Several days ago I made a thread about my dog and her chronic nocturnal vomiting and, as of last week, we are no closer to knowing why.
So you don’t have to look for the previous thread:
Mysti, a Husky/Border Collie of unknown but probably middle age, has been having bouts of nighttime vomiting since the middle of last month. Some nights she’ll puke several times, other nights none, some days she pukes once or twice, other days none.
So far I’ve spent over 1K in vet bills trying to figure out what is happening here. Before I got her this dog ate whatever dry food was donated to the shelter and mixed in a large trashcan. I’ve owned her for two years and the first year she ate 4Health from Tractor Supply. Once the dog that was eating that food passed away we switched to a cheaper, but still good quality food. She did well on it for a month before the vomiting began, but we changed it anyway to Purina ONE Chicken and Rice to see if that would help, it didn’t. Even going back to the 4Health didn’t stop the vomiting. We put her on an scrambled egg, chicken, and rice diet and she still vomited.
First visit the vet does x-rays and a full exam. X-rays show some stomach wall thickening and fecal matter in her colon. During the exam Mysti freaks out when the thermometer goes in. Vet gives an injection of Cerenia (anti nausea med) and sends us home with a two day supply of Cerenia tablets. Even with the shot, Mysti still vomits that night.
Second visit we leave her with them overnight. Vet redoes the X-rays and see’s nothing, she also does an ultrasound with the same results. She then proceeds to do a digital rectal exam and finds that Mysti is badly constipated. Mysti then gets an enema and proceeds to have 7-8 loose bowel movements when we get her home. Vets puts her on Metronidazole and gives us more Cerenia.
Third visit is after Mysti vomits what looks like two days worth of food, I’m talking at least an inch high pile. More x-rays (gas in the intestines, but nothing glaringly wrong) and this time Mysti has a slight temp, but nothing the vet is too concerned about since it could of been anxiety due to the storm that was going on at the time. Vet prescribes Reglan and tells us that she is worried, but at a loss as to what is going on.
None of the x-rays showed any kind of impaction/blockage, foreign body, or tumor. The thickened stomach wall did not appear in subsequent x-rays or the ultrasound. Blood tests all came back negative for infections, parasites or Addison’s Disease.
Any ideas?
I can only sympathize, I’m afraid. We have a barfy cat that the vet can’t explain. We feed her small amounts of hypo-allergenic food throughout the day, which helps, but some days she has several episodes no matter what we do.
Does she freely eat bits thru the day or do you feed at certain times? If it’s the latter, can you try and feed her little bits at a time every few hours and see if that helps? Our cat freaks out and overeats (or over-drinks) sometimes and every single time it ends up with her happily yurping up what seems like a ridiculous amount of food or water, and then contentedly heading back and eating a normal amount, totally unphased.
I think the key thing to focus on is that her vomiting seems to be only happening at night.
Instead of focusing on the food, what is different that is occurring at night? Is there something that is causing her stress? Even if it’s the same routine she’s had for years, there could have been something that has happened to cause her to stress out.
Where does she sleep at night? Is it with her humans? Maybe a late night walk, or a late night cuddle session would help.
Dogs can have allergies; maybe yours is allergic to something in the food.
Both of our first dogs (both deceased) used to vomit bile every morning. Famotidine (Pepcid) in a piece of hot dog every night took care of that.
Does your dog eat one (or two) big meal(s) daily? Maybe several smaller meals would be better. (Maybe smaller kibble? Or ground up kibble?) [basically what Lasciel is saying.]
It sounds like her appetite is undiminished – and it doesn’t sound like she’s in pain beyond the obvious – so pancreatitis seems unlikely, but possible. Should maybe do a cPL test, check for malabsorption; biopsies of the GI tract?
Does she get access to grass? I mean, do you let her out in the evening and she nibbles the grass? The time specificity makes me think of an industrial toxicity, which makes me think of grass getting exposed to something as part of spring or left over after fall.
I’ve only had big dogs and they really like their yard salad, maybe she needs some to get a good poop but the grass or a weed or a compound is making her puke.
My mom’s elderly orange tabby is also part of the random barf club.
We have food out for them 24/7 in one of those large kibble feeders.
She sleeps on my bed with the other dogs. I’ve not noticed anything stressfull happening at night, to other two are asleep when she vomits and nothing has changed in her nighttime routine (go out to potty, get a Dingo stick, go to bed).
Can allergies appear in an adult dog? The food contains nothing she hasn’t already had before. My late pit bull was on Pepcid the last five years of his life and it didn’t work with her.
Vet thinks it might be a motility issue since she was majorly constipated that one time and the last x-ray. She is pooping now since we’ve started the Reglan and I’ve noticed a decrease in the number of times she vomits.
We live on 5 acres out in the country and don’t use herbicides/pesticides. She gets lots of acess to “yard salad”. In the afternoon she is with and the other dogs in our 3 acre pasture that has a TON of grass that they graze on.
