Why is my dog still vomiting water and sick after normal blood tests?

I recommend that your contact your vet's office to schedule a follow-up appointment. Your dog may need further diagnostics to determine the cause of the vomiting and diarrhea. While blood work is an excellent and worthwhile diagnostic tool (and I commend you on having it done), it does have limitations. Blood tests are extremely useful for looking at the overall health of your pet. From the tests, a vet can learn if your pet's vomiting is caused by an underlying medical condtion like diabetes, kidney or liver disease, or an infection. Blood work can also reveal if your pet is dehydrated from the vomiting. Many of these problems may not be obvious on a simple physical exam, but if caught early can be successfully treated or controlled, giving your pet a longer and better quality of life. Sometimes blood work can lead to a definitive diagnosis, but oftentimes blood work results guide us as to what the next diagnostic steps should be (radiographs, ultrasound or more specific blood testing).

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! If xrays and general labwork have been performed already, I would start looking for other possibilities causing this with more advanced diagnostics such as an abdominal ultrasound and GI panel to begin with. Another disease they could investigate is Addison's disease. This would expand the diagnostics to the point of being able to more extensively look into what may be causing this in him. Treatment if any would depend on findings. Good luck!

The next thing to consider would be an abdominal ultrasound and potentially considering gastroscopy (endoscopic examination of the upper GI tract). A barium study might also be useful when doing x-rays to see what the barium does as it moves through the GI tract. I hope this helps!

The bilirubin is a bit high, as is the ALP (alkaline phosphatase) but neither of these values is super specific in terms of what the cause or the best treatment is. We can see the ALP be elevated with stress, age, and sometimes even normal cell regeneration within the liver. The bilirubin can be slightly elevated when the blood sample is what we call "hemolyzed," which can sometimes happen when blood is spun down for a blood test to be run. Therefore, if he is still showing symptoms of illness, I would echo what Dr Ana said; it may be time to consider imaging. Either X-rays or an abdominal ultrasound maybe helpful in identifying the problem and therefore identifying the best way to treat it. Take him back to the vet if he's still having troubles, as he probably is in need of some more fluids as well. Thank you for asking Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach, I hope he's feeling better.

Hello, sorry to hear about your pup. It sounds like your dog may be sick, and even though the diagnostics did not show much, there may still be something going on with him and additional diagnostics should be considered. These may include an abdominal ultrasound, urinalysis, and repeat bloodwork. If you dog is still acting abnormally, then have him evaluated by your emergency clinician tonight. Hope this helps and best of luck.

I would certainly be worried about some type of intra-abdominal problem, and to me the next step is to take an x-ray to see if what's going on inside can be determined. Often blood work isn't abnormal when there are gastrointestinal conditions, such as a stomach or intestinal blockage, a food intolerance, or pancreatitis (serious inflammation of the pancreas). It sounds like Balto is significantly uncomfortable, and I would really want to get a look at his GI tract, either with an x-ray or an abdominal ultrasound.

Acute pancreatitis and gastrointestinal inflammation/infections are still possible as well as foreign body ingestion with material not visible on X rays (ultrasound in these cases might be more sensitive). Given the lack of improvement, I would suggest to have her checked again and have a test for pancreatitis (it is a blood test called cPLI) performed. If not eating and probably in a sort of abdominal discomfort, nutritional support and pain relief meds are needed.