# Need some ideas - retching dog



## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Chili is about 19 months old now. Lately he's retching a lot and will vomit up a meal. The vet has had him on Pepcid AC and anti-nausea medication for just over 2 weeks and we're about to start another 10 day regimen after the last course ran out and he started retching again. 

Here is a not so quick history:
1. Chili is on leash most of his time outside the house, and either confined to a puppy proof area of the house or allowed to wander, but heavily supervised. As a pup, he's demonstrated an acute ability to seek out trouble. He's gotten better, but snatching and swallowing inappropriate things is still a bit of a concern.

2. Nov 2011 - neutering performed

3. Dec 2011 - root canal to deal with a tooth that went missing (stopped seeing that vet because I believe this was the cause of the lack of appetite chili experienced from July - Sept 2011)

4. Jan 2011 - (changed vet) mysterious retching all night. He did vomit up his dinner (didn't see anything suspicious in there), however, unlike previous instances (which were usually the result of swallowing something inappropriate) the retching was more intense and continued through the night. We took him to the ER in the morning where they ran xrays and gave him an exam. No issues found, so he did seem better by then. They sent him home with a prescription for some anti-nausea medication and when that completed, everything was normal.
5. Jan 2011 - Rabies and other 1 year boosters (few days after previous event)
6. March 2011 - retching all night again. Vet didn't notice a distended belly. Vet injected him with an anti-nausea medication to settle him, and gave me a 5 day dose of the anti-nausea medication. Instructed to feed chicken and rice after 24 hours and see how he does. Also instructed to give him one dose of pepcid AC daily. Much improved, but as soon as the anti-nausea mediation & pepcid stopped, retching returned. Vet prescribed a 10 day course of anti-nausea and pepcid, along with chicken and rice diet to continue. When the anti-nausea completed, we continued with pepcid and chicken and rice and he was well for 3 days, then suddenly the retching resumed with the same intensity as before. He threw up twice that morning. The vet prescribed another 10 days on the anti-nausea, pepto bismol (since pepcid evidentally did nothing to stop this), chicken and rice. 

I discussed this with the vet, and he doesn't believe this is an obstruction. He is inclined to believe it's some sort of trauma to the esophagus or something, and that he just needs a little time to heal. But if the retching continues after the next round of anti-nausea, then he'll bring him in for more tests, bloodwork, etc. (wasn't clear exactly what). Although this vet comes highly recommended from multiple sources, I want to continue reading and doing homework, if only to make me feel better. I've been reading up on bloating, and while I don't think the symptoms match, I'm going to switch his feeding to 3x's (from 2x) daily, and manually stretch his feedings over 10-15 mins just to see if it makes a difference. 

Here is a pic from this morning. Unfortunately it takes almost 24 hours for the anti-nausea medication to become fully effective, so it was a long sleepless night for Chili. He's resting (hopefully) comfortably now after a mini meal.


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## SheetsSM (Jan 17, 2008)

Has he had an endoscopic procedure to check out his esophagus? Also they can do a barium xray to see if he does in fact have acid reflux. My girl is on pepci 2x a day. She too had symptoms (different than your pup) that had our vet referring us to a gastrointestinal specialist--it sure helped with her diagnosis.


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## mana (Feb 20, 2012)

My dog used to vomit and wretch. we found out he had pancreatitis and IBD by doing some blood tests. How does his stools look? Are they gray or whitish? I did a total diet change and took some recipes from a nutritionist. Now I only make food for him, no store bought foods. Good luck! Hope you find out what's wrong with him. Make sure he stays hydrated. If he isn't drinking enough water, you may need to take him in for IV fluids.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

SheetsSM said:


> Has he had an endoscopic procedure to check out his esophagus? Also they can do a barium xray to see if he does in fact have acid reflux. My girl is on pepci 2x a day. She too had symptoms (different than your pup) that had our vet referring us to a gastrointestinal specialist--it sure helped with her diagnosis.


