Persistent Gagging/Regurgitation

[Shannon]

Hi everyone! 

I am new here but have been reading since I got my puppy! She's 4.5 months old now and I have a few concerns that hopefully some of you smart people can help with! My adorable puppy Harper makes me nervous, and I'm pretty sure the vet thinks I'm paranoid so let me know if this sound bad to you! Rather than ramble on and on, I'll just write everything in a timeline.

Wed: Supposed to get spayed. Instead, I woke up at 3:30am to her vomiting severely. She continued doing this until 8am (just bile at the end). She couldn't even stand up at this point, so I took her to the vet who couldn't tell me much other than she probably ate something bad.

Thur-Sat: Generally refused to eat much but she's not an eater to begin with.

Sat: Regurgitated immediately after eating. Seemed lethargic but generally okay. Took her to emergency vet who did an x-ray because we were concerned about a blockage.

Mon: Spayed! Surgery went well.

Sat: Regurgitated twice after eating but I really don't think she was eating too fast. She doesn't even like food!

Mon: Woke up and starting gagging and threw up a little in her mouth. Hadn't eaten anything.

Tues: Gagged when she got excited at puppy class.

Tues & Wed: Woke up in the middle of the night panting heavily and whimpering a bit. Gave her water and she seemed okay and went back to bed.

Sun: Gagged when she got excited playing with another dog.

Inconsistent diarrhea through this entire time period. Sorry for how gross this is (TMI) but she'll poop regularly and then walk away a few feet and have diarrhea about 50% of the time. She's always had this issue though. Again, she wasn't eating a ton during this either and we switched her food in the middle as well so take that into consideration.

Any help? Some people are telling me this is normal dog behavior and they just regurgitate, throw up, gag sometimes but she's my first dog ever and don't want her to be secretly sick with something!! 

Thanks everyone and sorry for how darn long this turned out!

[BG and Gavin]

I can't offer you any help, but I do NOT think it is normal.  Hopefully someone will chime in with some ideas.  Hoping for an improvement.

[Trudy Harlow]

I'm going to let those with medical knowledge respond in detail, but I do want to say that you might examine what you're feeding her. It could be the food is just not working for her.

Also, my dog will frequently puke up bile when his stomach is empty. So I always give him a medium-sized treat when I put him in his crate at night and if he acts pukey in the a.m., I just give him a little something to occupy his stomach.

My dog had coccidia when I brought him home as a puppy. Have you done a stool analysis? It took months to get rid of the coccidia and ever since then he's had a sensitive stomach. Many foods will give him loose stools. So get the stool rechecked for infection or parasites.

[Shannon]

Yes and I do think the food might have something to do with it! We were feeding her Diamond Naturals Large Breed Puppy but the girl refused to eat. We switched to Taste of the Wild Puppy but then after reading these forums thought we should do FROMM and stick with it. So we are in the transition period off of TOTW and onto FROMM hoping that helps somewhat! 

And her stool analysis came back normal, so did bloodwork (when she vomitted a ton that one morning) but it could have changed since then? 

She definitely sounds like your pup with the sensitive stomach though! We are even limited the types of treats we feed her and then introducing one by one to see what bugs her.

Thanks for the help!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This much gagging and regurgitating is not normal at all, and it is doubtful that it has much to do with the food you are feeding. I don't want to worry you more than you already are, but there is a disease called megaesophagus that is not at all uncommon in doodle puppies. There are other digestive diseases that can cause these symptoms as well. You need to discuss these issues with the vet and have a thorough examination done. Vomiting once might have been from "eating something bad". Doing it this often points to some other issue.

There is a difference between vomiting and regurgitating. Is the food she brings up partially digested, or does it look pretty much the same way it did when she ate it? 

[Shannon]

Yes when I say regurgitation I mean it barely looks chewed, just slimy food. Sometimes she does it when laying down and nothing even comes out of her mouth but she makes that gaggy noise.

[Shannon]

Also, would you be able to see this on an x-ray? She did have one done that Saturday so maybe we could look back at the film?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think it depends on what part of the GI tract they X-rayed, and I also think it requires a radiograph with barium. But I'm not sure. Here's some info:  http://www.akcchf.org/canine-health/your-dogs-health/disease-inform...

I also messaged Kate Singleton, who has two doodles with MegaE, to look at this discussion and give us an opinion as to whether that could be the case. 

[Shannon]

Thank you. I really appreciate it!

[Trudy Harlow]

Karen, she says that it's accompanied by diarrhea. Would megaesophagus cause that as well?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

No, but I think that may be a separate issue, possibly from the food change. 

[Wendy]

Has your vet considered MEGAESOPHAGUS?  I am going to a local "Doodle Romp" that is offering a seminar on the issue. http://groovygoldendoodles.com/megaesophagus/

[Shannon]

Reading more on that now! Thanks!