Vomiting and Anxiety--Getting the Right Diagnosis

Focus on the Entire Pet Rather Than On A Major Symptom

We’ve been discussing how difficult it is to get the right diagnosis for a pet’s illness and have identified 5 problem areas:
1. Working with incomplete or misleading information
2. Being presented with a pattern of illness that isn’t normal or typical
3. Grabbing onto one major symptom and thinking that’s where the focus should be
4. Considering the problem only in light of what local pets develop
5. Using stereotypes such as breed or age

Today, we’re going to use the symptom of vomiting to discuss, the third problem: Grabbing Onto One Major Symptom and Thinking That’s Where the Focus Should Be.

What’s usually wrong when a pet vomits?
When we see a major symptom, such as vomiting, we may assume the problem is in the stomach; but the problem is often anxiety. Anxiety causes vomiting because the stomach is strongly influenced by the nervous system.

If we limit ourselves to a Western medicine approach to illness, we usually diagnose vomiting pets as having bacterial or parasitic infection and treat them for it. If the vomiting continues, we continue our diagnostic efforts and consider food allergies or inflammatory bowel disease. For these problems, we prescribe prednisone, prescription diets, and dewormers. Some pets will be helped by this approach, but many pets will continue to vomit.

Vomiting associated with anxiety rather than physical problems
With a holistic approach to vomiting, we also consider problems that originate in the psyche, such as anxiety, as potential causes of vomiting.

That anxiety can cause stomach problems is well recognized in Chinese medicine, and there are acupuncture points prescribed for problems that involve both the stomach and the emotions, such as PC 6 and ST 36.

Veterinarians trained in acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine can help vomiting pets because they don’t focus on the major symptom of vomiting, but expand the focus to include the nervous system, behavior, and psychological problems. By looking beyond the stomach, we can make a diagnosis that leads to effective therapy.

Feline urinary tract disease (FLTUD) associated with anxiety
Vomiting is only one of the symptoms that pets develop when the underlying problem is anxiety. Feline urinary tract disease (FLTUD) is also caused by anxiety. If cats present with blood in the urine (hematuria) or blocked urinary tract and we focus on the urinary system, we do little to resolve this disease. We prescribe antibiotics, increased fluids, canned foods, but we will see the poor cat back in the office for reoccurring FLUTD. Anxiety is the underlying problem in most cases, and without looking at the cat’s mind as well as its body, we’ll misdiagnose the problem.

What’s coming on Caring for Pets blog?
We’ve discussed the three problems leading to misdiagnoses of illness in pets ((Working with incomplete or misleading information; Being presented with a pattern of illness that isn’t normal or typical; and Grabbing onto one major symptom and thinking that’s where the focus should be). In the next blog, we’ll cover another cause of misdiagnosis: Considering the problem only in light of what local pets develop.