Endoscope and barium xray was my thought too, and to scope the stomach and make sure there is nothing there that should not be, that might not have shown up on the xray.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

No barium xray or endoscope yet. Based on what I know about this vet, he'll probably resort to that if the next round of anti-nausea meds fail to do anything. 

His stools are normal, however he does get a bit constipated when he's been on chicken and rice for extended periods. Water intake is lower than normal. I'm watching for signs of dehydration, and mixing water/broth with his food to get some extra fluids in him. So far so good, but I'd feel better if he drank a bit more. 

Thanks for the ideas! It's heart breaking to see him so miserable, so at least doing more research will keep me occupied before the next visit to the vet.


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## w00f (Nov 4, 2011)

I would consider maybe something other than chicken and rice?


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## desi.n.nutro (Mar 18, 2011)

Oh poor Chili. I am sad for him. I had one that did this over lamb. I fed her a Large Breed puppy food of lamb and she started getting sick around 8 months or so. She only got sick once in a while at first and the food looked undigested so I blamed fast eating. When it became more and more frequent I thought I should switch foods. I went to a chicken rice and oatmeal for sensitive stomachs. I still wasn't sure it was the lamb however until one day I was out of hers and she ate Blake's. Immediately she got sick again. I also know if a dog is going to have a reaction to meat, it is more often chicken so look for lamb, venison, turkey, etc. Food switching is easier and less expensive than a lot of medical testing and can be done while in a diagnoses/testing phase with the Vet. Good luck. Tell Chili we feel bad for him. He still looks good. Can't wait until he feels good too.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I'd recommend a full digestive enzyme work up to test for cobalamin, folate, pancreatic enzyme levels and rule out any deficiencies. It's a fasting blood test and can give you good information if your dog needs extra supplementation or a special diet. We did this with our Toby and discovered a cobalamin/folate deficiency that we control with supplements. Until we got a diagnosis we had frequent vomiting episodes. 

You can also try feeding right before bed just in case an empty stomach is causing the distress, but it sounds like it's more of a digestive enzyme deficiency.


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## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

All good ideas. I wonder why the vet has not done a barium series x-rays to see if there is an obstruction? 
I am used to that being done very first thing instead of medications, odd. 
Anyway, good luck to your furbaby! He looks so cute but so sad on that picture! Hugs to him!


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Well, boiled chicken breast and rice has traditionally been a safe haven for him when he's had an upset stomach. If this is some type of food allergy, I think a good stretch on chicken and rice should allow the symptoms to pass. At this point I would rather not change for fear of introducing another variable into the equation. 

As far as his regular food, he's been on a rotation of nature's variety instinct (grain free) and prairie since last september or so. Most recently his was getting a mix of rabbit and salmon varieties. The only odd reaction I've noticed was to the beef variety, so I have eliminated that from his diet. He was licking excessively and gnawing on his legs. This stopped about 3 weeks after the beef was eliminated. I also stopped the chicken variety over a month ago...extra large and extra stinky BM's made for unpleasant walks.


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## mooselips (Dec 4, 2011)

Poor baby...I sure hope you figure out what's going on quickly.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

More good ideas...thank you!! After I do some more reading up on this stuff I can ask more specific questions at our next visit. 

As for the vet's approach, there are a number of ways one could approach this process of elimination. My understanding is this vet doesn't resort to expensive tests unless he believes they are necessary. I'm also told he has very good instincts when it comes to diagnostics, and this comes from a top breeder and trainer who uses him exclusively (I trust her implicitly). 

A little more history - I've been on the other side of the fence with Chili in his short 19 months, relying on vets who will spare no expense when it comes to tests and procedures. And I'm fortunate to have 2 of the best hospitals in the region within 1 hours drive. In most of those cases, I walked away with no answers, or worse, an obvious answer that was overlooked in favor of expensive tests. At this point we're over $5K in medical expenses, some of it was routine expected expenses, but obviously the bulk of that was not. If the unexpected expenses came with answers and solutions, I wouldn't be unhappy. It's a tough balancing act trying to determine what to spend on and where to hold back while your little buddy is suffering. I do hope this vet will steer me in the right direction, but like so many other things in life, you have to be informed and that means more than one source of information. It's a daily struggle to remain objective in the face of this. The information and experiences I gather here helps with that, so thank you all!

