Upset Stomach

Question
I have a four year old Lhasa Apso/Shih Tzu mix and she has been vomiting small puddles off and on for about a day and a half. She also has been eating grass more than usual and last night she was extremely restless and kept wanting to go outside from about five this morning. She is up to date on all of her vaccinations. She normally has a okay diet of just Ceaser wet dog food and I do admit that my family and I spoil her with table food. I also believe she is stressed because my mother (her favorite) has just started working part-time and she is missing her. My question is should I have her drink something to replace her electrolytes because of her vomiting and have her fast or can i give her something over the counter like Tums to help her stomach settle?

Answer
Giving dogs table food is a sure ticket to making your dog very sick. Little dogs especially, are prone to getting pancreatitis or gastritis from eating table food. Pancreatitis can become fatal very fast, so that is one reason why it's important to not feed table scraps to dogs at all.

You should fast your dog for 24 hours then slowly start back to solids with some boiled rice and boiled chicken breast meat. After 24 hours on that with no vomiting, slowly get her back onto her regular diet.

That also needs to be changed. Fad diets, like Ceaser foods, etc, are not complete diets that have ever been trial fed to determine whether or not they will support a dog's life in various life-stages.

You should have him on a higher quality food such as Science Diet which has over 50 years of veterinary testing and research behind it. This food provides optimal nutrition that will provide her with all her energy needs without extra things like treats or table foods.

I have been feeding and recommending it for over 30 yrs and I have seen amazing transformations with this food.

The best part is how many formulations there are for dogs just like yours. They make a small bites for little dogs, a little dog formula, and so many more.

I would get her a bag of it and slowly give her a few kibbles a day while weaning her off of the canned only. Now you can still give her canned food but just as a side -- like a spoonful with her dry- once a day if you'd like. I would stick with Science Diet canned if you can but the other will work as well.

You can get coupons right on their site to help with the cost, but the cost is less per feeding then it is for what you are feeding now. I won't go into the details but if you were to see exactly how much food she should be eating for her size compared to the amount of the dry per day you would be shocked.

With Science Diet you will feed her a very small amount because of the high nutrient density of the food.

In the meantime, with her fast, you can give her a small amount of regular pepto bismol, probably the childs dosage, if that helps to settle her stomach.

She may also have some diarrhea from this episode so watch for that.
No more table food- get her a bag of Science Diet Small dog formula- fast her overnight and give her some boiled rice and a small amount of chicken. Slowly get her onto the SD and wean off the wet food only.

If you have any questions please feel free to write me back. Please let me know how she feels in a few days. Of course if she continues to vomit you need to call your vet and get her in as soon as possible because she could have acute gastritis or pancreatitis. Those are two things you don't want to wait and see on.

Here is the Toy and Small breed food. They have a large variety of canned foods as well:

http://www.hillspet.com/products/sd-canine-adult-small-and-toy-breed-dry.html