Vomit and Diahrrhea

Hello, I would be grateful if someone can help me. My dog, a very happy red fox lab aged four has had diarrhea and vomiting on and off for the last two weeks. Never at the same time, its either vomit or diarrhea. She is completely normal in herself, physically nothing has changed. She still eats, gets hungry, plays, chases birds etc. The vomiting or diarrhea will last 2-3 days then stop. Everything will go back to normal but then start again the next week. I stopped her normal food, gave rice and chicken then gradually re-introduce her food. This seemed to work but today she threw up the rice on our walk. She was having new food when this started as we had ran out of her normal food, but now we are back on the normal food and its still happening. Would appreciate any advice

Hello and thank you for this excellent question.   Vomitting and diarrhoea, as you have clearly understood, are symptoms - and somewhat inspecific as they can be caused by a lot of different things.  Simple, passing dietary indescretions (eating something theyre not supposed to that makes them ill) are common and often self-resolving, so if an animal is well in themselves, a vet will often reccommend a bland diet and time as the first port of call.  This is known as 'symptomatic treatment' - treating the symptoms to see whether or not they go away.  However, it sounds as though this is not passing - indeed, the symptoms may be becoming chronic ie they are ongoing / wax and wane.   Chronic vomiting can have a vast range of causes; your vet might want to rule out pancreatitis, foreign bodies, liver, kidney or endocrine disease, lumps and bumps in the intestines and so on.  Fox terriers can suffer a rare disease called myasthenia gravis; this results in a more passive form of vomiting, regurgitation, frequently associated with a retch.  Its great that your dog is well in herself but it's worth mentioning an urban myth you may hear that healthy dogs occasionally vomit.  Healthy dogs don't vomit; something will be causing this, so please do return to your vets and see if they can help you to get to the bottom of this problem.

Thank you so much for this detailed reply. I will be sure to book her in on Monday.