vomiting dogs

Question
I have two dogs, one black lab and one collie/sharpie mix. They have been vomiting alot lately and I am need a second suggestion as to what it may be. My first hunch is I recently changed their food and was wondering if this may be it, and if so, how do I get them use to the new. 2nd hunch is that fleas have been horrible this year and nothing, not even frontline or k9 keeps the fleas off of them. (they have had their lyme shots)Thank you.

Answer
Hi Karrame,

Thank you for writing to me about your dogs.  You must first look to their food source as the cause of this health situation.  If you haven't been following the news lately, there have been an excessive amount of dog food recalls due to poison in the processing of the foods.  The food you switched to may be one of these.

I would immediately change to a high grade, human grade dog food.  Call the company and ask if there have been any recalls or problems reported.   Foods like Wellness, Solid Gold, Paul Newman, Merrick are desirable foods to feed.  

As for fleas, give your dogs a bath with Dawn detergent or baby shampoo. Leave the lather on for 15 minutes then rinse. Vacuum several times a day as the fleas get chopped up in the vacuum.  Throw out the bag.  Sprinkle some flea powder in the bag before disgarding but not before vacuuming.

Buy some laundry detergent call 20 Mule Team Borax.  Or buy borax from a pharmacy.  Mix a hot liquid in a pail, maybe 2 cups to the pail (2 gallons approx) and wash the floor, rugs etc with it.  Take the liquid and throw it all over the floor, let sit and then mop up.  The borax will kill the fleas in the house.   You must repeat all this every day or two until the fleas are gone.

Lastly, get some Missing Link and add it to your dog's food.  The yeast in the product will not taste very good to a flea.  

Whatever you do, do not use any flea collars or toxic products.

When the fleas are gone, have your dogs checked out for tapeworms as they are carried by fleas.  Your dog's vomiting may be possibly caused by this.

Best of luck,
Shelley Davis