[Joyce B]

There is something in the diet causing this. A dog that is up all night gulping and licking is being fed wrong. Please try a single protein and carb. If the reflux calms down then stick with that for life, forget variety. If it doesn’t calm down, change it to another protein and carb. Don’t deviate, even with treats, until you get to the culprit. Those berries might not be helping either, I have one dog that got acid reflux from a cranberry supplement (among other things). Be patient and good luck!

[Joyce B]

Elizabeth G there is a Facebook group called Canine Kidney Disease that can better address your questions if your dog has kidney disease. People in that group have tried it all and are very knowledgeable and helpful. Best of luck!

[Joyce B]

Please check out Canine Kidney Disease Facebook Group. It’s a public group so you can browse it without joining if you prefer. There are many very knowledgeable folks on there willing to help. Some feed prescription food, some don’t. With kidney disease the appetite can get very poor and many dogs won’t go near the prescription stuff. There are low-phosphorus food ideas, as well as supplement recommendations. For example, many have had success with Azodyl. Best of luck to you!

[Joyce B]

Rose b can you give her a bedtime snack? The morning bile is from an empty stomach combined with irritation. Maybe divide her meals into several smaller ones. Prilosec and other human drugs like Pepcid aren’t without side effects, and can cause more long term problems. Slippery elm soothes the digestive tract and esophagus.

[Joyce B]

Pamela P: Join the Facebook group “Holistic Dog Care (#FeedFresh)”. You’ll find folks who have used natural remedies for their dogs’ ailments with success. Many of them are very knowledgeable. I don’t know about your dog’s condition specifically, but I personally have used Slippery Elm for my dog’s nausea when he was ill and it was a lifesaver for his appetite. (You have to give it 2 hours away from any meds as not to block absorption.) Best of luck in your quest to help your dog!

[Joyce B]

I wouldn’t change their food. Kibble won’t keep their teeth any cleaner and if they won’t eat it you will have all sorts of new problems. Have you tried the water supplements that help keep teeth clean? I use Tropiclean. Best of luck!

[Joyce B]

To Gold1: check out the facebook group called Canine kidney disease. It is full of kind, very experienced people with dogs with renal issues. Lots of food ideas. Some people have had good results with prescription diets but many home-cook, some use raw. Good luck with your precious Yorkie!

[Joyce B]

Hi Ryan! The link worked fine. Curious what the vet says about this, but if it were my dog, seizure wouldn’t come to mind. Licking lips is a sign of nausea, so is wanting to go out to eat grass. How much time since he last ate? By the way, he is adorable, and your house is not messy :).

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Joyce B.

[Joyce B]

Hi again, Ryan. You can change the prescription food later by switching to another that has similar protein and carbs, as well as protein/fat ratio. You still need to give it time. I would also be very hesitant to give the dog an anti-seizure drug, as prescription drugs may have caused, or contributed to, the digestive problems he now has. I have a dog that developed bad stomach problems after a just a few rounds of antibiotics and pain meds for dental issues. And another dog who had a perforated ulcer from the wrong combo of prescription drugs. These drugs are powerful and have numerous side effects, especially in the older dogs. Many of the side effects are to the digestive tract. I am using slippery elm with great success for my dog with acid reflux and nausea, as Susan has suggested. Of course you want to help your dog as quickly as possible with medication but it may do more harm than good. Digestive problems take time time to heal. Keep up the great work!

[Joyce B]

There is a good chance that the food the vet provided and the anti-nausea drugs will help your dog alot. I would wait and see how he does on those before doing any more testing.

[Joyce B]

Vets are expensive, don’t feel bad! Not everyone is financially flush for the entire life of their pet. You may start out that way when you adopt a pet and then 5 years later lose your job. Nobody can predict their future. To suggest that you give your dog up when shelters are already overcrowded with dogs nobody wants – and you clearly love yours – is horrifying. The stress is likely to make your dog’s health much worse and they may even euthanize. While food can’t fix serious health issues, if this is a digestive problem, then food is everything. You have nothing to lose by trying different ones. One of my dogs can’t eat turkey, start with the protein source.

[Joyce B]

I fed my diabetic dog Hill’s W/D prescription dry for many years (with healthy toppings) and he did well until he started refusing it due to other issues. I was afraid to give him anything else all those years. But when I did he was fine and I actually had to REDUCE insulin. Research lower-glycemic carbs (barley is better than, say, potatoes), keep the fat low. And be prepared to adjust insulin accordingly. Once he is stable you can keep him on that food. I’m not a vet but this is what worked for me. My diabetic 14-year old dog is doing great and my vet agrees. Best wishes and good luck!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Joyce B.

[Joyce B]

Have you tried chewy? You can search for “chicken and sweet potato” on their site and many foods come up in varying price ranges. Or browse limited ingredient foods on their site.

