Our 17-month old baby has been throwing up or regurgitating his food for the past couple weeks (since Friday, Feb 15th to be exact). He has been to our vet and an internal specialist - and we still don't know what is going on! They attempted an endoscopy yesterday to look at his intestines and take biopsies, but the opening from his stomach to his small intestine is too small - so they couldn't see anything beyond his esophagus and stomach, which appear to be fine.
Symptoms:
- for the past couple weeks he regurgitates (literally stands up and the food comes up, no retching) his food anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours after eating ... this has happened anywhere from every couple hours to every 3 or 4 days --- and we can't seem to find any rhythm or reason to when he does this
- he has had 2 incidents of vomiting (as opposed to regurgitation), both were in the morning and involved mostly or all bile, so we are pretty convinced those were caused by an empty stomach
- his energy level has always been pretty good overall, he was a little down after the first couple days (but after a trip to the vet for a couple days, lots of fluids and a change to I/D, he has since been fine)
- at the beginning of all this he had a dark stool, so they thought he had some intestinal bleeding and treated him for an ulcer ... his stools have since returned to normal and there is no other signs of bleeding
- he has never lost his appetite through all this
- he has never had diarrhea
- his stools have been normal and on schedule for the last week to 10 days
Extra information:
- he was eating Canidae (chicken and rice), he has been eating I/D blenderized for the past week and a half - he gets about 3 TB 3 times a day
- he has never really been given any people food, and ate Buddy Biscuit treats before this all happened
- since getting sick, he only eats the blenderized I/D, a couple TB of applesauce and about 12 cheerios every day
- he has not lost any weight through all this, in fact, as of last check he actually gained weight
Tests he has already had (all of which have come back normal)
- x-rays to check for obstruction
- complete blood work
- check of stool for parasites, etc.
- urine tests to check for kidney stones
- undergone de-worming (just in case)
- ultrasound
- barium test to check for obstruction (he was x-rayed when the barium was at various points in his system, including esophagus, stomach, intestines)
- attempted endoscopy (could not complete due to small anatomy)
- checked tear output for some reason?
- numerous physical exams by numerous vets, including internal specialists
At this point we just feel helpless! The specialist said that the only thing left to do is biopsy his intestines, but since he is too small for the endoscopy, the only way to take biopsies is to open him up. I do not want to do this unless we have exhausted all other options.
Does anyone have any ideas? Anything would be appreciated ....