induced vomiting, still sick

Question
Greetings,
Yesterday my hubby gave my 5 year old Rottweiler a "vet approved" rawhide. At some point, when my dog was eating the bone, she started licking her lips and looking for grass to eat (which she ate) She has had these episodes of lip licking and swallowing in the past and I often thought it was cause she ate some string from my carpet or hair, but since she was eating rawhide, I was worried if she swallowed a larger piece.

Because the great amount of grass she ate didn't do the trick, I gave her 3% hydrogen peroxide to make her vomit. After 3 attempts, she finally vomited grass and rawhide. Last night in the middle of the night she burped and regurgitated bile and a bit of grass. Not sure how she could still have grass in her if I made her vomit it yesterday) Today, she burped again and vregurgitated 2-3 pieces of kibble. Now she vomited bile with stomach contractions. My question is can she still have rawhide in her despite I induced vomiting within one hour? How can she vomit grass in the middle of the night if I induced vomiting after she ate the grass? I always thought when you induce vomiting the stomach empties completely and she was induced vomiting only within 1 hour of eating the rawhide. Also, she pooped this morning and even though she vomited 2-3 pieces of kibble, she ate her full cup of food this morning and kept it down and kept down also her evening meal last night, so not too sure if this is an obstruction or if she may still be sick after all the hydrogen peroxide and grass she ate yesterday....curious to know your thoughts, thanks!

Answer
OK I'm a bit confused, but let me get this straight- she ate her food this morning and last night and hasn't vomited or is off her feed? I think that's what you said.

So if she is eating, she should be fine. Vomiting bile means that her liver and pancreas have gotten into the act and that can be a lot worse than just her vomiting. When they vomit bile, it can mean that her pancreas is inflamed from eating the rawhide.

If that continues, you will need to get her into the vets right away, as pancreatitis can be fatal if not treated.

However, if she is not vomiting bile anymore and is eating, she is probably fine. I would watch her stool to make sure she is passing it normally. If not, that can signal an obstruction.

They will often vomit with an obstruction, but not always. But they will develop diarrhea due to nothing else getting by the obstruction.

As far as the grass in her stomach, their stomachs don't always empty all the way. And their digestion is so different then ours. It's much slower for one thing. That is from them coming from wolves where they used to sit around and digest for days. (Wolves still do of course!)

I saw a dog come into our hospital once to board and three days after he was there he vomited up two whole hot dogs! Now we never fed junk like that, so he had eaten them before coming in.
Yet he was eating and pooping fine. It was pretty amazing.

So again, if she is eating, pooping normally and seems fine, then she probably will be fine.

But vet-approved or not, I can't count how many dogs have died from eating rawhide, no matter where they come from. I had someone write me in here two years ago to tell me about their beautiful 3 yr old golden retriever named Willy who suffocated from eating a rawhide at 7 am. At 6 am he was fine, at 8 when they woke up he was dead. Not a sound from him when it happened. He was lying at the foot of their bed on the floor.

The vet found a piece of rawhide stuck in his trachea. It was enough to kill him and I promised them that any time someone wrote to me about their dog eating rawhide- be it strips, knotted ones, or bones, I tell them the story of Willy.

So you might want to re-think your choice of treats for her. Nylabones are a really good and safe choice.

I hope that she feels better and that this all "passes" without a problem! Please let me know how she does.