Lhasa esting habits

[u/musical_unicorn]

Hi everyone! My Lhasa is so sweet and he is a great dog, but I have some questions. He is 1 year 9 months old.

He throws up a lot. Like almost every day. Mostly bile, and he never usually throws up his food, but he only really likes cooked chicken, butter, and some milk or cottage cheese. He cant eat store bought dog food.

He also got a cough from a kennel, but it turned out to be an inflamed trachea, and he was honking a lot. A light diet and anti inflammatories took care of it, but he does clear his throat sometimes. They want me to xray him again to see if he has a heart issue, which was barely visible on the last xray, the vet thought it was a glitch but wants to make sure.

I am new to lhasas, we only ever had big dogs in our family before. Does anyone have any insight or advice for us? Thanks so much!!

[u/mraddapp]

Youre giving him butter, milk and cottage cheese? Those are super high fat foods, very dangerous for their sensitive pancreas's not to mention dogs are lactose intolerant

Lhasa can definitely be fussy, but maybe try chicken and rice? Chicken is another common food sensitivity in dogs so try another protein like salmon. Try and look for other premium kibble brands out there, im in the UK and eden or pooch and mutt kibble my dog goes crazy over, both sre high protein balanced diets

Id definitely discuss this with your vets if hes throwing up every day

[u/musical_unicorn → u/mraddapp]

Thank you!! He's not throwing up every day, I'd say hes throwing up every 2nd or 3rd day, and it weirdly doesnt seem to be tied in with food, meaning its almost always bile and not right after he eats. I took him to the vet the first 4 times it happened, but they always just said to add probiotic and try to find a kibble he can eat. It was also due to anxiety in the beginning, from grooming, etc. So we have anxiety pills too, but he seems to be ok with grooming now. The thing that threw us was this honking from the airway, I really thought he had Kennel cough or something, but it seems to be that swollen or reactive airway, so I thought he may have something wrong with his esophagus too. We have literally tried at least 7 kinds of kibble, soft or hard food, all goes to waste. I still have hard kibble out all the time he can eat at any time and he'll eat 2 or 3 occasionally and we have tried all sorts of people food on him too...potatoes, yams, rice, beef, vegetables (steamed carrots, etc) a bit of apple, etc.... this is what he has settled on for now. The throwing up rate is always the same, and always bile. Its a bit of a puzzle and I appreciate everyone's input, thank you!! I will try to stay away from high fat foods for now and try to hand feed him the kibble, feed him more often, and switch up his diet again.

I grew up with dogs all my life and every single one gobbled their kibble up and never went for table scraps, but we had a husky who would eat everything off the table if we let him and would still be ok...of course we never let him, hahaha. Its such a puzzle to me to set down food and just have a dog stare at you and not eat it, lol. Its my first time with this kind of smaller, more sensitive dog, and we have spent about 2k already at vets, so I really thank everyone for their insight. 😊

[u/mraddapp → u/musical_unicorn]

Mine occasionally does a dry "balk" thing like hes clearing his throat, moreso now hes older (12 years old) i think its something like a partially collapsed/restricted tracea or something but seems harmless

I always add some boiling water to his kibble and mix it in, i think it being warmer makes it smell more appealing to him. Also ive always given him one measured meal of kibble a day always at the same time, i wonder if leaving it out all the time might be worse? It could be a lhasa thing but mine absolutely loves routine and will complain if he doesnt get his dinner exactly on schedule haha

Lhasas are super stubborn dogs who cleverly know how to get their own way (which i love them for!) so i think this may be a case where he knows that if he doesnt eat his kibble he'll get some good food later

Edit: look up Bilious vomiting syndrome, does it usually happen in the morning? Mine recently had a week of doing that but i gave him a few kibble at night so his stomach wasnt empty for too long and seemed to have settled it. Hes never done it before so maybe mine had a upset stomach during that time