Well. What a day. I decided to bring my 6.5 month old GSD to work with my today. This means leaving her crated in my car in the parking garage. It's underground, and gets to about 75 degrees on a warm day.

When we arrived at 7am she vomited (I heard her do it as we got off the freeway, work is less than a mile from the freeway). I thought little of it, because we'd been on the freeway and she doesn't get on the freeway a lot. It was a bit of liquid and two large brown chunks. It appeared as if she'd been eating stools, and had thrown them up. I don't let her eat her own stools ever, and I THOUGHT she never went outside unsupervised, but after questioning my wife she admitted that if she gets home first she lets both dogs out in the backyard together, to do their business. (Grrr)

So I figured that was it, she'd be fine. I go down at 10am and the inside of her crate is a pool of dark brown goop. It seems she'd thrown up again, but this had...an unholy stench. It was the consistency of diarrhea, but had the acidic smell of vomit. It seemed pretty fresh when I got down there, and I really, really hope she wasn't laying in it for very long.

I'm not sure what it was. In quantity it was probably about a cup of gruel. It was a light brown with a tinge of yellow, it smelled of feces and vomit, and it was everywhere in her crate. I cleaned her up, put her in the back seat and cleaned the crate up. This took about 45 minutes.

Now my clothes smell like it...Ugh. Anyway, the car smells god awful and I didn't want to put her back in there but I have nowhere else to put her.

It wasn't really water, and she's drinking fine, so I think I'm just going to monitor it...but I've never seen or smelled anything like this ever before. Any tips? Ideas? Is this a symptom of something that is familiar to anyone? Should I leave work and take her to a vet? A bathtub?

Does she normally get carsick?

And what did she last eat before being sick?

David,
I dug up an old thread that I had posted back in February where my pup who was around 5 months old at the time had vomited in his crate and it smelled like feces. Here is the link:

http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=33&Number=130543&Searchpage=7&Main=14086&Words=Diane+Joslin&topic=0&Search=true#Post130543

Don't know if any of that information will help you or not. Cindy said that it would be one of two things: either the dog ate his own or another dog's feces or else he has a bowel obstruction.

That was the only time it ever happened to my dog (he is now over a year old). I just kept a close eye on his condition and he was fine!

I'd be watching the dog carefully, and if there was a second one like that I'd call the vet.

Carol: She got carsick the day we brought her home, and this is the first time since then. I drive her somewhere on an almost nightly basis, for socialization. This is however the longest trip she's been on since the day we brought her home.

She's fed raw, last night she had ground beef and an egg. She had OB group class last night, so she was hungry, she wolfed it down. She hadn't eaten anything this morning (I put her food down, but in the mornings she's been about 50/50 on eating for the last few weeks, and refuses to eat in her crate (dinner she scarfs down, completely, every time)). Her stool has been loose on and off. Generally I add 1 tbsp of cottage cheese to her meals and the days that I've left it out her stools were pretty soft (over the last week)

Diane: Good thread. I'll keep an eye on that. I hope it's not a bowl obstruction, her stools have been smaller and she has been less excited about food in the last month.

Connie: This is actually the second one. The first one was early mid last week...It seems like it was a lot longer, because I was in a wedding on Sunday so the time is stretched but it was last Tuesday(the 6th). Same MO, but she was in her crate. My wife had taken the day off...she came home from the grocery store and there was a foul mess. After talking to her, she says my description of the smell and consistency is exactly what she saw.

Looks like it's time to call the Vet.

Alright. Going in at 3:30 (it is 2:09 now).

 Quote: David Eagle

Alright. Going in at 3:30 (it is 2:09 now).

Please keep us posted....I hope all goes well.

 Quote: David Eagle

Alright. Going in at 3:30 (it is 2:09 now).

It will be better to be reassured. I'm with you, even though it would be continuing incidents that would worry me most, as opposed to separated incidents.

I'd probably be prepared to hear a BS lecture about raw.

I'd be sure to mention the poop-eating, too, but the possibility that there might have been no poop-eating the first time.

You mentione ground beef and egg .... the RMBs are fed at another meal?

Hopefully, it's just carsickness. Ginger gets carsick all the time. If we are going to take her somewhere in the afternoon, she doesn't get any food after breakfast.

Well, he said her bowels felt fine (I need to learn how to do that!) and he confirmed that the vomit seemed to be partially digested stools. We decided to do a fecal, blood and urine, full labs, just to be safe.

One hypothesis he had on the first instance of vomitting was that she may have pooped in her crate and eaten it, then gotten sick. She doesn't have a lot of wiggle room in there, but it isn't physically impossible.

Surprisingly, there wasn't a BS lecture, he nodded, asked about the the raw egg "You give it how many times? 3 times a week? ok." and that was about it. I mentioned that for the last week or so she's been refusing her morning meal, which is where she gets her RMB. When she does this I (slightly) reduce the quantity of her evening meal and add RMB's to that, which she always wolfs down. He nodded. I don't know if he followed 100%, but he didn't give me any crap.

She was in about 4 weeks ago for Rabies, and she hasn't gained any weight since then, but she has gained height and...size. I'm concerned about that, and about her not eating her breakfast. She also won't eat in her crate anymore. She'll only eat if she's out of her crate, and if I'm in the area. If I put food down for her and walk away, she'd rather follow me than stay and eat.

She's not looking unhealthily skinny yet, but the unwillingness to eat worries me... I can't see her ribs, but I can see a hint of rib, and when I touch her I can feel them.