Food suggestions for Chronic Gastric reflux in 8yo Lab cross with atopic dermatitis?

peter021072

Has anyone successfully managed to stop chronic gastric reflux through a diet change, even short term? My dog tends to regurgitate rather than be sick, in other words he instantly swallows what he brings up. His breath via the nose is fresh and healthy, but his mouth smells foul even though he has good teeth and gums. He in himself seems to be well enough, except for a long term ear infection (long story), but I need to open the window or turn a fan on when he starts licking his lips and gulping.  

I've been through nearly every food you can imagine. The health food industry are often inconsistent, or suggest additional ingredients which just raise additional questions on whether he will be allergic to them. I know he's allergic to raw chicken, so I've mainly fed him on Fish or insect protein based kibble mixed with vegetables, the least likely to cause a reaction. I've fed him on Chappie original wet food which is sometimes recommended by vets because it's hydrogenated. I've tried a tailor made fish and veg kibble from Tails.com. Yes I tried pro-biotics some time ago; it failed, and I can't find any scientific evidence to see they work, just anecdotal claims, or people who tell me it's the wrong type of pro-biotic. Adding cider vinegar or parsley to his food doesn't reduce the mouth smell.

He was violently sick last year after trying a motility drug called Cisapride.  I've recently changed to a new vet who suggested Metoclopramide. I think this is supposed to work stimulate the upper gastric tract and strengthens the oesophagus-stomach sphincter muscle. 

I'm planning to move to rice when his insect food runs out later this weekend, then gradually add white fish or some other single source protein.

Soot2006

I have a huge amount of personal experience with chronic gastric reflux.

The first thing I would advise, as your dog also has dermatitis and ear infections is to cut out vegetables if you can. And "Stinky Stuff" is absolutely magic for itchy zones + they make drops for ears. My top recommendation. 

To the feeding, I understand the trick is that, irrespective of what you feed, the fat content must be kept below 7% and consumption to digestability must be balances so they don't have an empty stomach for too long. When my dog was particularly bad, she needed three small meals a day or it would start up a few hours before the next meal was due + an evening snack or it starts in the middle of the night. We did need steroids to get on top of things to start, but then managed to keep a careful food diary and worked it out from there. 

Loooong story short, she's now on a fully raw diet, although can tolerate some cold pressed (Forthglade trays preferred, but she's OK with soaked  Tribal pellets for a week at kennels for example), focussed on low fat and red meats but no duck, lamb, pork, or beef as they all trigger the reflux. She's best on naturally lean meats - games, including rabbit, pheasant, venison. And as long as she's not in an active phase of reflux, she's fine with normal meats like turkey, chicken, veal ...

Evening snack is low fat, though tripe including tripe sticks trigger her, so we veer to things like goat braid, hide stick, etc ...

GOOD LUCK!!!

peter021072

Soot2006 said:

To the feeding, I understand the trick is that, irrespective of what you feed, the fat content must be kept below 7% and consumption to digestability must be balances so they don't have an empty stomach for too long. When my dog was particularly bad, she needed three small meals a day or it would start up a few hours before the next meal was due + an evening snack or it starts in the middle of the night. We did need steroids to get on top of things to start, but then managed to keep a careful food diary and worked it out from there. 

I discovered something similar. My only partial success was 6 months back when I discovered that feeding him a reasonably sized meal before bedtime stopped overnight vomiting. So he might be susceptible to Bullimous vomiting syndrome. I tend to feed him a little every time I go downstairs for coffee, so that must be 6-7 meals a day. Since grains can potentially cause allergies or food sensitivity in dogs, I replaced them with veg, but perhaps he might be OK on rice. I've haven't tried venison yet. 

Your dog sounds like he has expensive tastes!

sheramber

I had this problem with a Dalmatian. it turned he was sensitive to animal fat ( a lucky suggestion by a vet who had had a previous case ) . In those days kibble was limited varieties and  only beef based.  He did well on boiled white fish and rice.

Eventually a vegetarian kibble was brought out and thrived on that.

Soot2006

peter021072 said:

Soot2006 said:

To the feeding, I understand the trick is that, irrespective of what you feed, the fat content must be kept below 7% and consumption to digestability must be balances so they don't have an empty stomach for too long. When my dog was particularly bad, she needed three small meals a day or it would start up a few hours before the next meal was due + an evening snack or it starts in the middle of the night. We did need steroids to get on top of things to start, but then managed to keep a careful food diary and worked it out from there. 

Your dog sounds like he has expensive tastes!

Mine can't have rice either! Or grains, or veg ...  She's OK with sweet potato lol.

As for expensive tastes ...  I am  vegetarian; husband is not.He has been known to eye up a venison steak purchased for the dogs ... but in reality I source everything very cheaply, lots of culled stock, excess game, etc.