Dog vomiting yellow/white foam since being fed vegan food

Question

UPDATE: Must have been something else. Vet gave an oral medicine and everything was back to normal in 2 days. I still feed him vegan food 6 days a week.

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A few days ago, I decided to feed my dog vegetables (& some fruits) more often than animal sources like meat, eggs, milk, etc. (He is a 4-year old golden retriever.)

This is what I fed him for a few days: [Whole rice, soybeans, red lentils, sweet potatoes, carrots, tomato, beans, cabbage, spinach, coriander] in the morning and [1/2 apple, banana, 1/4 pomegranate, 1/4 beetroot, oatmeal (with water)] in the evening.

The 1st day on which I fed him the diet went fine. I checked his stools in the evening as a precautionary measure and It seemed fine, I think I saw some undigested soybeans in there, otherwise it was fine, but he sh*t a ton.

I checked his stools in the morning on the second day, and I could still see more soybeans (which I fed the previous morning). I fed him the same diet on the 2nd day as well and checked his stools in the evening. Same story.

On the 3rd day, early in the morning, he vomited what looked like yellowish foam; not a lot, more like 3-4 tablespoons. And from the stools it was clear that he's unable to digest soybeans.

He vomited on the 4th day (early morning like before) as well. Bad stools and vomiting got me worried. So I had the soy and lentils ground and cooked instead of cooking whole. This following evening, his stools are fine and it's no longer a ton. Then he slept as usual and all of a sudden woke up only to vomit some white foam/liquid (could be oats, could be bad stuff happening inside, I don't know).

The same happened on the 5th day. Today he vomited (yellow again) while we were out for the morning walk.

What could be causing this? Could it be because of indigestion (soybeans)?

He's hopping and running around as usual, and I couldn't find indigestion causing yellow foamy vomiting. As of now I've removed soybeans and lentils from his food.

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Update

Like I initially thought, my dog is doing great since removing soy and lentils from his diet. So, it's most probably due to indigestion caused by soybeans. I'll add back lentils soon; so this is what I plan to feed him now (5 days a week):

• Morning: whole rice/ground quinoa, red lentils, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, cabbage, spinach, olive/sunflower oil, coriander/turmeric

• Evening: 1/2 apple, banana, 1/4 pomegranate, 1/4 beetroot, oatmeal (with water), honey

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Answers to your questions

Before you ask: Feeding him veggies and fruits only isn't very healthy. Give him meat; dogs thrive on it!

I feed him meat, eggs and milk 2 days a week. The rest of the days he gets cooked veggies, and in small amounts, raw fruits, and some grains (whole rice, oats, quinoa)—to provide all the nutrients he needs to have a perfectly healthy body.

As for formulating my dog's diet, we all have our understanding. Just to state what I think——I don't believe that diet is rocket science; except that you should know what you are feeding is nutritious and not harmful in any manner. Then if you vary the diet enough, the dog would be healthy and fine. Meat, poultry, eggs, and milk aren't as nutritious as they once were, and can even be less nutritious or outright harmful in the long-term (due to steroids or bad diet given to source animals, among other reasons). There's no one right way. And I am not arguing. I am sure you all have your opinion.

I'll of course be monitoring my dog's health closely. :)

I'm also concerned about other elements of the diet, raw egg can lead to skin and coat issues as well as running a salmonella risk.

I should have been more clear earlier. None of the ingredients in my dog's diet, except fruits, are served uncooked. Hopefully explained well in the question now.

[...] Nevertheless, I'm not convinced that this diet is healthy.

[...] What's the source of this diet?

I've made a list of the most essential nutrients for dogs, and their sources. Then I made sure that all bases are covered in the diet I feed my dog. The 'diet' on the whole is healthy. If you have more questions, as to whether a dog can be fed mostly-vegan diet at all, you may want to google 'vegan food for dogs'. There IS some credible information.

READ: Homemade dog food: Essential nutrients & their sources

Also, I have cross-checked the ingredients of some of the top pet-food brands.

Do you give the dog the core of the apple to eat? Apple pips contain cyanide, not dangerous in small doeses but if he's having them regularly...

No. The core is removed. I have done my research. :)

Answer 1

The yellowish foam is typically acid reflux. My dog does this about once a month, and it's gross but he seems to have no ill effects.

One day I took him to a vet and while there I was told that he'd vomited the yellowish foam. They explained it was acid reflux, and they asked whether he'd skipped a meal in the previous 24 hours. According to the vet tech, it's much more common when the dog is underfed. I came home and realized that I'd accidentally forgotten to give him his 2nd cup of food that morning.

I'd stop with the vegan diet for your dog because it doesn't look like he's handling it well.

Answer 2

Vomitting some yellow/whiteish foam on the morning isn't necessarily bad. The reason might be some acid reflux: The natural way for the dog to deal with that is vomitting the excess acid.

Different food will take different time to be digested, so I'd assume your dog's stomach simply isn't busy enough during the night/on the morning.

When do you feed your dog on the evening and is that the last time of the day he gets something?

What you could try is just giving the dog a few treats right before you go to bed. This could be pretty much anything, like some dried meat (e.g. chicken).

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Besides that, even if you think the overall nutrition values are perfect, I'd try to mix everything, so there's not a "meat day" and a "veggie day". Get everything of both every day. There are also some nutrients the dog has to get at the same time (like calcium and phosphor) to be able to properly handle them. Just having the correct ratio stretched over a week won't necessarily work (or be healthy).

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If you're feeding your dog (at least a bit) late on the evening or possibly even during the night, and the vomitting doesn't stop, you should consult a vet, as there might be some other reasons as well.

Answer 3

We have a mainly vegetarian dog - partially cause we're vegetarian, and partially cause he had a very very bad experience with regular dog food as a puppy. He initially refused tinned stuff (and its a little awkward for us), and would drink milk from milk soaked kibble. He'd also had a tendancy to only eat kibble that had been left out for a few hours (and smelt less... kibbly). We do leave kibble out as he's been getting older, but he kinda considered that a 'treat' rather than his main food.

I'd lean towards the soya, and well, gas, and general digestability

Traditionally dogs were fed rice with yogurt or millet porridge in India , and dogs are omnivorous, so balanced vegetarian food might work. Its possible to have a dog vegan with the right mix of foods

In our experience - mashed peas seem to work. frozen, cooked sweet corn does as well, but you need to mash it up properly or it won't digest at all. Dogs have some issues with "bulk" roughage I suspect.

Boiled sweet potato seems to work, but has a tenancy to cause gas.

Red capsicum's ok (tho it makes his poo a rather distressing red colour) as are carrots. Never tried beets before.

We've also found (fairly recently!) that probiotics help a little with bloat and stomach issues. We tend to give him a probiotic capsule (which the little fella likes a bit too much) a day and it works well preventively. Might be worth trying with high protein legumes, if they're causing him indigestion.