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This morning my dog's stomach was making such a loud noise it woke me up! It screeches and girgles. He has gone through a bout of throwing up bile if we don't give him something to eat when his stomach is in the noisy state. He won't eat his dog food...but we have been giving him a slice of bread. It seems to calm the noisy stomach and then he eats his dog food. But there is definitely something a-muck with his stomach. We've worked with our vet - trying Pepcid and even changed his food - finally settling on a vegetarian dry. This noisy stomach started about 1 1/2 years ago. Our dog is 7.5 years old. Any ideas?
HiCustomer Many things including gas, something they ate, parasites or even bad bacteria in the stomach can cause stomach noises. You can give your dog some pepcid like you have been doing. I'm going to give you the dase info in case you don't know that. Read about dosages and usage information here: http://www.petplace.com/drug-library/famotidine-pepcid/page1.aspx Adding good bacteria to your dog's stomach can aid in the digestion and cut down on stomach noises as well. I use a spoonful of plain unflavored yogurt on my dog's food to keep good bacteria in their stomach, but there are products, such as Prozyme, that can be purchased at your pet store to aid digestion. If these stomach noises continue over a period of time, you will want your Vet to check her over as other conditions can cause stomach noises as well. These can also help cut down on excess bile in the stomach as well. Feeding smaller meals more often can also help. If your dog has not been tested for giardia and coccidia, which are protozoan infections, you might want to have that done. Treatment is usually antibiotics. You can read about these here: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1622&articleid=727 http://www.missionmedvet.com/encyclopedia/giardia_canine.htm http://www.beaglesunlimited.com/beaglehealth_giardiasis.htm Dogs can get ulcers, so if my suggestions do not help you may want to see if your vet will do further tests and perhaps even an endoscope. I hope this information is helpful to you.
Reply to Jane Lefler's Post: The information you supplied talks mostly about diarrhea - not vomitting. He does not throw up his food - just bile. We have been feeding smaller meals - one cup three times a day. He also drinks a lot of water. He always has. He seems healthy and is not loosing weight. But the vomitting does not seem like much fun of course. We have seen our Vet many times and Griffin has had blood tests done. Everything was normal. Since we went to three meals a day, the vomitting has decreased dramatically. But he did vomit bile once this week and once last week. But at one point he was vomitting every two days. Also, I do recall that his stools have been loose sometimes, but not all the time. He does like to eat stuff - grass, straw, weeds, goose poop, anything he can snatch when he is outside. He has always done this - acting like a goat! So if you can add anything else, please let me know. Thank you. Wanda
Wanda, Excess bile causes vomiting when the stomach is empty. To help avoid this, you feed more often. As you found out 3 times a day greatly reduces this vomiting. The excess bile still tends to help cause stomach noises. Parasites and bad bacteria such as protozoan infections also cause lots of stomach noise. Gas will also cause gurgling. Foods with soybeans seem to cause gas, though my experience has been that corn in dog food also does the same thing. Eating so many non food items may also be contributing. I would definitely try the yogurt or Prozyme and see if this doesn't help with the noises. Your vet can test for coccidia and giardia if you like to be sure your dog doesn't have them, but many vets just treat the condition.
Experience: Former vol Vet Assistant.Breeder 16+ years Dog trainer / behaviorist