Not too long ago I was boarding a couple of Bostons and a young Boston mix and they were amusing to have around not much trouble either... I am a firm believer in the power of distraction and redirection.. Knowing we would be having a young dog as a house guest and not wanting to have to worry about gnawing and chewing marks I pulled out all of the toys left over from other visitors... Well, these were used toys, the ones that had lasted through many mouthy playtimes and many many fosters romps in the yard. I felt pretty confident these would hold up through the two or three weeks.... WRONG
Those three plus my Bostons, and my brothers three. Oh the fun you can have with nine Bostons. My planning was working. The young dog was so distracted he did not have enough time to chew on table legs or door frames. The competition was just enough he was never bored. I did not even have to put him a crate at night either, all though I had been warned I might need to. I kept lots of bully sticks around (Did I every tell you how fast a young dog can go through a bully stick?). With so many mouths and in the heat of competition, I noticed several of our dogs that normally would not be the least interested in chewing, were chomping away at the bully sticks... Oh well better than furniture..
Everything was working out when I noticed that our young friend was a real chewer. No toy was safe. toys that had lasted for several years were becoming bits of plastic, I became troubled what if he had swallowed instead of just biting off end bits of toys. Every toy was fast becoming unsafe and had to be tossed in the trash. I started watching him closer. I noticed outside he was even picking up dirt, small rocks sticks, whatever he could find to put in his mouth he seemed only to be mouthing and not swallowing.
... Oh my this was not a good thing. Never had I had a dog that was well fed and plenty of safe things to chew on (bully sticks) do this. Was this a case of Pica? (when a dog eats nonfood items).
The consumption of nonfood items is a disorder called pica. Although pica can be a sign that a dog’s diet is lacking in some nutrient, when pica occurs in puppies and young dogs the most common culprit is boredom. Occasionally, eating nonfood items develops into compulsive behavior, resulting in a dog who’s highly motivated to find and consume specific objects. Rock eating is the most common form of pica, but dogs compulsively consume a variety of inedible objects, including plastic bags and containers, human clothing and wooden objects. Puppies eat all kinds of objects, including nonfood items. Although behavior experts aren’t sure why they do it, many puppies tend to chew and swallow inedible things during investigation of their environments. Most puppies grow out of this behavior by six months of age without anything but mild discouragement from their owners.¹
I knew that the majority of canine chewing activity doesn’t lead to actual ingestion. However, when a young dog gnaws on something to satisfy his urge to chew, he may swallow some pieces of whatever he’s chewing or tearing up. I was glad to learn that this kind of chewing isn’t considered pica. But it did not make me feel very happy..
Then it happened. Many people don't know exactly what's happening when something suddenly flies out of their pet's mouth. Yes we will never know what it was... a Frog, a Bug, A clump of dirt or a bit of toy he managed to swallow? All I know was his appetite did not suffer. He did not seem to feel well but after that a bout of diarrhea. We tried all of the normal first responses... No food for 24 hours. phone call to the Vet on the 2nd day when the pumpkin and boiled chicken did not seem to be working.
Most veterinarians, when presented with the "vomiting pet," first have to determine whether the animal is actually vomiting, or is instead regurgitating. Deciding which it is very important, because the problems have different causes, and of course, different treatments. In this case we also had diarrhea. At the vet nothing was found. no fever, no bloating, he was not dehydrated, just a happy go lucky dog with no symptoms... So home we went with three days of pills and continued feeding our freshly made chicken and rice to the other dogs delight .... You know you cannot feed just one dog fresh boiled chicken, not with the smell of chicken flowing past their noises....
I did find them plotting in the yard.... I just know they were talking to each other about who would get sick next so we would continue the fresh chicken instead of the normal Kibble ... Oh yes I am sure of it...They tried to look so innocent, but I could tell they were up to something.. I really think the pup was the ringleader too....
If your Boston is about to vomit, he feels nauseous. His abdominal walls are beginning to contract. He may drip or drool saliva, or begin licking his lips right before he retches. Often there's a heaving motion, where your pet's abdominal muscles begin to contract several times before he actually empties the contents of his stomach onto your floor. I just love when they do that. Don't you.
If your Boston regurgitates, chances are he'll simply open his mouth and out will come part of a meal, or the water he just drank. There's usually no warning with regurgitation -- for him or you. It's passive, whereas vomiting is an active process. Little Gracie Mae gets so excited, she will be racing around decide she is thirsty start lapping up the water like she is trying to drink it all... And off she goes trying to either tease or chase one of the other ... only to burb out a lot of the water she just lapped up.
When a pet vomits, the stuff she brings up comes from her stomach and sometimes the first part of her small intestine. If there's yellow or orangish-colored bile or digestive fluid, you know your pet is vomiting. But not all vomitus contains bile. So, if you don't see any, it doesn't mean that your pet didn't vomit.
Regurgitus, on the other hand, reappears from either the esophagus or the pharynx (the back of the throat), which is why sometimes it's shaped like a tube. It's typically a mixture of food, saliva, and sometimes mucus – but not bile.
A third variety of this lovely subject matter is when a dog or cat expectorates. Many pet owners can confuse this event with vomiting. When an animal coughs -- a few times or several times -- and then produces a blob of mucus, she is expectorating, which is very different from regurgitating or vomiting. The key with expectoration is that there's always a cough involved.
In an otherwise healthy pet, the tendency to vomit is usually tied to the diet, dietary indiscretion, possibly a toxin or foreign body, or a developing condition like inflammatory bowel disease. Regurgitation happens for reasons unrelated to the diet or the health of the lower GI tract. The diagnosis and treatment of the two problems are quite different as well.
We've never had a dog that chewed so much, he has plenty of things to chew on, and he doesn't chew he has to try to eat it all! Needless he had hardly settled his stomach and I found him chewing on rocks again... This time I tried something else to distract him.. I just happened to have made a lot of ice cubes with little surprises in them. Some were part frozen chicken broth some had little bits of chicken, carrot, and green beans and some where plain... As long as they stayed out side this works quite well. Inside I had to fill up Kongs with similar but more solid items and froze them.
An occasional, isolated bout of vomiting may not be of concern. However, frequent or chronic vomiting can be a sign of a more serious condition, such as colitis, intestinal obstruction or parvovirus. If your dog’s vomiting is not an isolated incident, please bring him to the vet right away for a complete examination and diagnostic testing.
Things sure are quiet now that those three have returned home... That pup sure keep me on my toes... and now as i look at what is leaft of our ragged toy collection I have decided we need just throw this lot out and start over...
This is Hudson or very chewy house guest.
¹aspca.org/pet-care
Herman is one of the Fosters, I recently adopted that has had what we think is Lipoma. Like most people I was on edge. He had several lumps of some kind removed before I adopted him. So I have been very relieved that since he has come to live with us he has not had any more. That was until about six months ago. So of course we took him to the vet hoping that that was all it was just another Lipoma. 
