Food Intolerance?! Help

[Edwin Roman]

Hi Everyone.  Aspen, my goldendoodle, has had a problem with mostly regurgitation since she was about 12 weeks old.  She now is almost 2 years old.  I've switched her diet around several times with no luck.  She is currently on a limited ingredient diet and it hasn't lessen the problem.  My vet wants to try switching her to an rx food that might be easier on her stomach.  She doesn't chew on her paws and has never had and skin problems.  This leads me to believe that it might be a food intolerance problem instead of an allergy problem.  Has anyone out there experienced anything like this with their doodle?  I would appreciate any help I can get.

 

Thanks

 

er

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Edwin, has your vet done any diagnostic testing to rule out problems with the esophagus? Any GI blood panels, Xrays, ultrasounds, etc? 

How often does the regurgitating occur?

[Edwin Roman]

My vet has done xrays.  The only thing the xray showed was a large amount of air in the stomach.  We believed that it was due to the fact that the vet was in and out of the room like 6 times before the xray.  You know how excited doodle can get.  He wanted to wait to see if Aspen outgrew the problem before he did further testing.

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I really think you need to have more testing done to rule out some different GI diseases or conditions that could be contributing to this. Your best bet is to see a veterinary internal medicine specialist. My guy has inflammatory bowel disease, and regurgitating was really the only symptom. My vet did Xrays, too, and various tests, but could not find the problem until we consulted a specialist. Clearly Aspen has not outgrown the problem.

There has to be something physiological going on that would cause the regurgitating, even if there is a food intolerance. How often is it happening? 

[Edwin Roman]

It could happen several times a day or it could skip several days.  Sometimes you can tell just by looking at her that her stomach is not feeling well.  She is a happy dog but I might not be able to tell how this is really affecting her mood until i get rid of the problem.

[Edwin Roman]

What is the treatment for your dog?  Was the specialist able to help him?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The specialist was definitely able to help him, but as far as the treatment, let's not go there yet. We are hoping this is not the same thing. :-) 

I will tell you that I wasted lots of money and time with my vet trying to diagnose it, and if I had it to do over again, I would have gone to the specialist right off the bat. 

[Edwin Roman]

that is what i'm thinking.  i don't to wait another year to find out what is wrong.

[Jill, Woody & Maxi]

Hello!

What does your vet think the reasoning is behind the food regurgitation? I do not like the fact that this has been going on for so long, so I can only imagine how you feel! You need to get an answer..have you ever seen a GI specialist? When she regurgitates, is it bile, food..? And how often does it happen?

You do not want to feed RX food from the vet. It has poor quality ingredients. Please read this attached link that Karen wrote on why. http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/why-you...

[Edwin Roman]

I didn't want to go the RX route.  My vet is not sure what the problem is.  We've discussed over-excitement, allergies, fast intake,reflux,...   As far as frequency, there is no pattern to it.  She might be okay for 2-3 days and then she might regurgitate 3-4 time a day.  She hardly throws up bile. it is mostly some food and clear fluid (egg white consistency).

[Jen and Annie]

If she is eating too fast or too much food, the stomach could be in a 'stress' state, and just want to get rid of the food as fast as possible.  I am not an expert, but have you tried hand feeding slowly, or feeding smaller portions through out the day?  If either of my girls eat too much, or too fast - they will regurgitate their food, but this happens so rarely for them.  Excessive water intake can also cause the stomach to get too full. 

The only other thing I can think of is something called mega esophagus, where the food cannot stay down because the esophagus doesnt have the 'closing' mechanism that keeps the food down... BUT if the regurgitation is not daily with every meal, this may not be relevant... ?  http://www.caninemegaesophagus.org/

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There can be lots of other causes, some of them structural. In JD's case, there was an inflammation in the intestinal lumen, which can be caused by a food intolerance, but the inflammation caused his pylorus to become stenotic, so there was delayed gastric emptying, which causes regurgitation. That was a case of acquired pyloric stenosis, but there are congenital forms, too. 

Megaesophagus is a devastating disease. Sometimes puppies do outgrow it, but if a dog had it for two years without treatment, there would be way more going on than occasional regurgitating. 

[Edwin Roman]

I believe the xrays my vet took showed a normal esophagus.  It is pretty fustrating because it seems to be diagnosis by elimination.