doggy nausea?

Ok, so I kinda posted about this before, thinking that spreading feedings would help..but I just don't think that is it. He has thrown up here or there just an hour or two after eating. Or will exhibit other nausea signs.

I talked to the vet/vet behavioralist & she was not exactly helpful, basically saying that it is really tough to find out what would cause nausea, other than putting a dog on a grain free diet...which he has been for probably 8 years. We don't have grain in the house either, so he isn't gettting it from people food.

She suggested some super expensive nausea med for 5 days, just to 'confirm' the issue...but then past that, it didn't seem like she had any other game plan, other than sending him for tons of expensive lab work...which she didn't even support. So I am just SO frustrated. I paid $600 to get him diagnosed with nausea, and have nothing to do about it?????

We just had a $320 vet appt yesterday too, as he had an ear infection.

I'm just feeling stuck & broke right now.

Help?

I'd probably suggest barium xrays to see at what point the food is being thrown up. This makes me suspicious of megaesophagus. Is the food thrown up every time she eats? blackrose has a dog with this condition. I did have a kitten with sort of an offshoot of this condition that was not repairable.

Is he in any kind of stomach acid reducer? If not, I'd start him on some to see if it helps. Dogs can take over the counter pepcid, but if that isn't strong enough I believe there are other options as well.

I bet the med she wanted you to try was cerenia. It is an anti-nausea med for specifically formulated for dogs (and cats?). It is very effective, but extremely pricey. May be worth trying to see if it helps, but you could also try another drug. It likely wouldn't be as effective, but it doesn't hurt to try. Cynder is on metocloprimide for motility, but the vet also said before Cerenia came out she would use it as an anti-anti-nausea med. So there are other options.

If she thinks the nausea is being caused by a food allergy, perhaps trying a hypoallergenic diet, or a limited ingredient diet with a novel protein source my be a good idea? Or do allergy testing for a concrete answer.

ETA: it definitely *could* be related to an esophageal issue. Like CrazedACD said, a barium radiograph may not be a bad idea. Cynder was diagnosed with just a regular rad, but she was very obvious to see. In the meantime, especially if money is tight or you have other things you want to try first, you could see if feeding elevated (45* angle or more) helps, and/or keeping him in a vertical position after feeding for 10 minutes makes a difference. Try a different food consistency (soaked completely vs hard), too. And starting him on pepcid and something like metocloprimide may be good, too.

EETA: at the clinic I used to work with, there was an old Labrador who had a very mild case of megaE. So much so that he wasn't really effected by it in day to day life, but would just become nauseous after eating. He did best with medication and eating moistened food elevated (he didn't need to be held vertically).

Thanks for the thoughts.

It really doesn't seem to be consistent with meal times (or certain times after meals). If anything, it is more delayed/related to stress.

I'm really hesitant to give an acid-reducer -- in humans, acid is not produced when a dog is stressed, so these are crazily overprescribed/overused (usually the issue is too little stomach acid, NOT too much). ANd since it all seems to get worse with stress, just not sure that all matches up.

I'll look into MegaE some...so far he has NO issue eating, or any apparent issues with regurgitation or what not. He is only throwing up like 1/wk or 1 every 2 weeks.

I can attempt the feeding in vertical...but Oakley isn't exactly the easiest dog to manipulate into positions. He already gets wet, raw food, as well, with some dry food. We did just switch the proteins too.

we shall see...