Vomiting and Lethargic dog

Question
QUESTION: My 11-month old puppy threw up 7 times in an hour last night. She has been turning up her nose to food for a week (since I picked her up from my mom's house in the country). She eventually would eat - but preferred trying to snag my food or being fed by hand so I thought she was just being finicky.

Yesterday, she ate both her breakfast and dinner as long as I was in the room with her. 7 hours after eating her dinner she started throwing up. I took her to the overnight vet and he gave me a bunch of options and I opted to have them hydrate her and give her an imodium ad to take her home. The doctor told me to not fed her for 12 hours and then slowly give her water and then a little bit of this canned food and if she kept it down - do it again.

I have done all this. She has pooped and peed in the morning - and in the afternoon (not poop though) and has kept it all down.

But she is incredible lethargic in my opinion. She will run outside when I let her out, wag her tail, and all in all seem normal. She is just sleeping a lot more than normal.

Am I just being overly paranoid because of last night? Or could there still be something wrong?

Thank you.

ANSWER: No you are not being paranoid Sarah. She was sick, that is a fact. Why, I don't know. Vomiting is common when a dog gets food it's not used to, or is given people food, rich food or bad dog food. That's how they clean out their system, just like us.

Vomiting can lead to dehydration very fast. Go easy on her food right now and slowly give her what is most likely a can of I/D mixed with some warm water.

She could have gastritis, pancreatitis, or just a sensitive stomach. My last dog had one. So for her it was one food all the time, for her whole life, and carrots for treats. She got nothing else or her stomach would growl and rumble and she would have gas.

You didn't tell me anything about the type of dog this is, (some breeds are more prone to these problems) or her vaccination history, (she could have a mild case of parvo or something) or anything else about her.

If she keeps vomiting you need to have the vet look her over again. For now, boil up some rice and turkey burger and get her to eat that little bits at a time over the next few days. Then start mixing a SMALL amount of her dog food into it. While she is off her regular food this would be a good time to get her onto some high quality food, Science Diet. She could be on the adult or Sensitive Stomach formula.

She will do wonderful on it and it will save you money if you feed it correctly according to the bag and measure it with an 8 oz. cup.

I hope this helps- it is all I can say based on what limited information I have.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your response!

She was on Science diet and then Iams puppy food and then I changed her to an Iams active dog food because she didn't seem to take to the larger pellets of the adult food my mom was feeding her. Speaking of which - my mother fed her popcorn last week before I picked her up.

When I put the new Iams food down for her - she turned her nose. But that was the last dog brand I gave her. The only people food she has had she snuck off my plate - a little bit of scrambled egg and potato.

She was completely vaccinated. I think the only one I let go was the next booster for the Bordetella(sp) because the vet tech told me unless I boarded her (which I dont) it wasn't necessary. Other than that she has had all of her shots. I started to worry about a case of parvo - but I figured I was being overly paranoid.

Thank you again for your advice. It really is appreciated!

Answer
Once she is past this bought of vomiting I would put her back on the Science Diet and get the Sensitive stomach. Unfortunately, your dog isn't the first one to get sick on Iams.

Iams and Eukanuba used to be great foods- almost up there with Science Diet. Then they decided to drop their fixed formulation and dogs everywhere started to get sick. I just read about another one in a forum. See when you don't have a fixed formulation you buy what ever is cheap on the docks that day- and that goes into the latest batch of food. So it's like switching your dog constantly back and forth, and that isn't helping her stomach (or thousands of other dog's).

Hill's, the makers of SD, use a fixed formulation and always will. With 50 yrs of veterinary research behind them they know that when you change things up on a dog it can result in some very serious problems (pancreatitis is one and it can be fatal).
So when you buy a bag of SD, it is the same as the bag before and before and before. In other words,the ingredients stay the same and so do the nutrient levels.

Popcorn in a small amount probably wouldn't hurt most dogs, but a lot of it will cause stomach upsets.

So follow the plan outlined before and get her a bag of SD Active dog or Sensitive Stomach- whichever you feel she would do best on. There is an Adult formula that would work too, and a light that has less fat but not less flavor! My Mom's guide dog lives on that and is gorgeous!!
So hopefully that will help. Dogs CAN get parvo even if vaccinated but they get milder cases and do fairly well with it. But they usually have some bloody stool with that.
Let me know how she is in a few days. Donate the Iams to your local shelter and get her the SD.