Bilious Vomiting Syndrome in Dogs: Stomach Unhappy from Too Much Bile?

Bilious vomiting syndrome in dogs is vomiting in response to bile-induced inflammation of the stomach.

Too much stomach juices with nothing to absorb them irritates the stomach. The only thing the body knows to do is to dump it–vomit. The question is, however, what is really behind it other than simply absence of food in the stomach.

Bilious Vomiting Syndrome in Dogs: Stomach Unhappy from Too Much Bile?

Cookie’s stomach gets upset

Yesterday Cookie was in town for chiropractic and have her meds picked up and do some shopping with daddy.

The trip ended up long and she came back home with an upset tummy.

SOMETIMES she gets her tummy upset like that in the morning; takes a while before it settles. She’ll refuse food and her belly with make noises. It’s from too much acid built up in the stomach. We got that worked out. It seems that a couple of treats and a small bowl of goat’s milk fix the problem right up. When it happens from time to time, it isn’t really a big deal.

NSAIDs and an empty stomach are recipe for a disaster

But now she’s on NSAIDs and anything that’s happening with the belly is a big deal to me.

Plus the NSAIDs HAVE to be taken with food and it didn’t look like she was going to be ready to start eating any time soon. Normally we’d take her for a walk and that usually clears it up as well. But she’s not allowed walks either right now.

I felt we screwed up badly. 

Couldn’t give her her meds if she wasn’t going to eat and I was concerned what the presence of the last dose NSAIDs in the system (she gets it only once a day with dinner) might do in combination with the unhappy stomach or whether it contributed to it.

We do have Pepto Bismol in the house for me, but I’m not comfortable using that for dogs on a good day and it would be a PARTICULARLY BAD idea now that she’s on the NSAIDs.

Aspirin (which is in Pepto Bismol) and NSAIDs DO NOT MIX.

How to fix it?

Since we just picked stomach protectant that day, I went to check out what it is and whether it could be helpful. But no. We used to have Zantac (antacid) at home for Jasmine but right now we didn’t.

Then it occurred to me that we have a calcium/magnesium supplement I’ve been taking.

It has nothing in it just calcium, magnesium, and a bit of zinc. At one time, I was adding that to Jasmine’s food. Some antacids, such as Tums are just calcium carbonate.

It was safe and worth of try. I had hubby pill it to Cookie because even though she normally takes her pills wonderfully in some cream cheese or other foods, she wasn’t taking anything and I offered all types of attractive foods and treats.

So hubby pilled the supplement to Cookie. If the upset was indeed just from too much acid, this could help.

Not even ten minutes later she was hungry!

I couldn’t believe how quickly that worked. As soon as it hit the stomach, it must have dissolved and made the stomach happy immediately. Cookie was ready to clean out the kitchen.

Upset tummy from too much acid build up? Seems that any ol’ calcium will do just fine.

Related articles:
Morning Stomach Upset in Dogs: What Do We Use for the Occasional Bilious Vomiting Syndrome?
My Dog’s Vomiting

Further reading:
What is Bilious Vomiting Syndrome?

Categories: Dog care • Stomach acid build-up • Stomach upset

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Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Countless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that merely seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners. What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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