Oh, he's his usual cheery self today. In typical Golden fashion, even if something isn't quite right, it won't show on his face! It's nice to see after 36 hours of misery. It's not a light at the end of the tunnel, but I'll take it!


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Oh, I did ask about obstructions when I called in on Friday. The vet said he wouldn't be responding to the anti-nausea meds if there was an obstruction. I suspect that and the fact that this happened 2 months ago, and the hospital ran a full work up and xrays and came up with nothing might lead him to suspect it's something else entirely. He has all those records and records from the previous vet as well.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Okay, let me see if I understand the landscape of possibilities here:
1. Food allergy
2. Acid reflux
3. Obstruction
4. Infection
5. Gastro enzyme issues
6. Digestive tract trauma
7. Bloat

Is there anything else that can cause frequent vomiting/nausea?


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

That's a pretty comprehensive list. Obstruction would seem the obvious problem since he is throwing up regularly, that would lead me to think food can't pass through his system.

Has your vet mentioned Megaesophagus? I am not familiar with the symptoms myself.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I just wonder if he has some sort of blood sugar or other issue that causes him to retch and vomit when his stomach is empty. How late are you feeding? Is it possible his stomach is empty in the middle of the night and that's causing him to feel nauseous and throw up? With Toby we must feed him a snack right before bed or he will throw up in the morning. Just in case that is it, can you possibly experiment a little and divide his second meal into an early evening and just before bed meal? That way he's digesting in the middle of the night. 

If you are feeding late, then maybe it's the opposite--and you might need to feed earlier because digesting it during the night makes him sick for some reason. I don't have any basis for this idea BTW, just a random thought that popped into my head troubleshooting.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I forgot to mention--ask your vet about prescribing sucralfate in lieu or in addition to the pepcid. It coats the esophagus and stomach and helps a dog with issues like acid reflux or vomiting. At one point we were doing a sucralfate and pepcid regimen before each meal like this:

1. One hour before feeding, dissolve sucralfate in warm water in an oral syringe. Once it cools, give it to the dog, then wait 30 minutes.

2. 30 minutes before eating give the dog the pepcid, then wait another 30 minutes. 

3. Feed. The time lapse is to let the two meds do what they are supposed to do and coat the stomach and esphagus. 

It was a real pain in the rear to do it this way, but we saw improvement. Sucralfate is good stuff if you can get it into your dog.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Never heard of megaesophagus before. I did a quick search and it would seem it only happens after a meal, and once everything is expelled, all is well (until the next meal). Is that right?

We had issues when Chili was younger where he was vomiting around 5AM every morning. I did try breaking his dinner into two portions, one at 6:30 and the other around 10:30-11. That did resolve the issue and as he got older we went back to a full meal at 6:30 and nothing later. What we're experiencing now seems a bit different. Once the anti-nausea wears off, he'll retch constantly, regardless of when he's had his last meal. If there is something in his stomach, it will come up, and once his stomach is empty, just the retching continues. If there is nothing in his stomach, it will just be the retching and we won't feed for obvious reasons. He's had bloodwork run before (in Jan and when he was a pup) and nothing was flagged as a problem. Unfortunately, I don't know what they did or didn't check for, so I can't make any intelligent statements about this. The records are in the possession of the current vet, so I will go through those when I meet with him. 

When ever we reach a diagnosis, I'll be sure to update here. Hopefully it can spare another one's furry friend.


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## Goldens R Great (Aug 19, 2010)

*Long!*

I'm sorry to read about Chili. It sounds like he's having a tough time and you're doing everything to try and get it figured out.

One of my goldens had an issue with vomiting. She did not want to eat food or drink water and was very lethargic. She would vomit three to four times a week. It was mainly yellow bile with specks of blood in it. I took her to my regular vet and Annie was prescribed Tagamet and Sucrulfate, but she didn't get any better so I had bloodwork done and everything checked out normal. 

