Endoscopy before food trial?

Hi all,

I'm kind of new around here but am hoping you might be able to help answer my questions and concerns regarding my dog Missy.

To cut a long story short, she's been bringing up mainly bile for the past 8 months. Sometimes as much as 5 days a week, sometimes less. But she is usually sick every week without fail. At first i didn't think much to it, just that she had an empty tummy and needed something to line her stomach over night. So i started giving her a few biscuits before bed which have had no effect. Then on the advice of some other people on another forum i added natural yogurt to her food, again no improvement. She has been extremely picky with her food in this time, going from twice a day eating to only once a day and i now have to add meat to her dry food to get her to eat, she usually still leaves the dry food and when offering it to her she will walk away or spit it out. She currently eats JWB and the meat ranges from Applaws to Natures: Menu that's mixed in with the JWB. In the last 8 months her diet has been changed a few times, the last time on advice of the vet, putting her back on the diet she was on before all this started and nothing has stopped her being sick.

About 8 weeks ago or more the vet put her on Tramadol, Zantac and Antepsin for what she thought was a damaged stomach lining. She was on the Tramadol and Zantac for 10 days and wasn't sick for 9 days while on them ( she has gone this long before mind you ) but the vet was happy to hear this and said to continue with the antepsin. Missy has been sick ever since. She was having three 2.5ml doses a day via a syringe one hour before food, but it's made no difference. This past week alone she has been worse IMO, with only about 3/4 days that were sick free. She's also pooed in the house at times but yesterday was the most she's done. Her poo is kind of half "normal" and then very soft and full of mucus, although i think this is a new symptom as i haven't seemed to notice any change in her poo before this past week. The vet said mucus in the poo is often a sign of colitis but said no more on the subject ( we was on the phone, just updating her )

So after all that ( and i apologize for the long post ) the vet now wants to perform an endoscopy. This has been mentioned before but the vet wanted to try the meds first etc. However, after being told by other people on another forum that this could be a food intolerance i've been left a little confused. Surely checking for a food allergy/intolerance would be something that is done before the endoscopy? The vet has said that if the endoscopy reveals nothing wrong with her then we can assume it's a food intolerance. Now, in my limited knowledge how likely is this to be a food intolerance vs something more serious like IBD or something similar? Does anyone have any experience or advice to offer? As Missy is fine in herself i just can't see her being ill and then that kind of makes me question the need to do an endoscopy, although i obviously will as we're running out of options here.

Thanks.

Have you asked your vet the reason why she would like to go straight for endoscopy before intolerance testing or elimination diets?

Sometimes a chat with your vet can set your mind at rest in respect of the best way forward and if you raise your queries, there may well be some very good reasons why your vet wants to go for endoscopy prior to intolerance testing or elimination diets that you are currently unaware of.

Hope you manage to get to the bottom of this and that you get a definite diagnosis that you can treat to help your girl over this nasty health problem that is distressing for you both