My yellow lab has started to eat driveway rocks and then throws them up, any ideas why..very concerned!?

Question

Started after we had new stone delivered, not sure if that matters. Also, when she gets sick it is usually 3-4 medium to large rocks that come out.

Answer 1

Sadly this is a lab trait.  They are rock eaters.  When we take an x-ray of a lab, we commonly see stones in the digestive tract.  As long as she's vomiting the stones up, she'll be ok.  It's when she cannot vomit the stones up, that this becomes a problem.  We have done surgery on many labs and lab mixes for stone ingestion.  My recommendations are to try and prevent the dog from eating stones.  This can be done by fencing off the area, making the stones taste bad (Try cayenne or other distasteful spray), and give the dog high value chew items so that she is (hopefully) not eating the stone.

Answer 2

Why?  Because you have a lab!  They are crazy!  I am sure it is the smell of the new stone that is making her want to eat them.  Try keeping her away from them.

Answer 3

That's very dangerous - don't let her near the stone, and you might spray it down with some Bitter Apple in a hose sprayer to repel her from it.

Stones that don't come up will damage her GI tract, and need surgical removal.  You should take her to the vet in the off chance she still has retained some.

  WHile normally, I would say this behaviour could have to do with a GI upset, it sounds as if she is a Lab who was just waiting for that Goldilocks moment when you had stones delivered that were 'just right' for her taste.  You might want to reconsider the groundcover before it costs her a near-death experience, and you have to buy a new wing for the animal hospital.

Answer 4

Well it helps ground up food that didn't by her teeth. Of course she can't digest them so she makes herself puck them up.

Answer 5

Labrador retrievers have a strange tendency to eat things that aren't food. My boyfriend's family has a lab that ingests socks.

Try to keep this from happening however, the dog could eat rocks and that could cause a blockage.