[Joyce B]

Sounds like you need to keep his food as simple as possible. Too many changes/additions going on here maybe. If the LID works, keep him on it or find a less expensive one but with the exact same ingredients. For my sensitive dog, lower fat helped alot. Pumpkin, probiotics, yogurt, all that stuff made her poo softer and her problems worse even though I added them very gradually. She can’t tolerate turkey. I would stay with the chicken and sweet potato LID or as close to it as possible. Good luck!

[Joyce B]

Hi there, have you tried Pepcid? When one of my dogs was on several prescription drugs for a ruptured disc and wouldn’t eat, Pepcid made the difference. He is small and only required a half a tablet at 12-hour intervals. It’s inexpensive and you can use the generic. This was on the advice of our vet; please check with yours. And as others have said, I wouldn’t keep trying different foods, just give him whatever he will eat for now. There is plenty of time later when he is healthy to experiment. (Dry food is usually the least appetizing of all.) For another of my dogs – and I may get criticized for this – but I added plain cooked pasta to his wet food when he had a tummy ache. He loved it and while it has no nutritional value, it was soothing and added calories. Best of luck and hang in there! He will get better and be forever grateful to you.

[Joyce B]

Hello – my dog ruptured a disc and loss use of his back legs for 3 weeks. Not sure what the difference is between rupturing a disc and slipping a disc but I hope this helps anyway. He was not a good candidate for surgery and cannot have steroids due to diabetes so we never went to the specialist. From what I understand the surgery is not guaranteed to be a success and the recovery time is long and painful anyway. Our vet put him on some meds and it was a wait and see. During that time I hand-fed him and carried him outside and held him up to do his business. He gradually improved and can walk and run now, just a bit stiffly. Best of luck!

[Joyce B]

I agree with BCnut – that it’s a food issue. My dog had the same thing, and when tests came up normal my vet said maybe it’s seasonal allergies. They recommended Pepcid and it helped a little but I stopped it because of the harm it can cause. They never once suggested a food intolerance. I investigated that myself thanks to reading the posts here. My personal theory is that a food that the dog is sensitive to causes inflammation in the digestive tract, causing the irritation from stomach acid, etc., particularly on an empty stomach. When you eliminate the foods causing the inflammation, which I was finally able to do, stomach acid doesn’t bother them (whatever the season).

[Joyce B]

Those are all great suggestions. My sensitive stomach Pom girl had trouble with Wellness Small Breed and I couldn’t figure out what was bothering her because the ingredient list is a mile long. (It’s a very good food and my other dogs were fine on it.) Also pumpkin didn’t help my girl and neither did probiotics, which both seemed to make the situation worse. Limited ingredient is the way to go with sensitive dogs. It’s at least way easier to figure out the problem ingredient. A good food for a sensitive stomach is Canine Caviar Special Needs, but the protein is low so I added boiled white chicken to it and my girl did great on that combo. From there I knew, as Susan suggested, what ingredients I could look for that were OK. So we have since “graduated” to higher protein, limited ingredient, lower fat foods with chicken. (I like Honest Kitchen.) Best of luck!

[Joyce B]

Have you tried boiled chicken with rice? Maybe he can’t digest dry dog food. Good luck!

[Joyce B]

Hi Marina. So glad your Frenchy is doing better! If you’re not already doing it, try digestive enzymes. I use Mercola’s and this has been a huge help for my 2-year old Pom with similar issues. All the things you’ve done have made all the difference for us too: lower protein and fat, limited ingredients, no poultry (for us turkey and egg specifically), and I give healthy snacks every 4 hours and before bed. Your Natural Balance diet – is that all dry? Kibble is the most difficult for dogs to digest. Can you substitute some of that with some good canned (without carrageenan) or raw? Keeping the fat low of course. We feed half dehydrated raw and half low-fat kibble and that works great. And lastly, any plans to wean your boy off the Prilosec? (I know alot of vets and owners swear by the acid reducers and PPIs but there are others that say not enough stomach acid can cause the sphincters to malfunction. Pepcid seemed to make my dog worse after a few days, although it helped my older dogs with other issues.) Best of luck and please keep us posted!

[Joyce B]

So happy that the Shih Tzu is better! I had similar problems with my Pom. While she never vomited immediately after eating, she would have episodes of not eating (even her favorite foods), wanting only grass, and vomiting bile overnight. I tried many top foods including grain-free to no avail. One of our foods was Wellness which was great for my other dogs but not this one and the ingredient list was a mile long so very difficult to pinpoint any triggers. I tried Pepcid which seemed to help a little but not entirely. I tried many supplements which didn’t help. Neither did pumpkin, if I could get her to eat at all. At one point when she didn’t eat for a second day I took her to the vet. Blood work was normal and I was sent home with various anti-nauseas. She was better after a couple of days on meds but about a month later the symptoms returned. We didn’t go to the vet this time and she was better in a couple of days without meds. I was told by the folks at Ask Ariel to eliminate poultry but I knew chicken was OK because we would have several good weeks on foods with chicken. But turkey was in alot of the foods I tried. And when no turkey there was egg. Since eliminating these two things – turkey and egg – we have been symptom-free for almost a year!

[Joyce B]

Try Canine Caviar Special Needs Dry.

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