My one year old spayed female GSD throws up quite frequently (2 – 4 times a week). It is usually during the night or in the morning but every now and again it is during the day. The vomit doesn’t seem like food vomit. It is more of a clear liquid that leaves a nasty yellow stain. She has done this occasionally over the past months but it seems to have increased from once every week or two to 2 – 4 times a week.

I have tried changing her food (Purina, Science Diet and others) but no luck.

She doesn’t show any symptoms…she’s lively chasing a ball or doing her normal thing then throws up and is fine right afterwards so I can’t sense any behavioral clues.

I have a 11 year old shepherd mix that eats the same and goes everywhere the GSD does but she has no problems.

A friend said she knew of someone with a dog with the same problem and it turned out to be a problem with the pancreas that couldn’t be cured.

Does anyone have any experience with this or knowledge that could help?

On a related note, does anyone know any methods of getting nasty yellow stains out of carpets? Standard store carpet cleaners don’t seem to work.

Evsco stain remover/ odor nuetralizer for the carpet and a trip to the vet for your puppy. inmho, I'm just a pet owner.

I just remembered; Do you have kids? mine leave a trail of food, especially the 3 year old. and everybody wants to feed and play with the puppy and will LIE about it.

You may want to have her checked out for mega-esophagus. My adult, 5 yr old GSD has it and also only comes up with watery piles.

This is NOT always a fatal condition in dogs that are a good weight and energy level, so don't freak when you read up on it online. But if the esophagus is enlarged, food/water will tend to stay in it rather than going into the stomach. And after lying down all night, gravity can't help to push it down either. Big thing if diagnosed is to NOT breed the dog because this is a genetic condition that can be passed on and can be a huge problem.

I feed my girl in a standing food/water bowl and just put up with the occasional cleanings in the house. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_megaesophagus.html

Let us know what you find out Mike, we all learn something from other ppl's posts

Don't have kids. I feed the dogs about 4 - 6.00pm.

I tried gradually switching to Nutro (for dogs with allergies and sensitive skin) but she threw up...only a small amount this morning so that doesn't seem to have done the trick.

By the way, she has some sort of allergy I think. She often scratches her head/ears and occasionally other parts. I've tried changing her brand of food a number of times but with no luck. The vet tried some kind of medication but that didn't work either. His response was to continue trying different medications on a trial and error basis until we found something that worked. I prefer to find the cause and deal with that.

I have also stopped any treats, biscuits, etc. after feeding her in the afternoon/evening. Hoping that if she did have the enlarged esophagus, she would be active enough for long enough to digest it before she slept. It seemed to have worked for the last few days but as I said, she threw up again this morning.

Any other ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. She is a great dog.

Mike,
My dog had similar problems at that same age. When I took him to the vet they said to try and feed more frequently with smaller portions, because when he turned one I had gone to once a day feedings. So the question is how many times a day do you feed him? It has stopped since, but I think she may be hungry and the accumulation of bile is what being thrown up due to an empty stomach. If this doesn’t work obviously go to your vet to have her checked out for other possible problems. You may also want to try and go with a more natural dog food. Now most bags have zing words as “Natural, Healthy, Improves skin allergies, “ and just simply marketing techniques to get you to try them. I prefer giving my dog a raw diet, but I understand that it is a lot of work for people. There are a lot of resources on this discussion board to help you out with raw feeding if your interested. As for kibble you may want to look at dog foods that use USDA meat in their product, as well as human grade fillers. There are costly allergy tests that can be done as well, but by feeding raw you know what goes into your dogs meal. If your dog truly has allergies, you can isolate the food it’s allergic to and remove it from her diet if you make it your self. If you use commercial kibble it may take dozens of trials of different foods to figure out what ingredients are causing the problem. Hope this helps, and hope she gets better soon.

Yes I do feed her once a day. I will try twice or should I go to three.

You are correct, I just don't have the time to put into a raw diet.

Can anyone recommend a kibble food that might help? Right now, I moved to Nutro brand but that doesn't stop her scratching and she did throw up again for the first time in a few days so it hasn't stopped that either.

When Max was having a digestive spell I gave him canned Salmon and steamed white rice twice a day. again, if it was my puppy, we'd be at the vet's.

Well she seems fine other than the occasional vomiting a few mornings a week. She's lively, attentive, trainable and has tons of energy.

I'm not one for medication personally or for dogs and if the vets only response is to do some trial and error with various drugs, I would rather try alternative methods.