Strange regurgitation

Hello, I have a female german shepherd around 100 lbs - unspayed - almost 3 years old. Yesterday she's been regurgitating only water, she can keep food down just fine. If water is given in small amounts (eg around 1oz at a time) but anything over that and she will start with regurgitation, then the deep retch and she will puke the stomach contents. Otherwise acting completely normal, healthy appetite, high energy. The vert won't be able to see us until next week. Any ideas of what could be causing this? And should this be seen by the emergency vet?

Hello - that does sound strange.  Your vet or a nurse should be able to perform triage either in person or over the phone - that is the process of discussing the signs and establishing whether or not it is an emergency. After all, there are presentation out there that will not wait a week and being unable to keep water down may, in many situations, be one of them.   I hope that helps.

I wonder whether, while you wait for the appointment, offering water little and often or mixed into food may be helpful.  I also wonder whether you are interreting the signs as I would be if I could see, but that's one of your vet.

*interpreting*

I have interesting ideas about whether water might be pooling in the throat, or whether this is simply the first part of her normal vomiting sequence (often water does come up before food), or whether she may have an underlying systemic diseaase such as pancreatitis or a pyometra.  Triage and then a veterinary appointment at the appropriate time (as decided by triage) would be the next step.  Please do keep us updated wiith this interesting case!

I appreciate the quick response. I work full time from home, so I am giving her water every time she's awake maybe 5 times an hour, unless of course she doesn't want any. I will definitely add some water to her food. Any signs I should keep a look out for?

That is another question for the team who need to triage the case, I'm afrad.

Triage is the process of chatting to you, usually on the phone, and coming to a decision about how soon a case needs to be seen and what action needs to be taken.

I just seen your latest reply, it's definitely triggered by drinking water, she will start regurgitating immediately after leaving the water bowl.  So far, no vomiting/regurgitating in about 18 hours-ish. Ate about 3 and a half cups of food tonight (I feed her 3x a day) and has drunk about 44oz of water. I've had dogs my whole life never seen an issue like this pop up. I am not a vet, but I am guessing something going on with the esophagus? But until she gets a proper exam it's just a guess. Again, I appreciate your response's.  I will definitely keep you updated.

So update. Over the weekend her drinking returned to normal, I added about an oz per offering to try to see where her tolerance limit was, could tolerate any amount. Vet took an x-ray to be safe, came back negative. His theory is likely just gulping water too fast. Didn't think barium swallow was necessary. palpated the uterus - didn't feel anything unusual. Was told to just continue to monitor - if anything unusual pops up again to bring her back.

I know this is a late bump, but figured someone might find this helpful or at the very least interesting. After thousands of dollars and countless tests we finally figured out the root cause of the weird symptoms she would get. A chicken allergy.  (That might be a poultry allergy, we haven't been brave enough.) Within 3-4 days of eliminating chicken, she was 85% better. Within 6 months she's fully recovered. A symptom that went un-noticed was she wasn't feeling very well. I didn't realize the extent until she got better. I thought it was just her getting older and settling down a little bit. Turns out she's still the same hyperactive pup :) The only other symptoms I could note is occasionally itchy skin, as well as occasionally soft stool and scooting. But the main one was Esophagitis. I hope this helps someone in the future, is never would I have guessed it would be a food allergy causing these issues. Also, again huge thanks to Liz for the initial help.