Melinda emailed me with this...
My aunt has a 9 year old boxer that has been vomiting for the last 3
weeks. She has taken her to the vet. Bloodwork was normal. Tried a
different diet, as well as medications: still vomiting. The boxer is
acting normal. She is clearly hungry and wants to eat. She tries to hand
my aunt her food bowl. Her vet is baffled. My aunt did say that it has
been a year since the boxers mother passed away (my aunt owned her as
well). She was curious if it could be grieving? Any clues? I have never
heard of this happening before.
Sounds like a strange case. I definitely wouldn't think it's grieving.
First, it's been a long time and a dog's memory isn't that good.
Second, grieving normally won't cause vomiting. Any diarrhea? There could be an
inflammatory bowel disease problem. An older boxer shouldn't be
developing allergies (such as food-related), so I don't think that would be the case.
If all of that has been considered, I'd recommend an abdominal
ultrasound. Years ago I had a cat that had very similar symptoms and it ended up being stomach
cancer. I didn't figure that out until the cancer had spread so much
that I could palpate it in the abdomen. All tests had been normal up to that point. I did an exploratory surgery but the mass involved too much of the stomach to be operable and I ended up euthanizing him before he woke up from anesthesia. A boxer is big enough that a
smaller mass near the pylorus (outflow of the stomach into the intestine) may not be felt and wouldn't show up on
x-rays. An ultrasound would easily detect something like this. That's
where I would proceed next.
