Since there are many more causes of vomiting than there are for regurgitation, gagging and hacking, and dropping food and water, I will discuss the latter three first.
Regurgitation
Your dog may regurgitate his food because he has a problem with his throat, his esophagus, or the valve that restricts entry into the stomach from the esophagus.
The following are some of the causes of vomiting.
•An object is stuck in the esophagus.
•A blood vessel is constricting the esophagus. This is known as vascular ring anomaly or VRA for short.
•Esophageal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the esophagus.
•A hiatus hernia, which is a tearing or large opening in the diaphragm that separates the abdomen from the chest cavity. This tear or opening allows part of the stomach to move up into the chest cavity.
•Megaesophagus, an abnormally large esophagus due to poor muscle tone in the walls of the esophagus. The coordinated contractions that move food from the throat down to the stomach don't work properly. The food doesn't enter the stomach as quickly as it should, so some of it comes back up.
•a birth defect in certain breeds (you'll see repeated regurgitation by your puppy), and diseases that affect the nerves or muscles of adult dogs. One is the inherited form of myasthenia gravis, which occurs most often in Smooth Fox Terriers, Jack Russell Terriers and Samoyeds.
•There is no effective treatment for the birth defect form, except to change the way you feed your puppy. Raise his food and water dishes to near head height so he can keep his head up while eating. This allows gravity to help move the food towards the stomach.
•Also, feed him more often, giving him smaller amounts of high-calorie food rather than larger meals of low-calorie food just once or twice a day. This ensures that the food he is able to get into his stomach will provide enough nutrients for his growing body.
•Beware of pneumonia if your dog has megaesophagus. Since food does not move quickly to the stomach, there is a greater risk of him inhaling some of it into his lungs, where it can cause pneumonia.
Regurgitation
Your dog may regurgitate his food because he has a problem with his throat, his esophagus, or the valve that restricts entry into the stomach from the esophagus.
The following are some of the causes of vomiting.
•An object is stuck in the esophagus.
•A blood vessel is constricting the esophagus. This is known as vascular ring anomaly or VRA for short.
•Esophageal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the esophagus.
•A hiatus hernia, which is a tearing or large opening in the diaphragm that separates the abdomen from the chest cavity. This tear or opening allows part of the stomach to move up into the chest cavity.
•Megaesophagus, an abnormally large esophagus due to poor muscle tone in the walls of the esophagus. The coordinated contractions that move food from the throat down to the stomach don't work properly. The food doesn't enter the stomach as quickly as it should, so some of it comes back up.
•a birth defect in certain breeds (you'll see repeated regurgitation by your puppy), and diseases that affect the nerves or muscles of adult dogs. One is the inherited form of myasthenia gravis, which occurs most often in Smooth Fox Terriers, Jack Russell Terriers and Samoyeds.
•There is no effective treatment for the birth defect form, except to change the way you feed your puppy. Raise his food and water dishes to near head height so he can keep his head up while eating. This allows gravity to help move the food towards the stomach.
•Also, feed him more often, giving him smaller amounts of high-calorie food rather than larger meals of low-calorie food just once or twice a day. This ensures that the food he is able to get into his stomach will provide enough nutrients for his growing body.
•Beware of pneumonia if your dog has megaesophagus. Since food does not move quickly to the stomach, there is a greater risk of him inhaling some of it into his lungs, where it can cause pneumonia.