She vomited a small chunk of blood on a Saturday afternoon and since my vet's office was closed I took her to the local Emergency/Specialty Vet Clinic. They ran more bloodwork and did Abdominal and Chest X-rays and didn't find anything wrong. I took her back a few days later for an Endoscopy and she was diagnosed with Gastroenteritis with no known cause. I switched to a different vet that the Emergency Clinic recommended and we spent several months running various tests and trying different medications. She was tested for Addison's, had an Ultrasound, was tested for Ova and Parasites, they did a Trypsin-Like Immunoreactivity test and a Thyroid test. All the tests came back normal. During this time the vet also gave her the following medications: Tagamet, Chlorpromazine, Sucrulfate, Amoxicillin, Pepcid, Reglan and Metronidazole. (Not all at the same time though!) She also put her on a bland diet - hamburger and rice and Prescription ID canned food. Unfortunately Annie continued to resist most of her food, absolutely wouldn't drink any water or Pedialyte, was still vomiting, was still lethargic and lost around 20 pounds. The vet considered doing exploratory surgery because she just couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, but before that she decided to try giving Annie prednisone and to switch her to a limited ingredient food with a protein she had never had before. Once we started Annie on the prednisone and switched her food to Royal Canin Potato and Rabbit she started getting better almost immediately. In just a few days she was eating and drinking and was no longer vomiting. After all we went through it seemed like such a simple solution. She was on the prednisone for 4 months. We gradually decreased it over that time period. The vet believed that she had some type of food intolerance issue. The only constant of the various food we tried, before we switched to the limited ingredient diet, was rice. That seems like a pretty bland food to be intolerant of, but who knows. 

Also, previous to the vomiting issue, she would experience acid reflux. She would get frantic and run around the house trying to eat fuzz, paper, etc., and then cry to go out and then would want to eat mouthfuls of leaves or grass. I had medicine on hand to give to her when she was having an episode. I'm only mentioning this because once I switched her food and she had been on the pred, she never had acid reflux again.

I have no idea if this info will be of any help to you, but please know I'm thinking about you and Chili and I appreciate all you're doing for him.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

This is interesting (and I had almost dismissed a food issue), thanks for sharing that. And interesting that you mentioned the frantic behavior...I observed the same on two instances, both immediately after we discontinued the anti-nausea meds. On one he chewed off the hair on the end of his tail, and the other instance, the dog walker said he was trying to eat everything in his path. I knew it was related to the issues, but didn't know it was common with acid reflux. 

So if acid reflux is indeed a part of the problem, wouldn't the anti-nausea meds just mask what's really happening? Meaning the problem is actually getting worse, but we're not seeing the retching? This seems consistent with what I'm observing each time we stop the anti-nausea meds. 

I guess I'm equal parts hopeful and dreadful after reading your post (still, glad you posted). Sometimes these things are a total mystery and as you said, the simplest thing is overlooked and it's a long road with few answers before you hopefully find the root cause. I guess I need to keep the food issues on the table, even if he is on boiled chicken and rice. Thanks again for the informative post!


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

I just wanted to add an update to this thread. Sorry if it's kind of long. The doctor kept him on a third round of reglan and pepto for 10 more days. We starting feeding him very slowly, over a period of 30 mins/meal. Just as in the past, he was fine until 3 days after we discontinued reglan. He threw up his breakfast about 4 hours after he ingested it, most of the rice looked like it never got to the stomach (still whole). I ran to the vet for a one day supply of reglan and got him back on it when i got home. Another long miserable night. This morning he seemed better so I gave him a *little* bit of rice (no chicken) and some broth to see if he would tolerate it. A few hours later the dog walker called me and said he was retching a little bit and when I got home it had almost completely passed. Today we saw the vet. They took a regular xray (he said he'll refer me somewhere else for a barium xray next week and to scope him). The xray shows white spots which could be aspiration pneumonia. He wasn't really sure (breathing seemed normal), but for now he's treating for infection just in case, meanwhile he wants us to feed up upright over the weekend and see how that goes (megaesophagus). We also have a supply of reglan on standby just in case this fails to make a difference. He's lost 10 pounds in the last ~4-6 weeks. 

