[Barb D]

Hi, I have a 4 year old chocolate Labrador that I adopted after my friend passed away last year. She is healthy and happy but periodically she throws up for no apparent reason. When she does, it will usually last a few days with vomiting 1 – 3 times, total. No other symptoms. I feed her (and my 2 yr old black Labrador) Acana Pacifica Regionals dry food.
My vet has suggested it is the food and has put her in Royal Canin Gastro – dry.
I am not sold on this product and not totally sure it’s a food allergy as she will throw up one week then be fine for a few weeks.
I am wanting to wean her off of the RC and put her slowly back onto the Acana. (note: she has not thrown up since being on this food and completing meds to settle her stomach)
Any suggestions or help is appreciated…Maverik and Shelbi are our babies and my first dogs.
Thank you!
Barb

[Naturella]

Hey, Barb, my terrier mix Bruno is a year and 4 months old. He is a vacuum dog, meaning he sweeps the floors and eats anything off of them and the ground. Sometimes that gives him loose stools, and sometimes vomiting. It usually lasts 1-3 days, with 4 or so instances of vomiting. I have tried many remedies – plain boiled brown rice, plain boiled brown rice with cooked chicken, plain canned pumpkin, plain yoghurt rich in probiotics, bread, even uncooked rice. For loose stools bread seems to work the best on Bruno. For vomiting, his regular kibble and yoghurt/pumpkin do the trick. I don’t know why the difference in reaction, but that is what I’ve noticed for my dog. All of the above are possible remedies, and also boiled pasta could be a way. What I do for vomiting is introduce the yoghurt/pumpkin first, like give him a teaspoon of it (he is 14-15lbs), and then I mix half his normal serving of kibble with some more yoghurt/pumpkin and a bit of water to make it soupy and coat the kibble evenly. And he eats it. You can also dip some plain white bread in yoghurt or kibble and give that for a meal or 2, until the tummy is not upset anymore. Or just bread. You will just kind of have to experiment and see what your dog responds well to.

I don’t think the RC is a better food than Acana, it may just be a coincidence that no vomiting has occured. Good luck!

[Susan]

Hi Barb, try to find another premuim quaility kibble that has the same amount of fat% & protein % as the R/C Gastro has, My Patch was always vomiting early hours of the morning 3 times a week & 11am once a week, he was put on a vet prescription diet (Eukanuba Intestinal) Im now so slowely adding the the Wellness Simple Duck & Oats kibble to his vet prescription diet kibble, the Wellness Simple has limited ingredients but the fat is min-11% max-11.98 & his vet prescription diet fat is only 10% the protein is lower in the Wellness Simple Duck & Oats then his vet prescription diet kibble, where the last premium kibble I tried the protein % & the fat % was much higher then the vet diet & he was being sick still, so far everything is going real good on the Wellness Simple kibble….. The last premium kibble I tried, I didnt think about the fat% or protein % …I was buying him kibbles that had min-13% max-15% fat & he was still sick of a morning…..so now I bought the Wellness Simple its as closest I can get to the Vet diet kibble that he’s on…just try to match the fat % & protein % you’ll have the good ingredients of the premuim kibble but the % will be nilly the same as his R/C prescription diet, also there could be an ingredient in the Acana kibble that doesnt agree with her & gives her acid or makes her feel sick..I hope you understand what I’ve written…

[DogFoodie]

When she throws up, is it at any particular time of day? Before our after meals? What does the vomit look like? How much are you feeding? Are the dogs separated for feeding, such as eating in their crates?

[Jenn H]

I am suddenly having sporadic vomiting/regurgitating with my Chocolate Lab also. This dog has never had a problem. She can & has eaten everything edible and inedible.
She’s almost 11.
There is no particular time of day when she gets sick and it isn’t regularly.
Every few days.
She’s been on Acana Regional Free-range poultry for months.
When this first started she was throwing up water. The vet gave her anti-nausea meds and bland diet for a while. That helped for a couple wks. Now she’s throwing up the food.
Her appetite is good and no known disease or parasites etc.

[anonymous]

Has she had a senior workup, labs, etc. If so, and she has not responded to treatment, I would consider getting additional testing done to get a correct diagnosis so that you can then evaluate the treatment options presented
The other option would be to make an appointment with a Veterinary Internal Medicine Specialist. That’s what I would do, considering that the band aid solutions are not working.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Jenn H-

When one of my labs starts doing that, eventually he ends up throwing something up like a sock. There have been a few articles about this in the WDJ lately.

Here is one of them: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/19_9/features/Guide-to-Dog-Vomit_21516-1.html

I hope you find out the cause. I know it is troubling. Good luck!

Edit: Here is another link: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/blog/What-Might-be-Causing-Your-Dog-to-Vomit-21535-1.html?ET=wholedogjournal:e238516:914759a:&st=email&s=p_Blog092916&omhide=true

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by crazy4cats.

