Chinese herbs for chronic vomiting?

[peekawho]

You know our long history with Jake the Vomiting Doberman.  There is no known cause for this, after an exhaustive, year long work up.

Cerenia works well for him--one half tab gives him 2 full days without vomiting.  But it is prohibitively expensive.  

Is there a chinese herb you would recommend?

Thanks,

Peek

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

There are many Chinese herbal formulas that address nausea, and one size does not fit all.  In order to get the appropriate one for Jake I will need to answers to some questions about Jake:

1.  Which kind of weather or environmental temperature does Jake like best? Hot or Cold?
2.  Does Jake drink a lot of water, or only a moderate amount?
3.  What does Jake's tongue look like.  This may be a hard question for you.  If you could post a photo of Jake and a few photos of his tongue it would help.
4.  What kind of personality does Jake have?  Examples: dominate and like to be the boss, loves everybody, and is gregarious, is quiet and sensitive, and loves everyone, is timid and has submissive urination, etc.
5.  Please describe his problem in depth.
6. Please list his current diet and all supplements and medications that you are using.
7.  What kind of appetite does Jake have, if any, with or with out Cerenia?

These questions may sound unusual, but I assure you they are part of a Traditional Chinese Veterinary diagnosis.

[peekawho]

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[peekawho]

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[peekawho]

1.  That one is hard.  He is 8 years old, not a terribly active dog.  He probably prefers cooler temps best, but willing goes/does anything, anywhere we go, in whatever temp we are in at the moment.

2.  Lots of water.  (has been extensively worked up for this.  It has periodically been a concern.  No physiological reason for it).  He goes through spells, about 2-3 times a year, where he drinks ENORMOUS amounts of water for a week or so--I'm talking about a gallon or more a day).  Then abruptly stops and goes back to normal.  

3.  Dry tongue, despite more than adequate water intake.

4.  Quiet, sensitive,  extremely well behaved, couch potato but willingly goes anywhere we want and enjoys himself...no submissive urination,  lap dog despite his size (65 pounds)

5.  For the past year and a half, Jake vomits twice a day, every day, about an hour before his next scheduled meal (eats twice a day).  Bile.  If I can get a dog biscuit or small amount of food in him about 2 hours before his scheduled meal, he will not vomit.  In the day, this is not a problem.  But at night, it entails getting up at 1 or 2 am to give him something to eat.  
He was occasionally vomiting up to 5 or 6 times prior to eating, when he's at his worst.  All blood chemistries normal done many times,  stools normal, no parasites, Xrays normal.  Good hair/skin turgor.   Recent endoscopy unremarkable.  

6.  Eats Solid Gold dry food.  Nutra Sensitive Stomach dog biscuits 2-3 times a day for treats.  Has had the vomiting on every food we've tried, from Science I/D, to novel protein  prescription diets.   It only happens with an empty stomach.  He takes no supplements at all.

7.  Great appetite at all times, bolts food.  Never any food in the vomitus.  I've recently tried spreading his food out on a cookie sheet (past couple of weeks)  to prevent the bolting.  Still vomits.

He was on Science C/D due to his alkaline urine/crystals in urine problem.  I took him off that, as it did seem to aggravate the vomiting.  While he was on that, he vomited the most he ever did, up to 5-6 times  a day.  
He has no stones (per xray and ultrasound).  I've decided to just stop worrying about his crystals.  He has had 3-4 UTI's in the past few years.  All different organisms.  No UTI's in the past couple of  months.

Thank you for your time, again.

Peek