He said he's never seen it in a large breed dog, usually it's the small breeds that experience it, but it does appear possible that food isn't working it's way into his stomach triggering all the retching, nausea and vomiting. And this would also explain all the white spots he's seeing on the xray since aspiration pneumonia is tied to megaesphagus. I'm still confused about his 100% responsiveness to the reglan, but google searches indicate it does help tone the sphincter above the stomach. The vet was skeptical because in his experience it's most helpful with issues from the stomach and downstream. 

I'm cautiously optimistic. I gave him chicken and rice for dinner, only a half portion but still much more than I gave him for breakfast (which did trigger the retching mildly). We kept him upright (and he does NOT like it at all!!!...squirming like a 2 year old child, but luckily food trumps an agitated state of mind), fed him slowly and got him to stay inclined or upright for 10 mins following. So far he's holding it down just fine, no retching. I can't tell if he's uncomfortable or just dead tired, hopefully and probably just the later. After a good night's sleep, we'll tackle breakfast and by noon we'll know if he can keep the food down.

Tomorrow I'll start reading up more on ME. If anyone has some personal experience, please share.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Oh my, I was hoping things got better, but it sounds like you are on the path to finally discovering what is wrong. There are several members here who have dealt with ME and hopefully they will chime in. If you run a search on ME here you can see their threads and that might be helpful, and possibly PM some of them for more information.


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## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

Wow, poor guy! I hope they can finally get to the bottom of this and will be able to help your furbaby!
Many years ago, I knew a family with a golden mix girl, she had a problem similar to that. I don't know if it was ME or not. But they had to pretty much spoon feed her for life to get some food in her and not making her choke on it.
Good luck!


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Rka*

Rka

Did the vet do stomach and chest x-rays on him. to rule anything out?

I know there are people on this forum that have experience with megaesophagus.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

I've just spent hours reading up on ME. This led me to threads on MG which is just plain scary. I don't even want to share half this information with my wife until we know what it actually is. But needless to say all kinds of aweful thoughts are going through my mind. 

This morning's breakfast took about 30 mins to feed, and he's held it down pretty well. Only a small amount of hacking. We're withholding water too, and giving it to him every few hours, again, trying to keep him upright or very elevated for a short period. He did hack a bit, and as soon as I asked him to sit, he settled down. He's otherwise pretty quiet and lethargic (compared to normal for a golden).

I'm curious and haven't been able to find the answer to this. Almost everyone advises to feed upright. Is hand feeding in a sitting position possible at all? Or does it just depend on the extent of the issue? I want to try, but right now I'd rather get calories and fluids into him whenever possible, so I'm sticking with upright feedings. 

The chest and abdominal xrays were taken yesterday, but the vet admitted he wasn't sure based on what he saw. I think he'll be referring us to a specialist next week for a thorough work up, since the upright feedings do seem to be working (first time he's held down food without medication in 6 weeks).


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Just a final update. The inclined feedings, modified diet (Honest Kitchen meatballs), knox blocks and staggered food and water throughout the day with a waiting period immediately after (inclined) has worked wonderfully. He is used to the routines and thinks it's a game. At night he has very slight issues with fluid accumulation in his esophagus (that's using an inflatable collar to keep his head elevated - the only thing he despises). I just ask him to sit for 30 seconds, he swallows and eventually clears the fluid and it's back to sleep. 

It's a bit of work, but he's healthier and happier than he has been in a while. We just have to get more weight on him, which is a little tricky as we experiment with food volumes and timing of food and water. We can only closely supervise him on weekends so during the week we're a little more conservative. Our trainer has a bit more experience with this than the vet and has suggested that he may require a less regimented routine after some time, but we just have to go a day at a time and get his weight back up before we try some things to see what he will and won't tolerate.

The doc is satisfied that this is exactly our issue and hasn't ordered anything other than a thyroid test (negative). He's no longer on any medication, just need to follow up with the vet on the pneumonia. 