My youngest dog, a doberman mix, had choking and regurgitation a few weeks ago. The choking was very alarming and I took her to the ER vet. They sedated her, scoped her, took x-rays, nothing. They were about to release her (I’d already paid and was waiting for them to bring her up) and she crashed again. 2 nights at the ER and $1000 later and I didn’t have a dx. She came home with me, in a panic. She was trembling in the car, just scared to death. As soon as I got her home to the country in her own yard, she was as right as rain. No symptoms, no problems.
I think part of her symptoms were terror at being away from home, being in the city with lots of noise, no rest in the ER. $1000 tummy ache and panic attack.
Dingo sticks been recalled b/c they were contaminated with amantadine , not what this ,is but you should check the package and see dingo sticks are made in China . I don’t buy and pet foods from grocery store, I go a natural pet store.
I hope can find out what wrong with your dog , I know how upsetting this is.
Sorry the vet couldn’t help. I was thinking about your MystI while I was cleaning up Rocky’s contribution from last night and wondered how she was doing.
I give them the green dental ones, not the ones in your link. Plus, that was from 2015.
She seems better vomit wise with the Reglan, but her behavior has changed a little. She is more “velcro” now and seems frantic at times. Don’t know if that is a side effect of the meds or something else.
In addition to this, the Dingo sticks are rawhide. That might be what’s making Mysti constipated. I’d lay off the Dingo sticks and other rawhide treats for all the dogs.
Also, you mention that you’re feeding her on chicken-based food. You might try switching to a lamb & rice food, or perhaps a food without grain or limited ingredients.
I’ve been feeding my dog Nutro lamb & rice formula for years and he’s done very well on it. When he had an episode similar to your Mysti last summer, I switched him to the Senior formula (he’s twelvish) and he’s been in great health ever since.
I had my Sancho into the vet for vomiting and refusing to eat or drink. The vet never really figured out what the problem was. The only concrete symptom (aside from the barf) was that his pancreas numbers were slightly up. Sancho spent two nights getting IV fluids, antibiotics, and anti-nausea meds. When he came home, he had a weeks worth of antibiotics, Tramadol, pepcid and cerenia. (He was so thoroughly bombed, I don’t think he was alert enough to be worried about the hospital. He was pretty mellow for the next couple days.
I still give Sancho a pepcid every day. I also give him these vitamins - again, Senior formula:
Sancho gets a can of wet food everyday, split in half for morning and night plus he has dry food in the evening in the bedroom. Having three meals helps keep him from overeating and getting heartburn. YMMV, but it might be worth putting an actual feeder in the bedroom, so the dogs can eat healthy food if their stomachs start grumbling.
Did your veterinarian take x-rays of the esophagus and throat? Were the x-rays read by a radiologist? Or just your vet? Did your vet do a contrast study with barium? When your dog vomits, does she make horrible noises, and use her abdomen to bring up her stomach contents? Or does she simply spit up, where the food just comes up, almost undigested?
As a veterinarian (but not YOUR dog’s vet), I am wondering if this is regurgitation vs vomiting. Regurgitation comes from a problem in the esophagus, whereas vomiting comes from a problem in the stomach or duodenum.
Knowing if this is vomiting or regurgitation will lead to different possibilities for diagnosing your dog.
I’m waiting for finances to get better before I make the change to a more expensive food. I’ve started only giving her a dental stick once a week and she gets no other rawhides during the day.
She took abdominal x-rays, nothing above the chest.
The x-rays were sent out each time and read by a radiologist in a large city nearby since we live out in the country.
She retches and uses her abdominal muscles. The sound she makes while throwing up is what wakes me up.
I don’t think the clinic does barium studies, again, small rural vet. Plus I don’t know if I could afford it.
I’ve seen dogs regurgitate, this is definitely vomiting.
That being the case, since this only occurs at night, I would put delayed gastric emptying at the top of my list. Ask your vet about a dose for Pepcid or Prilosec before bed, and maybe a medication to help things move along the GI tract.
I know the link was from 2015 but I also said you should made sure they’re made in China . I looked it up and they’re made in China , I know it said " The Dingo Dental Sticks are made and manufactured in China under strict FDA Regulations."
but I still wouldn’t buy them for my dog ! I won’t feed my dog any brands that been recalled.
"Protein-rich ground rawhide dental sticks contain real chicken for great flavor, plus baking soda and … These irresistible, fully digestible treat sticks from Dingo also boast a tough texture that … What country are these made in? … The Dingo Dental Sticks are made and manufactured in China under strict FDA Regulations.
She is on 1/2 a tablet X3 a day and it we haven’t had any vomiting for over 24 hours.
If it is delayed gastric emptying (I have Gastroparesis, so I’m familiar with the human equivalent), what is the long term outcome for a dog with this? Will she need to be on Reglan for the rest of her life?