[Jenn H]

Anon101 I appreciate the reply and advice.
She has had part of her senior physical, but because of the emergency visit right before that wellness/senior visit I didn’t have enough money to do all the tests needed. As soon as I can she will get the complete blood work up.

I’m worried it may be kidney or pancreas related. She has been having intermittent incontinence also.

Right now the band-aid (THK Bone Broth) is working enough that i/d is staying down. Hopefully she won’t get worse before I save enough for the rest of the tests.

[Jenn H]

Crazy4cats she had x-rays done at the emergency vet. I thought for sure it would be some obstruction too. But she had also had a fever. (They took her temp there.) Between the last vet appt & now she hasn’t shown any signs of having an obstruction. Plus I would think something would’ve come up or out at some point.
My biggest concern is organ function. I was hoping someone here may have experienced this as well just so I can have a direction to start looking into and/or something else to try until we can afford the blood work.

[crazy4cats]

Jenn, I’m glad you wrote back, but I was hoping you had some sort of resolution. Darn! Yeah, something probably would have come up or out by now. My fingers are crossed for you. I hope your Labbie gets well soon. Good luck with the upcoming tests.

[Jenn H]

Thanks. I’m working as much as I can to get the money as fast as I can. I’ll never forgive myself if something major is going on and something unthinkable happens. Thankfully she’s as energetic and hungry as always. The only other change is the sporadic vomiting and urine leakage.

I will follow up when I get results.

[Susan]

Hi Jenn sounds like IBD IBD starts from the mouth thru to the bum….I would be getting quotes to have Endoscope & biopsies done, ASAP make sure you have the biopsies done cause when vet looked down Patches throat into stomach everything looked perfect until we got the biopsies results back, he has “Moderate to Chronic Lymphocytic Gastritis with associated spiral bacteria infection” & in the other notes it said, this could be a manifestation of MORE EXTENSIVE inflammatory bowel disease….
Don’t waste your money on Ultra Scan or X ray & there’s another test I forgot name, as these test can not see into the stomach like an Endoscope can & the biopsies can tell you so much, Patch only had 2 little biopsies of his stomach result came back within 2 days..
When you get answers sometimes the news isn’t good but its a relief they can start treatment. Are you feeding the wet or dry Hills I/d Digestive Care or is it the I/d Low Fat Restore?

[Jenn H]

My 1 girl has been dealing with this off & on since Feb 2015. She’s on mostly i/d turkey (2 can/day) and 1/2 can low fat chix for lunch w/ probio. Organic boiled chicken added.
The Lab who isn’t yet dx is only on low fat chix until we get results back. She gets same meals & supps for now.
My first girl only really likes the turkey. She was also on kibble last year. That didn’t seem to help much. Despite being on the cans and soaking it. The only kibble I have found that agrees with her long term is Wysong.

I know a biopsy is the best chance for an answer, but the vet doesn’t think we’re there yet.
I have tossed around the idea of endoscopy, but it’s big $ and other things keep coming up (like another dog having IBD). The best I can do right now is manage it as much as possible. Otherwise the other animals will have to make major sacrifices in their requirements and that will just snowball. And it’s not fair to them. All about balancing at the moment.

Thanks for the advice.

[Jenn H]

Crazy4cats blood pulled yesterday…now we wait. Also doing urinalysis. Since she’s having some incontinence. Less worried about that though. They think it’s just age. Apparently as spayed females age it’s not an unusual occurrence d/t estrogen, blah, blah, blah. Inexpensive & easy treatment for that. U/a is just to be positive no UTI or anything else.

[Jenn H]

As promised a follow up…finally. Took forever for some reason to get back tests…
So Lillie’s kidney values are a little elevated. Couldn’t find bacteria in urine. I guess that’s not too unusual. But white blood cells (WBC) weren’t high. When they are that suggests an infection.
Vet thinks 2 things:
*A bladder infection or UTI
*Possibly age-related kidney failure.
Guess which I’m hoping for…
Either can present w/ these signs & symptoms.
Treatment plan right now is Zeniquin (antibiotic) 14 days and Cerenia (anti-nausea) continue bland diet.
We’ll retest urine after treatment and see where we are.

While we waited I continued to give her Fortiflora until I ran out. She’s getting Wysong Pet Inoculant until the Chewy.com order arrives. Along with the probios she’s been getting Free Form. Omega 3 & 6 are great for inflammation even IBD.
This seems to have been working pretty well. [Knock wood.] No more throwing up. Peeing only when she sleeps. This gives me some hope that maybe she is fighting an infection and isn’t in renal failure.

Let you all know the rest when we get to the next part.

[crazy4cats]

Ok, let’s hope it is a bladder/urinary infection and the meds clear it right up! Thanks for checking in. Sounds like she’s doing a little better.

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