One of my coworker's dog is being treated for ulcers. Make sure your vet has your dog on the right antibiotic. There are specific anitbiotics that are recommended for ulcers. Unfortunately I don't have the name on the tip of my tongue.

And if your dog needs more than one series of antibiotics, make sure its not the same as the first one...

One of our dogs had an ulcer. Prior to treatment she was vomiting daily, lots of liquid. The vet put her on an antacid (not Pepto, a prescription one), and an anti-emetic (stops the vomiting). For about a week she got both drugs four times a day (which was a pain as we both work full time), then decreased to three times a day for several weeks, and very gradually down to twice a day, then once a day. All in all she was on the drugs for a couple of months. We never gave her an antibiotic. The vomiting stopped immediately due to the anti-emetic. Since that time - two years or so ago - she has only vomited occassionally when she eats something she is allergic to (she has corn allergies).

So, to answer your question, yes dogs can get ulcers. Your vet is treating it differently than our vet did, however I have no reason to think your treatment won't be effective also.

Good luck.

Joepyeweed and Prairie love, thanks much for the replies. Joe, she is on something called Cephalexin, 500mg twice daily.

Prairie, she has only had infrequent vomiting, but she's always had a sensitive stomach, so we didn't realize anything was wrong until she turned up anemic. She had slowed down, but she is almost 9, so we thought it was due to age. She hasn't lost any weight, she's gained a couple of pounds, so the doc said an ulcer was much likelier than cancer.

Did they asked for a stool sample ? anemia doesn´t necessarily mean gastric ulcer, the same way that sensitive stomach also doesn´t mean gastric ulcer. Ulcer diagnose without stool sample .... not if it were me because anemia can have many causes, most of them don´t have anything to do with gastric ulcer. The dog can be anemic if it has bad teeth and swallows the dog food whole.

Hi Raul in Mexico, thanks for your reply. I wrote in my original post that a stool sample tested positive for blood.

My Max perforated his stomach due to an NSAID-related ulcer many years before I got him. After emergency surgery and a lot of nursing care by new owner (the vet), he was fine. He can never have any NSAIDs (Rimadyl, Deramaxx, Etogesic, etc) again. Which may be a problem when he is older because he also has hip dysplasia.

My B'Elanna died of a stomach ulcer that perforated due to stomach cancer. My Aleksander also had a cancer-related stomach ulcer, but I got that under control in time for him to die of the cancer.

It was briefly thought that my K'Ehleyr also had an NSAID-related gastric ulcer. She's on Rimadyl for back pain, and her PCV has been gradually declining down to 28% now. RBC count is also low. Some of those fecal occult blood tests are hard to interpret. There are a lot of food items that can cause false positives. And just because there is some blood in the stool doesn't mean that there is a gastric ulcer as Raul mentioned. Aleks' ulcer was diagnosed via endoscopy when we were looking for a reason for his vomiting and anorexia (common signs of ulcers). B'Elanna was via ultrasound which showed a large hole in her stomach. I don't know how Max was diagnosed, but it wasn't by a fecal occult blood test. Anyway, K'Ehleyr's PCV has been rising now. She's had an abdominal ultrasound that didn't find anything abnormal at all. All I did was put her on an iron supplement (her Hgb was also low). The vets are not so worried any more, and since she was never clinically ill, I'm not worried either.

I'd also ask about sucrulfate, misposprotol, and antacids (omeprazole specifically) if the vets are really worried about a stomach ulcer. Quite honestly, in a Boxer my first thought would be some kind of cancer. Not to scare you, but that would be my big concern. Unless he's been on NSAIDs or steroids long term, the things that cause GI bleeding are not so good. Maybe a nasty hookworm infestation could do it, so if you're in an area that has a lot of hookworms and your dog hasn't been on regular heartworm prevention, start with that. I know I certainly did on all my dogs!

Good luck with the recheck visit.

Well, honestly, that DOES scare me. I don't see how it wouldn't. The vet said since there is no weight loss, he tends to suspect an ulcer. She has not been on NSAIDS, she does not have a hookworm infection, and she does not have heartworm, they tested for that. I guess considering what you wrote it's pretty sure she has cancer then.

Petra, try not to worry too much yet. You are going back for another visit and more tests. Use the information here to ask more questions and to figure out why your vet feels comfortable with his diagnosis. I presume you have confidence in this vet, and also he has more information about your dog than anyone online does, so talk to him and ask him the questions you need answers to - such as how he is ruling out cancer.

FWIW, omeprazole is the antacid we used on our dog.

I have no idea- it's just that in Boxers that would be my first worry. Heck if a Boxer didn't eat for 2.2 seconds I'd worry about cancer because of the breed. That's just me. I love Boxers but I know I'd be a total worry-wart if I ever got one.

Best thing to do is take a look at the stomach with an endoscope. If there's an ulcer, it will be obvious. And they can take a small biopsy while there and then you'll know. That's how they diagnosed Aleks. But again, he wasn't anemic and did NOT have blood in his stool- he just started vomiting and wouldn't eat. We were hoping that the ulcer was the cause of his trouble, but took a biopsy just in case and it turned out to be cancer. With the history of my dogs, 66% of them died of stomach cancer, so you can see why that would just jump into my head. I'm scared to death of it. Your dog just may have an acid reflux problem or something like that. Or it may not be an ulcer at all. It's just not a lot of information yet. Take things one step at a time and hopefully everything will be OK. Good luck.

Prairie, that's just it, this is a new vet. Our regular vet was recently sentenced to prison for 5 years. Not a great time to go vet shopping. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, if I am not comfortable with what he tells us, we'll get a second opinion.

Meghan, I can see where you are coming from. I am sorry you lost 2 dogs to this, it must have been very hard. I really hope the vet is right and it's really something that can be taken care of. She is only 8, it would be awful if she had cancer.

It seems that Meghane and I are now in the same frequency, why do guesswork if the elements for a more accurate diagnose are available ? I certainly would be more confident if it were my dog after an endoscopic peep to that stomach, in the worst case, you pay to find out your dog doesn´t have a gastric ulcer.

How much do they charge for an endoscopy up there ?

Raul, I don't know how much an endoscopy would cost, none of the vets in our relatively small town have this equipment (I just called around, in case the vet advises us to have this done). They refer to a city 1.5 hours away.

When calling around, several vet clinics told me an x-ray would be just as good to check for an ulcer or anything else as an endoscopy. I am not sure I believe that, I would think an endoscopy would provide the best information.

Posted by prairie_love (My Page) on Mon, Apr 2, 07 at 15:51

One of our dogs had an ulcer. Prior to treatment she was vomiting daily, lots of liquid. The vet put her on an antacid (not Pepto, a prescription one), and an anti-emetic (stops the vomiting). For about a week she got both drugs four times a day (which was a pain as we both work full time), then decreased to three times a day for several weeks, and very gradually down to twice a day, then once a day. All in all she was on the drugs for a couple of months. We never gave her an antibiotic. The vomiting stopped immediately due to the anti-emetic. Since that time - two years or so ago - she has only vomited occassionally when she eats something she is allergic to (she has corn allergies).

Two questions: what anti-emitic was your dog on and for how long? My dog is on Cerenia by Pfizer, and the problem with that drug is it is intended for short term use, like max four days. Also what antacid did you use?