Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 11/19/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hello;
I have toy poodle, which we took in from a family friend. When we first brought her home she would not eat her dry food that she was eating from her first owner. Yesterday she drank some water then threw up a small amount of water like substance. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

ANSWER: What kind of time frame are we talking about here? How old is this dog? What kind of food was she eating? Did you change her food abruptly?

I need more information than what you have provided to me. If she is stressed over the change in her environment she might not want to eat. If she is an older dog on top of that, the stress could make her sick.

If she is being fed something new suddenly, that will make her sick.
Please provide more information.

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

QUESTION: Thank you for your feedback. We have had her for about three weeks. She is about 1 1/2 years old.Her original owner gave us the bag of dry food he had been feeding her which is Iams for small breeds. There have been no changes in her diet, we have not introduced anything new. It seems like she may take a small nibble here and there, because she has had bowel movements which have been normal as far as we can tell. The vomiting happened only once and was a small amount. She seemed normal to us she still came to us when we called her and she is still running around as usual.

Answer
Thanks for writing back Ruby. I would just give her time. She is still a bit stressed probably but Iams is a pretty good food and she doesn't need a lot of it to maintain her weight and energy.

Do not start feeding her anything from the table. Do not feed her human food or give her a treats like snausages, bacon strips etc. These are terrible for dogs and will make her sick, cause her to gain weight and ruin her teeth.

Make sure she is vaccinated currently for parvo, distemper and rabies and make sure she is on Heartworm medication as well.

She probably still misses him so just give her a lot of attention. If she continues to vomit then you need to get her to a vet hospital and have her looked at.

Vomiting can be from stress, eating the wrong things and treats. So no treats. They don't need them. If you want to train her, use pieces of her dog food as a treat. That is how you train them without causing digestive upsets.

Keep her on one kind of food only and do not switch from brand to brand. Little dogs normally eat one kibble at a time when they feel like it. That is their nature, so don't worry about that.