do not have walmart kmart petsmart - get my drift no marts in these parts .. Go figure ..
I understand about having ties to an area . We did not have a choice when we moved here - so we had to leave family and good friends behind ..


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## Cosmosmom (Jan 12, 2007)

Yes - Nothing like dogs cats and children to desensitze you .. 
I have two friends that never had children but their dogs keep them in the real world ..
Donna can be a bit of a drama queen when it comes to poop but we love her anyway ..


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## marjrc (Jan 13, 2007)

lfung5 said:


> My guys all eat grass all the time. I think they are half COW.


LOL! Linda, that's what I say about Sammy. He chews everything, including grass so he's part cow, part beaver and well...... a ton of other critters since he has some interesting characteristics. lol

Ricky was vomiting bile for a couple of weeks when he was around 10 mnths. I wasn't sure why and he wouldn't do it every day, always in the morning, but maybe every other morning. I started making sure he had some bkfst. earlier than usual which I was told might help.

Anyway, the problem stopped and I stopped worrying. Ricky might throw up some bile once in a blue moon and Sammy has done it twice in the past 6 months...... so it's not a big deal here.

Michele, I feel for you, hon. uke:


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## Al Henderson (Dec 16, 2006)

I see Derian is not the only one eating grass and everything else he can get in his mouth LOL. He constantly has to have his mouth near the ground like a bloodhound looking for something to get in his mouth. I wish I would have my camera ready sometimes to take photos of him the way he looks with something always in his mouth as he trots around the yard. 

A friend of mine was over visiting and he had dropped an unlit cigarette on the patio and he went to searching where it went to. Next thing we know we spotted Derian sitting down with this unlit cigarette in his mouth like he was actually waiting for someone to give him him a light so he could smoke the thing LOL.


Thing that Derian seems to pick up more than anything is hair. You know every instance he has, Because his feces gets to dangling from his rear-end and he will come with his rump to the ground looking at you with that look in his eyes. "Hey, I need help here". I end up getting the water hose and having to spray him to get him clean and he don't like that one bit.


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## Amy R. (Jul 1, 2007)

Biscuit does this about monthly. The yellow bile barfing. His is often straight bile, no grass. But I know he eats grass & stuff in the yard. He wakes up and it's in the crate (fun). He seems absolutely normal everytime it happens , but I give him a blander diet for a day or two and keep a close eye on his poop . I think they clean out their systems this way.


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## Holli (Mar 31, 2008)

Laurief said:


> Poornima, I am so sorry that Benji has not been feeling well. I can say that with three dogs in this house, each week at least one of them is eating grass & then vomiting. My guys have always vomitted bile when they are over hungry or seem to have an upset stomach & very often will eat grass and then get sick, and them be fine!!! If he has only done it once or twice, I would not worry. Lily used to do it regularly in the morning until I started giving her a snack at night. If you find that they do it when they are almost due for a meal, I think is is no problem, but if it is only a short time after they have eaten, then you might want to check with the vet.
> Laurie


I'm so glad I found this thread. Zippy dry-heaves , bringing up spewtum (sorry for the spelling), almost every morning - early - just before getting up for the day - maybe around 6 am. I'm reading that it might be from being hungry or thirsty. Since we've been in the process of potty training, we have been taking up his food bowl around 8:30 pm, and we lift his water bowl around 9 pm. His last potty break is at 10 pm, and then we put him down for the night. The idea of a little bedtime snack sounds like it's something I should try. Queation is: what should I give him? I'm thinking that a bisquit type doggy treat might be too dry. Any suggestions?

By the way, he seems to be 100% healthy in every other way, so I don't think the dry heaves are from an underlying health issue.


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## Me&2Girls (May 11, 2007)

Poornima - I'm so sorry Benji wasn't feeling well - I know what a light eater he can be. The bedtime snack sounds like a good idea. When he was here I whetted his appetite with a little canned duck and that helped him scarf down his kibble.

I was told that the blades of grass are actually very sharp on the edges and that's what makes them vomit - it cuts the tummy a bit and not to let them chew on it. But you are right, I've never known a dog that doesn't try to eat grass when they have an upset tummy.


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## mckennasedona (Feb 20, 2007)

My girls eat grass pretty regularly with no ill effects. When we first put the grass in a couple of years ago they would eat it and then vomit bile and grass, but the vomiting stopped, thankfully. The grass eating didn't though. They still nosh on the grass. They seem none the worse for wear.


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

Holli said:


> The idea of a little bedtime snack sounds like it's something I should try. Queation is: what should I give him? I'm thinking that a bisquit type doggy treat might be too dry. Any suggestions?
> 
> By the way, he seems to be 100% healthy in every other way, so I don't think the dry heaves are from an underlying health issue.


Holli, biscuit type should work. When Benji had bile puking a while ago, I gave him some treats from Trader Joe's. They are made of beef liver. I also have Natutal Balance Potato and Duch treats. If Benji skips meals, I feed a few to him at night before going to bed.

Good luck!


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