Hi Jen, I know what your going thru, for 2 years my boy has the same gulping fits, swollowing & swallowing, he had Endoscope & biopsies done, last December, biopsies found Moderate to chronic Lymphocytic gastritis with associated spiral bacteria infection..(Heliocobacter-Pylori) vet was surprised that his stomach had no ulcers or scaring from old ulcers & the stomach look really good, vet couldn’t get into the small bowel cause his lower pylori spincter was close & the only way to get more answers was to have Patch cut open & have more biopsies on small bowel to see what is happening, I said NO, I cant do that to him cut him open & then do what, we already have tried all the medications…. I thought once he takes all the meds for his Helicobacter & & a diet change (Vet Diet Royal Canin Gluten free Duck & Tapioca) everything will be great… when the meds were finished, he started his has swallowing & swallowing attacks again, more when he eats cooked foods or raw diet, he starts regurgitating & water comes up & then he swollows & swollows the water…I think his esophageal spincter isn’t closing properly.. I have it, its called non ulcer dyspepsia, vet said he has acid reflux & he was put on Losec cause the Zantac or Pepcid wasn’t working no more…
You know how you said he’s on the Hills Z/d so we know its not the food PLEASE PLEASE try another food, my boy didn’t get better on the Hills Z/d…..a few other people I know from a Face Book group said their dogs also didn’t do well on the Hills Z/d vet diets…. at first we thought he was doing better cause Z/d has more insoluble fiber, so it moves thru the stomach quicker, then diets with more soluble fiber but now when I look back it was probably the Ant-Acid meds that stopped his swallowing & swallowing attacks….also low fat diets help…look for a new diet that’s limited ingredient, novel protein & 1 carb “California Natural” has hypoallergenic diets, their Lamb & Rice has just 4 ingredients, http://www.californianaturalpet.com/products & see if you see any improvement & try a different ant acid maybe Zantac if you don’t want to use a Pump Proton Inhibitor (Losec or Somac) I found Somac to be better as it didn’t affect the bowel like Losec did …You keep saying you know its not the food but have you tried any other diets, I would be trying a new diet before trying any medications, I’ve learnt along the way that food seem to work the best & supplements… Lew Olson has a great face book group called K9 Nutrition & she helps & answers all post…..
Finally after Patch not getting better up & down some nights with these swallowing attacks, …I feed a Hypoallergenic gluten dairy sugar FREE Salmon & Sardine kibble that’s is 10% fat that I soak in water till its soft then drain all water very well then put thru a mini processer blender for a few seconds it comes out like wet tin food & what a difference it has made I’m not being woken up thru the night ….its not 100% we still have the odd swallowing attack (acid reflux) sometimes cause I’ve been introducing new foods to the diet, I just give 3 ml liquid Mylanta & the Mylanta seems to help & stops the swallowing & swallowing attacks….
Sometimes you need to do things yourself as vets aren’t real good with nutrition & dog foods they stick with their vet diets & think they’re great, I tried them all, Hills being the worst as it caused bad skin problems & they use chicken even though the chicken is broken down some dogs still pick up that it was once a chicken & have a reaction with the Z/d diet.. join this Face Book group, there’s a few dogs that have these swallowing attacks aswell “Dogs with Inflammatory Bowel Disorder group” Good-Luck
