The Honest Veterinarian

A few weeks ago, Oscar, my 2 year old dachshund began vomiting. At first I thought it was because he had began eating grass at the house we recently moved to but then even going outside with him to ensure he wouldn't eat grass his vomiting became more frequent. Day 1 he threw up white foam, day 2 he threw up white foam with grass, day 3 he threw up bile and later his meal after he ate, semi-digested (dog food mush). I became concerned when I saw his food come up and when he began vomiting 2-3 times each day. I was going out of town and on day 4 after his third episode of the day I took him to the clinic (after calling and getting calming advice from technician because I am a worried mom).

It is important when you get to your veterinarian that you know when the symptoms began and how frequent. When it comes to things coming back up it is also important to help your veterinarian determine whether your pet is vomiting of regurgitating. Certain diagnoses are tied to one or the other because they are very different things. Here is a good definition comparing the two from Clinician's Brief:

Regurgitation is the passive expulsion of food, fluid, or other material from the pharynx or esophagus, while vomiting is an active expulsion of ingesta from the stomach and (sometimes) duodenum [beginning of the small intestine). In contrast to regurgitation, vomiting involves a centrally mediated reflex with coordinated closure of the nasopharynx and glottis to protect the airway, reducing the risk for aspiration pneumonia [fluid getting into the lungs].

I like to think of it this way: before Oscar would vomit he would run to me looking very sad and then begin to retch before the material came out of his mouth; therefore he knew something was coming. If he was regurgitating he would have been playing or sleeping and all of a sudden material is coming out of his mouth and he had no time to prepare.

So I got to our veterinarian and told her my concerns. He was vomiting, eating and drinking normally and not acting sick. Vomiting can be caused by many things and the number one thought especially after seeing that he threw up his food was a foreign body (anything that cannot pass through the digestive tract). How do you diagnose a foreign body? X-rays are the go to. He was still pooping though which meant that some food must be getting to his colon and getting out of his body so if it was a foreign body it must be small causing a partial block somewhere in his digestive system, this could make x-rays obsolete if the object is too small to see. She asked what treats I was giving him and if he could have gotten into anything. We went on to determine to stop the treats and put him on a bland diet of canned Purina EN for a few days, feeding him more than twice a day. Ta-da no more vomiting and he loved eating all day long (it seemed to him).

So what was wrong with Oscar. We may never know for sure but I believe he may have swallowed too big a piece of his dental treat and as it passed (maybe as a big chunk) it began to irritate his intestinal lining which in turn alerted his body to an issue and caused his body to attempt to get rid of the irritant through vomiting. If the story had played out differently for example he was also acting very sick and possibly had a fever, which for a dog would be over 102.5, we may have considered an infection of some sort and/or peritonitis. In that case blood work and possibly further testing would have been necessary.

After this fiasco and thinking Oscar may have a bit more of a sensitive stomach than I thought I have decided to switch his food. This could be an irrational move but its happening. I am going to be putting him on the Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach and Skin formula just to at least give his GI tract a bit of an easier go for awhile. Before I do that, I had to try Purina's new Just Right Food for him! We got the package in the mail just yesterday!

More to come on how this diet works out for the dachshunds!

Pawsitively yours,

Gabrielle P.