So at this point I'm happy to say it's just an exercise in managing the condition and he's responding better than I would have hoped. Thanks so much for all the advice, suggestions and brainstorming!! It really was helpful!


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*So glad*

So glad to hear he is doing better, please keep us all posted!!


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## baumgartml16 (Jun 19, 2011)

Glad to hear you have found a way to stop the retching/vomiting! Hope he continues to gain weight and feeling better every day!


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Another update, unfortunately not good news. The inclined feedings worked for a bit, but eventually we determined he needed to be verticle. So we built the chair. This was his first time in the chair with the bar in place...he was NOT happy, but over time learned to tolerate it along with all the other strange rituals we put him through.










We eventually learned we could not take him off the reglan, so we left that in place 30 mins before each meal. Ultimately he still deteriorated and it was off to a specialist for an endoscopy. That revealed mild signs of ME (even though the symptoms are not mild) and badly inflamed tissue in the intestines just south of the stomach. Biopsy confirmed Inflammatory Bowel Disease. One of the symptoms was excessive bowel movements, which he has had since he was a puppy (5-6 times a day as a pup, and 4-5 times a day as an adult). We're waiting for a supply of Hills Venison formula to get delivered to the vet. There is some hope giving him a protein source he hasn't been exposed to will limit the immunological response his body is having (whether it does and for how long is a huge question). The doctor prescribed steroids to help control the inflammation as well. We're having trouble feeding him now. That seems to be a result of the ME, but the IBD can't be helping. If we push, he gets sick within 12 hours, then we have to withhold food/water for 24 hours until he normalizes. So when we see signs of discomfort, we just have to stop the food. We both work, so his only visitors during the day are the dog walkers, and they barely have enough time to give him water. So any unconsumed food from breakfast or dinner can't be fed at any other time. When the new food arrives we have to experiment with the consistency to get it right so he can ingest (get it wrong and it won't go down well and he'll get sick). 

He'll be two at the end of this month. I haven't shared my thoughts about what's next with my wife yet...it was her birthday last week. But I feel like we're running out of track. Any one of these two conditions is a handful to manage, but both together and the degree of deterioration of his intestines....


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

I'm so sorry things have not improved.....

It was kind of you to update the board, please know every heart here aches for you and your boy going through this. You are very dedicated to his care, and love him very much, he is lucky to have you.


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## pandamonium (Apr 18, 2012)

*...*

Ok...he is adorable!...I am amazed at the degree of care and love that you both have in your hearts for him...


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## mooselips (Dec 4, 2011)

IBD covers a 2 kinds of of bowel disorders, did they tell you which one they were leaning towards?

If it is Ulcerative Colitis, is it possible they could try Pentasa? A high dose aspirin that reduces the inflammation of the lining of the bowel?

The other IBD is Crohns disease.

I've also read, mixing some oatmeal, dry from the box into their dog food may help.

Sure hope this turns around for you, you are a wonderfully dedicated dog owner.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

It's in the duodenum, so just past the stomach. Similar to Crohn's. I'm read that the oatmeal may help with inflammations in other areas, however in this particular case the oatmeal may not be ideal. Regardless, I'll start with the prescription food the vet recommended to see if that and the steroids can improve his condition. Meanwhile my wife and I video'd his feeding routine last night. In that you can see how painful it is for him to take down food and the relief he feels immediately after a burp. It happens over and over and over. Hopefully this will persuade the doctors to look into the this issue of feeding and regurgitation more carefully. I think they are too complacent in accepting that they found a primary cause and if they address that everything else will resolve itself. I just don't agree. If I can get the video clip under 5 mins, I'll post it here.


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## pandamonium (Apr 18, 2012)

Again...I want to say that I commend you and your wife for the dedication that you have given this...and see that absolute love that you have for this boy. I so wish I lived closer...I would be there in the day for this guy!...
It is so hard when these beautiful dogs hurt....they love so unconditionally, yet teach us so many lessons while they are here with us!


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Chili*

Praying that they determine what is wrong with Chili. He is a beautiful boy!!


