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Thu 15 Jun, 2006 07:08 am
Poor Zoe...her upset stomach has returned.
As many of you may know, she puked on the Mr. yesterday morning in bed. And last night, she got up to pace and smack her chops...actions signaling impending puking. I picked her up and put her in her crate and...she was fine the rest of the night. She laid down and I didn't hear from her again til morning.
I really think my dog has anxiety. It tends to happen at night, when its dark, when she's out of her crate. (Except for the times after her surgery when I think her belly was just outta whack)
She's eating normally, pooing normally, not acting differently. The only conclusion I can come to is that she has a nervous stomach. **sigh** Lovely. They've done blood work and she doesn't have an infection. She's pooing normally, so no blockage. I can't think of anything other than sensitive stomach. And neither can my vet (without $500 worth of testing)
So, I called my vet this morning and asked them about ginger root. Heard it's good for settling stomachs. And they told me that it won't hurt her but they were unsure about the dosage and they have no proof that it will even work.
A lady here at work swears by it for her dog. When he starts an episode (smacking his chops and acting all horfy---horfy is when they walk around making that awful "I really want to puke" sound), she gives him a pill a day for 4-5 days and he is fine.
So,
1- Has anyone tried this before?
2- If so, do you know what kind of dose for a 40lb dog?
3- Do you think I am nuts for thinking this is her nerves? If so, what else could it be??
what are you feeding her?
as much as they crave what we eat, dog food is really the best thing for them.
table scraps should be kept to a minimum...
We've cut out all treats (for now until we get this thing under control) except the occasional doggie biscuit. And she never ever gets people food. Unless it's plain rice because its easy on her stomach and she can hold it down after puking.
Our Maxie's been having progressively worse tummy problems since last fall, and his problems are definitely worse during the latter part of the night.
Last fall, he started throwing up (just yellow bile) in the very early morning, occasionally, then regularly. The vet couldn't find anything wrong. Then he started burping, gulping, swallowing, also, for large portions of the day and was miserable. The vet put him on Famotidine, which is used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease, among other things, and Sucralfate, which coats his tummy and protects it against acid. She suspected (and still does) that he has some form of IBD. That treatment, though, kept the symptoms somewhat under control for a number of months, so we held off on an endoscopy.
A couple of months ago his symptoms got worse again, so he had the endoscopy. He has gastroesophageal reflux disease, which causes the burping, etc., and the lining of his stomach is a little red, but she didn't find anything else and the biopsies are negative. Our vet has added another medication to the mix, but the problems are still continuing ...
Like your dog, his tummy is definitely worse at night, after 3:00, 4:00 a.m. That, apparently, is because of the gastroesophageal reflux, which is worse at night because of the long period of inactivity.
WOW! I wonder...
Zoe is super gassy sometimes and like you said, it's often bile or just water with a tiny bit of food. The left overs of what didn't get digested.
My vet does want to do other tests to see if there is something wrong but I just can't afford it right now.
Looking into pet insurance....
Thanks for your post!
I don't know about the ginger. I've never heard of it.
Our dog groomer came by the house to groom Maxie this week, so I updated her on what's been going on. She told me about another client whose dog throws up early every morning. The very first thing she does (the client) when she gets up, apparently, is give the dog a Pepcid.
Definitely pet insurance. I wish we'd looked into it before all this began. We probably couldn't get it now. I'd have to look, but I'd guess we've spent $1500 since last Sept.
Another thing that our vet has recommended is to make sure that he gets lots of exercise. It "keeps things moving", as she said.
Bella, not knowing what you do and don't do, I'll list the things to avoid, just in case. This is probably teaching you to suck eggs but....
Never......
.. give milk to your dog.
Chocolate.
Bones (most types)
Sticks (to play with/chew)
IF she is prone to having a chew on a stick, there may be a small possibility that a splinter has caught somewhere, causing this sort of reation. unlikely, but a possibility nonetheless.
My Vet recommended "live" yoghurt once a day, as it has much the same effect in dogs as it does in humans. (maintains a nice little colony of healthy bacteria in the gut)
Just an aside.....my dog pukes up bile when she has gone too long without food. If I don't feed her early in the morning, she tends to do this regularly.
I don't like feeding her too much, just before her main morning walk, as it isn't good for them to run on a full stomach. But now, I always make sure she has a little bit, just to line her innards.
I hope this is of some help to you, and that she is better soon.
My American bulldog has a similar problem. She sometimes gets up in the early morning and insists on going out to eat grass, which makes her puke. From what I researched it has to do with stomach acid/bile and some dogs are more prone to it than others. I've had some success giving her a Tums antacid pill when I first hear her stomach gurgling. I have even thought of writing to the Tums people and asking them to make a liver or beef flavored pill. Since Tums only comes in mint and berry flavors I have to hide it in a chunk of meat to get my dog to eat it. I don't think you have a serious health problem to worry about, but it does make for lots of carpet stains.
Quote:She sometimes gets up in the early morning and insists on going out to eat grass, which makes her puke.
We've been told absolutely no grass, so the poor guy goes out on a leash, even into the back yard. He knows he's not to eat grass, so he tries to sneak it in while he's on the move.
That's my understanding, too, from my research and from the vet, that some dogs are more prone to it. In Maxie's case, the throwing up of the bile/stomach acid is, in our vet's opinion, what's caused the reflux disease. The irritation of she sphincter muscle has caused a buildup of scar tissue so it doesn't close properly.
Did anyone say why no grass? As an herbalist I have found animals often know what works for them. I've had a couple of other dogs in my life that had this problem and both lived to be 14 and 15 years old. The grass seems to clear out the bile and the dogs (including my current one) is just fine afterwards, sometimes days or weeks would go by without another episode.
Green Witch, I agree with you about animals instinctively knowing what works for them. Eat grass, throw up. I agree with your other comments, too. That's exactly what would happen. He'd have a bout of upset and sometimes months would go by before he'd have another.
Now, though, because he has the gastroesophageal reflux problem, throwing up the bile just exacerbates the problem and irritates his esophagus even further.
Green Witch wrote:Did anyone say why no grass? As an herbalist I have found animals often know what works for them. I've had a couple of other dogs in my life that had this problem and both lived to be 14 and 15 years old. The grass seems to clear out the bile and the dogs (including my current one) is just fine afterwards, sometimes days or weeks would go by without another episode.
I think a lot of people frown on you letting your dog eat grass because of all the pesticides and junk we put on things.
I went and got some chamomile tablets and gave her one last night. No episode.
We'll see if this helps. If not, off to the vet we go.
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