PLEASE LET ME GIVE YOU A ***WARNING*** THERE IS A GROSS IMAGE OF BLOOD VOMIT IN THIS BLOG.
A couple of weeks ago we woke up to the sound of Elsa GWORKING. Gworking is a word that I use to explain the action and noise that she makes when she is having an acid reflux episode. This was one of the worst which in hindsight I attribute to a few too many goodies that she should not have had. Elsa has been having this issue for many years and we have dealt with it by trying to keep fat to a minimum which has resulted in few episodes. But as she gets older she seems to be getting more sensitive to fats.
What happened that night was bad; she was licking, gagging and gworking (an odd sort of heavy swallowing). I tried the typical chicken stick trick; when I break one of her chicken and rice treats into small pieces and give them to her slowly. This almost always works if I can get them into her in the start of the episode. If it does not work and she continues, then I have to get her antacids out..
I offered her another of her chicken sticks but she remained the same. She was pretty frantic and her behavior causes everyone around a great deal of anxiety, including Riggs. What she wants to do is to go outside and eat a ton of grass. When dogs don’t feel good they eat grass to vomit; this is what she wants to do when she has an episode. But she cannot be allowed to go out and consume grass; because she will eat it until her stomach is completely full of grass which is another issue to deal with.
With her still gagging, gworking and panting I head down for her antacids. I popped one in her mouth knowing we still had a good 1/2 hour of this behavior. They can take quite a while to work; especially if she’s already had a bunch of food. So we waited, dozing off now and again as she went through waves of better and worse.
An hour later she was no better so at 2:30 a.m. I was down in the kitchen filling her lick mat with a mixture of peanut butter (about a tsp or so) and a big load of applesauce (about 1/2 cup). I’d taken her outside for a quick pee and then gave her the lick mat in the kitchen. Surprisingly she gobble it down very enthusiastically. After she finished we head back up to bed and I hoped it would kick in fast.
Apples are a good source of calcium, magnesium, and potassium. It's thought that these alkalizing minerals may help relieve symptoms of acid reflux.
We have been using applesauce and/or apples for Elsa’s reflux for a very longtime. I learned about apples when I had acid reflux myself and fully cured myself by eating a half an apple every evening. So when she started having problems and was diagnosed with acid reflux, I gave it a try.
After about a half hour she calmed down and fell asleep. I didn’t fall asleep for a long while; of course contemplating what could have triggered this big episode. I finally started to dose off around 3:45 when Elsa jumped off the bed at 4:00. If Elsa jumps off the bed, there is ALWAYS a reason. I hopped out and took her outside again.
When we went back upstairs she did not want to go on the bed; she stood at our patio door sniffing. I opened the door and let her out quickly as she threw up a pile of very dark liquid. I knew immediately that it was way too dark and got a flashlight out. Blood.
This is Elsa’s vomit about 2 hours after she threw up. It was dark out when she did it so as soon as I had enough light I took a photo and sent it to the vet. The vet stated that it was indeed concerning but was not panicked about it. This was a one time vomit.
There was a lot of blood in her vomit but nothing much else. This was most definitely concerning and I was then up for the day with less than an hour sleep. Poor Elsa was exhausted, as was Riggs so we took the day off. They slept around the clock and I called the vet. Luckily I have a great relationship with my vet and he almost always squeezes me in.
It was a bad case of acid reflux causing the bleeding. But to see her stomach we needed an x-ray. First we had to get her feeling better which meant a strict diet of low-fat protein (turkey) to start with. So I’ve been giving her one type of homemade food since. I also got some slippery elm which I gave her in the beginning to sooth both her stomach and esophagus.
Because the blood that she threw up was red, it means that it probably came from her esophagus. Over the next 5 days she pooped black which means that the blood was digested. The whole thing was very unnerving but she is now feeling great; in fact, better than she has in a long time.
So what is next? Elsa is scheduled for a stomach and esophagus x-ray on February 7th. I will be very anxious to get the result so we will know which direction to head. The blood of course is alarming but when you look it up with acid reflux it is common. The best outcome will be that she just have to stay on a low fat diet (which is frankly what many people should do if they have acid reflux).
I will of course keep you posted.