Think acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) just happens to people? It also happens to dogs and Karlie was one of those that suffered from it. If your dog gags or coughs after eating or drinking, licks her lips, vomits bile, is restless, has a stomach that gurgles, or has difficulty swallowing she may be suffering from it.
What is it?
Acid reflux is the flow of stomach acid into the esophagus and back into the stomach. It often results in a burning in the chest (heartburn). A more serious form is GERD, which involves frequent heartburn. Some of the causes are obesity, eating spicy or fatty foods, hiatal hernia, high blood calcium, and excessive production of stomach acid. Many dogs suffering from geriatric onset laryngeal paralysis polyneuropathy (GOLPP) also have issues with acid reflux or GERD.
Unfortunately, treating it can be challenging. For us it involved a lot of trial and error. Some of the things that help are making sure your dog is not overweight, feeding a low fat diet, and feeding several small meals instead of one or two large meals. Medication may also be needed and should be done under the supervision of your veterinarian. What worked for Karlie was five small meals a day with the last one just before bed, including mashed sweet potatoes, squash, or pumpkin in her daily meals, feeding her a fresh meat-based food, and using some medicine prescribed by her veterinarian. We also tried using slippery elm, which is a natural remedy. This worked when Karlie was eating well. During the periods when she was not it became too difficult to administer because it must not be given within two hours of any other meds or supplements.
Guess did you ever find the root cause? dogs, like humans typically have a reason, anxiety, stress, or like my dog, bad food…we switch her to a natural, 1 protein source without a bunch of added crap besides vitamins and its completely changed her. I would.never settle with “she just needs 5 meals a day” . just a fyi.
For Karlie it was a symptom of GOLPP. We did a lot of research and found a food that worked well and was not, as you say, full of garbage. We also found that keeping something in her stomach, the reason for the 5 small meals, also helped.
Currently have a dog with GOLPP and having acid reflux issues. Curious what food you were feeding? We are currently on Hill’s prescription low fat food.
So sorry for this very late response. If you have not found it yet, there is a fantastic FB group for dogs with GOLPP. It is Laryngeal Paralysis (LP) GOLPP support group (dogs), I found this to be the best resource as everyone in the group has different experiences and is very welcoming and happy to answer questions.
I fed Karlie Blackwood Sensitive Stomach – Lamb. I also gave her Blue Buffalo Wilderness Turkey & Chicken Senior wet food. She also had mashed sweet potatoes every day including just before going to bed. I fed her 5 small meals a day to keep something in her stomach and that helped. Every dog seems to be different and it takes time to figure out what works….and then things change and you have to figure out what works again. Sadly, that’s the hard part of this disease. We were lucky that Karlie’s main issues were eating and hind end weakness. She didn’t have the serious breathing issues that also come with this disease. I wish you the best of luck navigating and I hope you check out the FB group I mentioned.