My puppy is throwing up

Question
My 16 weeks old puppy is throwing up. Last saturday, i took him to vet and he had conjuctivitis and the doctor gave him medicine and said that he will sneeze a bit. I changed his food the following monday because he wasnt doing well on Wellness puppy food (soft stool, eating grass). I put him on Iams (he seemed to like iams earlier). He threw up the whole food that evening and threw up once again at night. I stopped giving him iams. Next morning i put him back on wellness. He was fine that day, at night he threw up watery stuff two times. he is eating and drinking fine. I kept feeding wellness. The next day he threw up when i came home from work. I stopped wellness. I made him fast for 24 hrs, i came home next day and saw puke once again. I cooked boiled rice for him and mixed it with organic sweet potatoes and chicken baby food. He ate it well. THis morning did the same, rice mixed with veg and chicken (baby food), he ate it. i am giving him pepto bismol for his upset stomach. is there anything else i should do. i am worried.

Answer
First of all, anytime one changes foods, it should be done  s l o w l y, over a period of several days to a couple weeks, depending on the dog. Doing that too quickly will guarantee that most any dog will have some sort of digestive issues... diarrhea, vomiting, or both.

The change in diet may be disguising the real problem. Since this is a puppy, he may have eaten something that was not intended to be eaten and he is trying to bring it back up. He may also have picked up some virus (like possibly at the vet's on Saturday), and again, the change in diet is not helping. It may be that he needs to be seen by a vet to determine if there is any underlying problem here. Also, he should have a stool sample examined for possible parasites and bacteria (those initial loose stools).

Anytime a dog starts vomiting, he should be fasted for 24 hours before starting a bland diet. Water should be picked up and only ice cubes given so that the dog doesn't tank up on water. I don't leave water down until the dog starts leaving water from the ice cubes in his dish.

After 24 hours of no vomiting, I usually start with rice mixed with a bit of Gerber strained chicken (the baby food) for flavor. The dog should be fed *small* amounts (tsp.) more frequently (every couple hours) throughout the day. As the dog improves, I begin to give more of the rice mixture less frequently. By the second day, I start introducing small amounts of kibble as I decrease the amount of rice, until I finally have the dog back on its regular kibble. If the dog vomits at any time, I start over from the beginning with fasting for 24 hours. How quickly one can get the dog back on a normal diet is dependent on how much vomiting he was doing.

Anytime a dog walks away from his food dish, I just pick it up and offer it again at the next normal feeding. Some dogs do not want to eat if they have an upset stomach, and making them eat will just cause them to vomit. One missed meal is not a big deal.

Back to foods... some good foods may initially cause soft stools because of the radical change from bad diet to good diet. Some have likened this to "cleaning toxins" out of the body. When searching for a good product, the first ingredient should be a specific meat protein (preferably a meat meal), a minimum of grains, NO by-products, and no menadione bisulfate complex (source of vitamin K). Probiotics is GREAT in a food (all the good digestive bacteria/enzymes). No food needs sugar, such as caramel in a food (IAMS)... that is to make the dog want to eat the food. Think of candy and children; dogs have a sweet tooth, too.

Also, feeding too much food will also cause soft stools in a dog. Be careful you are not overfeeding your puppy. A good-quality food requires less product than a bad one.

By the way, anytime one is "worried" about his dog, it is time to call the vet.