Dog Vomiting

Although vomiting has been considered as a symptom to specificproblems, it may be helpful to review some of its ramifications.There are two forms of vomiting. Projectile vomiting is involuntaryvomiting, where a sudden contraction of the stomach causes fluids tospurt out of the pet's mouth. It may occur during play or excitementand is usually not an indication of a serious condition.

The second form is voluntary, where there are active contractions ofthe abdomen and the dog lowers its head with each contraction.This is repeated until contents of the stomach and/or the esophagusare discharged.

Acute Vomiting. When a dog ingests toxic material, the lining ofthe stomach may be irritated or the toxin, absorbed into the blood, mayaffect nerve centers in the brain. Both conditions can cause vomiting.Moreover, inflammation of the brain or toxic substances from tissuedestruction which are blood-borne to the brain also may cause vomit-ing.

A sensitivity to food most be considered, with perhaps the mostcommon item causing vomiting being pork. But the amount of thefood causing vomiting is important. Many dogs eat a strip of cookedbacon or a bite or two of pork roast and have no problem, but any morethan that brings on the problem.

It appears to us there are dogs that eat the same diet day after dayand because of a particular ingredient or ingredients vomit perhapsonce every week or two. Some of these dogs eat grass before vomiting,suggesting that they eat it to vomit.

The percentages of the various ingredients of commercial dog foodschange from time to time. In such a competitive business the ingredi-ents are the result of a computer's printout. The computer is pro-grammed with information indicating a balanced and nutritionallycomplete ration. Then the costs of all the possible ingredients availablearc fed into it, and the resulting formula is the least expensive possible.So if fish meal is less expensive than another source of protein, theremay be more in a certain batch than has been in previous batches. Ifyour dog has a problem with fish meal, for example, vomiting mayresult.

The dog with occasional vomiting is one of the more difficult todiagnose. However, one simple method of treatment is to feed thedog a simple diet with few ingredients, such as one of one thirdcooked hamburger, one third cooked rice, and one third canned stewedtomatoes. The diet must be given exclusively over a period of time longenough to demonstrate no vomiting occurs. If one commercial food is aproblem, change to another and, if none can be found, compound oneof your own.

A chronic vomiting dog that promptly eats the vomitus may notsecrete sufficient acid in its stomach. The second time down stimulatesenough hydrochloric acid for digestion. Salting the diet helps a percent-age of these dogs and adding diluted hydrochloric acid during thepreparation of food often helps.

It is normal for the nursing bitch at weaning time to eat a meal andvomit it for her puppies to eat. This is their first solid food when shefollows nature's dictates. In the wild her mate does the same.

Dogs can and do live with intestinal parasites. They may not live aswell but they do live. When the parasite load is too great, especiallywith tapeworms, toxins released by the worms cause vomiting.

When the body cannot rid itself of many substances, not only in-gested substances but also wastes of normal metabolism, vomiting re-sults. A good example is the geriatric dog whose kidneys no longer filterwastes from the blood properly. Uremia develops with vomiting. In thecase of uremia a urinelike odor may be detected on the dog's breath.Acalasia is a defect thought to be an inherited one, but environmen-tal problems may also cause it. It is a pouchlike area involving theesophagus anterior to the diaphragm. When inherited, it is usuallyobserved soon after the weaning puppy eats its first few meals. Somedogs show signs of this problem at three or four months. When the puppy eats a meal, a percentage does not enter the stomach but rathergathers in this pouch. After a while the uncomfortable puppy vomitsthe contents of the pouch. Surgery is difficult in this area and fortu-nately is often unnecessary.

Some years ago a beautiful but emaciated Irish Setter pup with ahistory of vomiting after eating was brought in to us. After a fewswallows of barium, acalasia was diagnosed by X rays. We explained thedifficulty, danger, and expense of surgery, but the owner was convincedthat the choice of surgery over euthanasia was the better choice. Sincesurgery could not be scheduled for three days, we suggested the puppybe fed from a table so that gravity might help the food gain entrance tothe stomach. The day the surgery was to happen the owner phoned tosay the puppy had not vomited since being fed in that manner. He hadput the food in a dish on a windowsill on which the puppy placed itsfront feet, and by the puppy's eating in that almost vertical position theproblem was corrected. In two months that setter had gained twentypounds and looked beautiful.

Another genetic cause of vomiting, which can also becaused by injury, is a stricture of the outlet of the stomach, whichprevents food from entering the small intestine when it's ready to gothere. This vomiting of very acid and sometimes foul-smelling vomitusoccurs many hours after eating. The dog will not reingest this material.Special diets may not help here, in which case surgery is suggested.There is a long list of infective agents that may cause vomiting.Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis is a catchall term for any disease causingbleeding in the stomach and intestine. Blood accompanying vomiting does not always indicate a disastersince it may be the result of such vigorous vomiting that small bloodvessels rupture and produce small streaks or even clots of blood. Asurprisingly small amount of blood mixed with a large amount of otherfluid appears to be all blood.

Vomiting does give us an indication of the area of the intestines thatare affected in cases of diarrhea. There is usually no vomiting if onlythe lower bowel, the colon, is affected, but if after a few days of diar-rhea the dog begins to vomit it suggests the infection has ascended tothe small intestine. In such cases there may be a regurgitation of bilefrom the small intestine into the stomach, resulting in bile-tinged gas-tric juice and saliva.

Most of this feeling sorry for pets that are put on reducing dietsstems from the idea that starvation is painful. But it is not, as long asthere is a reservoir of food in the stored fat of the body. If you givethem a little protein and a little carbohydrate - say, a slice of bread aday to help burn the fat, there is no danger of acidosis developing. Ifa vitamin-mineral supplement is added, there is no danger of starvationat all.

Anyone who thinks starvation is painful need only try it. One of usonce lost forty-two pounds in less than two months and smalleramounts on many other occasions, and never felt a pang of anythingbut hunger. And we knew someone who lost twenty-five pounds infourteen days from infectious hepatitis, and there was no pain. Hungerpangs are habit pangs - not pain at all.

There are many instances of dogs living with only water for twomonths. One dog lived 117 days. So don't think your pct is going to dieif it doesn't eat for a few days while you are accustoming it to what isgood for it. Its taste can become reeducated to like the diet you choose,and your pet will thrive on it if it is complete.

Clients whom we have advised to feed a certain diet ask if a dogdoesn't need variety. How can a certain canned food or dry food that isfed day after day still be palatable? The reason is that our pets cansmell each ingredient in a food. You and I smell hash. The dog smellsseparately each of the ingredients of which hash is composed. If youdoubt this, watch a finicky pet trying to separate finely ground ingredi-ents from each other in a mixture of foods. It isn't difficult to under-stand this ability if one thinks about it for a moment. A Bloodhoundcan smell a man's track a day after he has walked down a path, evenwhen that track has been trampled all over by many other people. Whyshould we doubt that it is as simple a matter for any dog to smell theingredients of a dog food and to enjoy its various components?It is far crueler to overfeed than to underfeed. It is a disservice to thepet and a discredit to the owner. Obesity shortens the life of an dogand makes it sluggish and no longer fun to have around. It often bringsgreat misery and suffering to pet and owner alike, because of the paraly-sis that so frequently sets in as the pet grows older.