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Here's a video (hope this works)...if you feel bad watching it, just FF to the last minute or two, it's kinda funny. 

http://rajashar.smugmug.com/Other/Miscellaneous/553749_tGFhmZ#!i=2029533976&k=bspK9Gq&lb=1&s=A

This week has been up and down. Food is harder to tolerate, compounded by the new limited protein diet the doc prescribed (evidentally wet food is even harder to take down that you see in the video with his old food). Getting a dry formula today or tomorrow. The good news is his BM's have dropped from 4-5/day to 2-3/day. So one would hope he is absorbing more nutrition. The bad news is his mood is different, no spring in his step, just kinda blah all the time. I did talk to my local vet and showed him the video. He wasn't too concerned. He admitted he couldn't be more clear about what to do next. Running more tests is possible, but they wouldn't necessarily lead to a better treatment for the ME symptoms beyond what we're already doing. So for now we stay the course, deal with the IBD and try to work with the prescription food to get the consistency he needs for the ME.


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## mooselips (Dec 4, 2011)

Oh goodness, that is difficult to watch. I can imagine the frustration, and heartache between you and poor Chili, he wants to eat, he's hungry...it must be so hard for him, and you both.

Have you thought of maybe putting the video on You tube, just to see others that have the same problem?

Maybe someone could share experiences, or solutions?

He's so sweet and patient........


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## vrmueller (Jun 14, 2008)

Just wanted to say I am so sorry for your frustration in trying to find something that will help Chili. My son went the first 2 years of his life with severe GERD and nothing helped him. He is 12 now and has food aversion. Ruby our Golden suffered the first 3 years with digestive issues (vomiting and runs). It turned out to be food allergies and a thyroid disorder. Anyway, we do what we have to do to get through it. I feel for you and Chili and hope that there is some help soon.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

@mooselips, no I think at this point we're drawing the line at TGRF, the Facebook ME page and the two vets we're working with. 

@vrmueller, thanks, you're 100% right, we do what we have to. For our families, our pets, our friends...and ourselves. There is a beautiful nobility in that. Wishing the best for your son.


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## Buddy's mom forever (Jun 23, 2011)

I am so sorry. Your boy is so sweet and you are angels. Do you have any holistic vet close to your place to seek their opinion?


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## mana (Feb 20, 2012)

Do you think food chopped very fine for easier digestion would help? If you have the time making bland home cooked food chopped extremely fine in a food processer might help. Good luck!


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## mana (Feb 20, 2012)

small frequent meals may help also.


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## RKA (Sep 20, 2010)

Our dog walker knows a holostic vet, and she's going to reach out to them to ask them if they have any experience treating these conditions. My thinking is if he reach a dead end on this road, that's something to try, but right now we continue the current vet's prescribed treatment. 

His ability to tolerate food has taken a turn for the worse in the last 2 weeks as you see in the video. We are going back to square 1 and trying different consistencies to see what works the best. It's difficult because the prescription diet comes in kibble or wet form and that's what I have to work with. Can't do too much with the wet food except change the temperature to alter the consistency. I'm going to pick up a coffee grinder on the way home from work today and see if I can grind and wet the dry food to get different consistencies. 

Multiple smaller feedings is really the answer now, but we simply can't. My wife and I both work, so his current schedule only allows for two feedings on the weekdays (before we leave for work and after we return). We have dog walkers doing water at 10:30 and 2:30, but 45 mins a visit is only enough time for water only. Between the dog walkers, medications, vet visits, special diets, we're at $1500/mo. And at any time an emergency visit could arise that could start at $2K on up. We haven't taken a vacation since we got him nearly two years ago (and prospects are dim given his current condition), we've burned our vacation time this year staying home on the days he gets sick or running him to the vet. For better or worse, we know we're all at our limits in many ways that exceed the finances. There just isn't room to accomodate a routine that requires more time or money.


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## Buddy's mom forever (Jun 23, 2011)

I am really sorry for all what is happening with your boy. And I know how hard that is on you and your wife. It is not what you were dreaming about when you got him. Sending healing vibes for sweet Chili and prayers for things to get better soon, I am sorry.


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