Kiwi aka Peanut is a miniature phantom poodle that is a year and nine months old. She was purchased off Facebook marketplace 3 weeks ago on a Saturday. On the way home, the new owner noticed her vomiting but thought it was from car sickness. She continued to throw up her food and water and the new owner called for the first available appointment.

We saw her on Tuesday, and took radiographs and drew blood. She was dehydrated and it was noted that nothing was leaving the stomach on x-rays. This was verified by giving her barium and it never left the stomach. Something was blocking the pyloric valve. IV fluids were started, and she was taken to surgery only to find there was no foreign body, the pyloric valve was sealed shut. The stomach gastric mucosa was red and swollen, the throat was red, and the valve had a stricture with tissue that was tight on the outside and thick muscle on the inside causing it to be shut. The rest of the GI tract was checked for foreign bodies and there weren’t any. The tissue on the outside of the valve was gently pealed off and the valve was opened with a gloved finger to the knuckle. I had never seen a valve with that much muscle in such a little dog before and I thought it was strange.

We closed her up and waited to feed her for 24 hours while she stayed in the hospital on IV fluids, pain meds and antibiotics. Unfortunately, she started regurgitating within 24 hours and the valve was shut again. The new owner was contacted and informed of the problem. In the meantime, I researched how to fix a pyloric valve in my surgery books and cross referenced this information with the most current techniques and which one had the lowest failure rate. The new owner saved little Kiwi’s (Peanut) life, because the previous owner just had her in the backyard and did not keep track of her wellbeing. She had fleas, was not groomed, was not spayed and was not current on vaccines. It is not known if she knew that she was vomiting when she sold her.

Another fact I came across when I was researching the case was pyloric stenosis can be caused by not being spayed in certain breeds of dogs. There is a hormone that is released when a dog is not spayed and in certain breeds and with a genetic defect, the pyloric valve gets so thick with muscle that it closes. So now I did not know if the valve was a congenital defect or from her eating something caustic since everything looked burned. But a valve slowly closing causing persistent regurgitation of stomach acid could also burn all the associated tissues. This is where this case becomes interesting and convoluted. The fecal test we sent out came back positive for Giardia. We knew from the surgery that the gastric mucosa and the back of the throat were red and swollen. This means the esophagus was also involved and damaged. It was determined by watching her that she was regurgitating, not vomiting. What can cause regurgitation, gastritis which she had, esophagitis which she had, GI parasites which she had, GI obstruction which she had with the sealed pyloric sphincter, and stress which she had terrible separation anxiety. Talk about multiple problems!!!

The specialist article said it stopping the regurgitation by relaxing the esophageal sphincter. I had already bypassed the pyloric sphincter with surgery so I was hopeful this medication would work. I started her on the correct dose recommended at 3AM. I gave her another dose at 8AM and then went to every 12 hours. Within 2 days, she went from regurgitating (spitting up) what seemed like 50 times a day to 3-4 times a day. She was digesting some food before but now she was really doing well. I never thought I would get so excited about seeing a dog defecate a big poop. I knew almost everything she was eating now was going through. She did best on Stella and Chewy’s Venison which was donated by the neighboring rescue.

The funny part of the story is that this wonder drug that helped her stop regurgitating is none other than Sildenafil, which is otherwise known as Viagra!! What was hilarious was Cris asking me why we had this drug. I had to explain that it was a heart medication in Veterinary medicine, not for what humans use it for. I am just hugely relieved that she is on the mend as I am leaving for Africa at the end of this month and will be gone for 10 days. I had to make sure she was going to be ok before leaving.