{"id":26,"date":"2009-11-25T20:52:11","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T20:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/?p=26"},"modified":"2009-11-25T20:52:11","modified_gmt":"2009-11-25T20:52:11","slug":"your-poodle-dog-is-vomiting-now-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/your-poodle-dog-is-vomiting-now-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Poodle Dog is Vomiting &#8212; Now What?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last time, I told you about the problems with a vomiting mini poodle dog who\u2019s been throwing up for over six weeks.\u00a0 As mentioned, lately I\u2019ve learned a lot about why dogs throw up \u2013 both from my vet as well as from my research.\u00a0 Over the next several posts I\u2019m going to share this information in case you, too are dealing with a dog who\u2019s throwing up.<\/p>\n<p>Onward\u2026<\/p>\n<p>First off, if you\u2019ve owned poodles or any other dogs for any length of time, then you know they vomit on occasion \u2013 and usually it\u2019s no big deal.\u00a0 You clean it up and move on with life.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes they vomit to rid themselves of an irritant now so that it doesn\u2019t bother them later.\u00a0 Sometimes they don\u2019t even really throw up \u2013 they just regurgitate food that\u2019s sitting in the esophagus (perhaps because they ate too quickly). Either way, it\u2019s generally not a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>However, you\u2019ll know if there\u2019s a problem, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A dog that vomits more than a couple times.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A dog that vomits two or more days in a row.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A dog that vomits multiple times per week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A dog that has unproductive vomiting. (NOTE: This could be bloat, which is an extreme emergency. Get to your vet now.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A dog that exhibits other symptoms of illness while throwing up, such as lethargy\/depression; refusal to eat or drink; fever; or any other symptom that suggests that the dog doesn\u2019t feel well.\u00a0 Call your vet ASAP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A dog whose vomiting is accompanied by diarrhea (check for fresh blood or a tarry look, which suggests digested blood in the stool).\u00a0 (Again, call your vet \u2013 your poodle dog can dehydrate very quickly!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A dog who\u2019s vomiting but is unable to pass stool. (The dog could have an intestinal obstruction \u2013 get to your vet NOW.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Bloody vomit or vomit that includes specks of blood.\u00a0 You may also see a \u201ccoffee grounds\u201d look to the vomit, which indicates the dog is throwing up digested blood.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Again, some of these are real medical emergencies, so it\u2019s always best to call your vet. The call is free \u2013 they\u2019ll let you know whether you should come in.<\/p>\n<p>Now, if it\u2019s not an emergency, then you\u2019re probably scratching your head and wondering why your poodle won\u2019t stop throwing up.\u00a0 There are dozens of reasons.\u00a0 And if your poodle is anything like my poodle, the answer won\u2019t come easy. That means your vet will need to run plenty of tests to uncover the cause of the vomiting \u2013 it often becomes a process of elimination!<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the tests your vet might run:<\/p>\n<p><strong> Blood panel<\/strong>.\u00a0 Your vet wants to know how your poodle\u2019s organs and other functions are working, and a blood panel helps him or her to see this.<\/p>\n<p>For example, a blood panel can help reveal liver or kidney problems. It can help diagnose infections.\u00a0 It can even point to \u201cred flags\u201d for certain disorders like Addison\u2019s disease (which causes vague symptoms like vomiting \u2013 you\u2019ll need to do a follow up blood test to get an accurate diagnosis).<\/p>\n<p>If your poodle has vomited a lot, he or she is probably dehydrated and his or her electrolytes are out of balance.\u00a0 This will show up on a complete blood panel \u2013 and your vet will give an electrolyte solution to your poodle under the skin or by IV.<\/p>\n<p><strong>X-ray<\/strong>. The vet uses the x-ray to see if your poodle has swallowed anything obvious, like a paperclip or something.\u00a0 However, many items don\u2019t show up easily on an x-ray. Like if your poodle swallowed a bit of filling from a stuffed toy, it might not show up at all.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the barium is for\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong> Barium study.<\/strong> Here your poodle drinks barium, which shows up really easily on an x-ray.\u00a0 Your vet can then take periodic x-ray images to track the barium going through your dog\u2019s system.\u00a0 This study can help your vet diagnosis motility disorders.\u00a0 It can also reveal blockages caused by items not seen on the ordinary x-ray.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s just for starters.\u00a0 If these items don\u2019t reveal a cause, your vet may suggest other tests (depending on other symptoms and your vet\u2019s own experience) as well as treatments commonly treat the problem:<\/p>\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your vet may want to do an ultrasound.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Your vet want to take a look inside the dog\u2019s stomach using an endoscope.\u00a0 The endoscope can remove foreign matter in the stomach, look for ailments like ulcers and even take a little sample of the stomach lining to look for unwanted bacteria.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Some vets may want to do exploratory surgery (if s\/he suspects a blockage or other problem).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Your vet may suggest that the vomiting is due to food allergies or food intolerance, in which case you may start on a prescription food or other home cooked (bland) diet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If the poodle tends to vomit yellow foam, especially at night, it might be as simple as too much acid on an empty stomach. A small snack before bed &#8212; even a few dog treats &#8212; might help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If the vet suspects bacterial overgrowth, you may get sent home with a course of antibiotics for your poodle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If your vet suspects a stomach ulcer, your poodle may need to take an anti-vomit drug (such as Cerenia) alongside something that coats the stomach. You may also get an acid-reducer (something like Pepcid AC).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In other words, a poodle that\u2019s vomiting isn\u2019t always an easy case to treat!\u00a0 You may need to run lots of tests. And you may need to even do a little experimenting.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned \u2013 more about vomiting poodles coming soon\u2026 (plus an update on Eddie)\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last time, I told you about the problems with a vomiting mini poodle dog who\u2019s been throwing up for over six weeks.\u00a0 As mentioned, lately I\u2019ve learned a lot about why dogs throw up \u2013 both from my vet as well as from my research.\u00a0 Over the next several posts I\u2019m going to share this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[25,27,28,26,24],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poodle_health","category-poodle_nutrition","tag-poodle-allergies","tag-poodle-blood-panel","tag-poodle-ulcer","tag-poodle-xray","tag-vomiting-poodle-dog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28,"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/28"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubpoodle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}