Mokey, I could NOT take doxy on an empty stomach!
Dr said I could take it w/ food, but no dairy or calcium or minerals, which is, unfortunately what I turn to w/ heartburn (all the way up esophogus into my throat) -- milk and rolaids.
This is what I hated about those pills! I hated them from the start: Big, fat, tall bottle of Monster pills, staring me in the face every morning and evening....
Here is what helped me (still, I am relieved to be on Amox instead):
Drink full glass of water. Eat a little something -- bread w/ some chicken, sometimes plain bread or toast -- just enough to get something of substance in stomach. Eat about 2/3 of your 'snack'. Take the Doxy w/ a full glass of water. Eat the remainder of your snack. Drink more water.
All this water is more helpful to heartburn than for stomach upset, so you may need to lessen the amount of water. But definitely wash doxy down w/ plenty of it and having something in you should help.
I did a lot of searches because I wanted to find that milk or rolaids or cheese was really ok, but I could not find that. I did find one site that said it could be taken w/ milk, but indicated this was a particular, different type of Doxy. Sometimes I took a antacid, but I had to make sure it did not have calcium or minerals in it.
There were a couple of times I HAD to drink a few sips of milk, I was so desperate. *** Here is what the pharmacist told me when I was filling my Amox. Note: he told me this about Doxy, not the Amox. He kind of shrugged and said that doxy effect was diminished by about 20% if taken w/ dairy. That's not all that bad. Not that I'm telling you to take dairy, just providing a little personal info.
Hope this helps a little. That is some rough stuff, the doxy. But it's a bug killer for sure!