Sick puppy

[everydayimshuffling123]

Our spaniel is 16 weeks old.
Since dog training class this morning she’s been throwing up.
They gave her hotdog which she hadn’t had before, nothing else was different.
She started throwing up a few hours later and is now throwing up about once an hour. Just water/saliva.
She’s had a bit to drink but refuses to eat.
She’s reluctantly had a walk in the past hour and her poo was a bit runnier than usual.
She’s more lethargic than usual but then will have 5 minutes here and there where she plays with a toy briefly.
I’m going to put her in her crate at 9pm so she hopefully sleeps it off.
Would you make a vet appointment in the morning if she’s still sick?
What should I do tonight re looking after her?
Her crate is built in downstairs and if we bring her up she’ll wee everywhere and chew things when we are asleep so that’s not really an option.
I’m worried about her though.
I’d say she’s been sick 5 times since 4pm? No sick in the past hour though.

hotdog probably salty. I wouldn’t walk her, if it is a bug no point in spreading it. Hope she picks up.

Is it your first dog OP?

I wouldn't walk a poorly puppy, and please be careful if you are giving her sheets of chicken as in the processed stuff. She could be really overloading her tiny system with salt.

I still think you need to talk to your vet.

No vet will think you are daft (unlike your DH) getting advice about a sick young puppy. I have had many a visit with mine when they found a temperature and with antibiotics and other medication they can get them back on their feet quickly.

I wouldn't be happy about her drinking excessively and she may just not be being sick because she isn't eating.

She’s had a bowl of scrambled egg, most of a bowl of water and no poos since 6am.
Think it was salty hotdog. Won’t be allowing her to have it again.
Looked at the chicken and it was low in salt but I’ll stick with rice and scrambled egg from now on.

I feel your worry OP, my dog has had a lot of sickness related issues. She is on Hills Vet low fat diet after 2 bouts of pancreatitis and she's been good for a while now.
Advice re sickness has always been plain rice and boiled chicken in small portions until they start getting better (my dog will never eat rice so always just boiled chicken here).

If she starts trembling and stops taking water, get to the vet ASAP. This was how my dogs pancreatitis started (as well as the s & d) and she could have died had we not acted quickly, she was so very poorly and on a drip for 3 days.

It sounds like your pup is already on the mend though and drinking a lot is a very good sign which is good news (I wouldn't be worried in this case, sounds like she just got a dodgy tummy from the hotdog), but do keep a close eye

So she’s eaten 3 meals of scrambled egg today. Still refusing dog food but has been a bit brighter. No more sick or poo since last night/early this morning.
She’s a bit quieter than usual.
Hoping another good sleep tonight and she’ll be brighter.
I’m not massively worried anymore.
If still a bit quiet tomorrow I’ll make a vet appointment.

So we ended up at the vets in the end.
Purely because she was still pooing pure liquid.
Vet doesn’t think it’s obstruction as she’s stopped vomiting.
Gave her probiotic paste stuff and some extortionately expensive sensitive dog food.
So today she did one solid poo, then one slightly sloppy and then this evening it’s pure water again.
She’s not drinking much, but she’s on wet dog food now which obv contains more water.
I just don’t know what to do.
I suppose stick to the sensitive dog food for a few more days. She did have some kibble at lunch time mixed in with it and it’s since then that her belly has been bad again, but she’s been on the same kibble since she was weaned, so don’t think it’s that.
She’s having Aldi version of smackos which she hasn’t had before, but looked at the ingredients and nothing looks dodgy.
God knows.

Also she’s bright in herself and not dehydrated.
Vet not concerned to be honest.
She has advocate spot on which is worms and fleas so vet said she’s not going to have worms.
Took her for a walk earlier as her poo was back to solid/semi solid and she squirted watery diarrhoea everywhere. I had to go home and get a bowl of boiling water to wash it off the pavement on our cul-de-sac.
Driving me potty now.

In the nicest possible way OP bin those crappy treats and stop the kibble. Just feed what the vet gave you and the paste. Your dog has an upset stomach from food she couldn't tolerate and you're adding more to her diet.........

It's no different to a human baby - you can't just change their food or milk as they are likely to react. Her stomach is incredibly sensitive and it doesn't take much (ie the hotdog) to completely bugger up their digestive balance.

Puppies don't need treats in any shape or form and I just use their normal kibble for use in training.

We have always used treats to get her to wee annoyingly, started when we were toilet training and now she holds wee and has accidents inside if she’s not bribed with a dog treat.
Was going to deal with that at some point.
Gave her the kibble as she was still starving after the vet food. And vet explicitly said that as soon as diarrhoea stops we can put her back on kibble. And the diarrhoea had stopped at that point. But then came back again.
Perhaps I’ll just do vet food and absolutely nothing else for a few days.
Maybe bribe her to wee with a bit of the vet food (she loves it so should work)

My older dog gets colitis and we have to be really really strict with him for around 7 to 10 days. He has the probiotic paste (Pro-Kolin) and diet vet food only, then slowly introduce his normal food over about another 7 days. You can't be too careful as they're not absorbing calories when they've got diarrhoea, especially with a young puppy.

Hope they are soon on the mend.

Yes we have the pro-kolin.
Ok I’ll be super strict. Just the vet food for the next few days.
Thanks for the advice.

You seem to be feeding your dog a load of crap sorry to be so blunt but I can’t imagine any of that is helping!

Your dog is so tiny and she’s being given all this different food in her tiny stomach. As for the vets special food - I can’t believe people still fall for that?
Pick a decent diet (personally for me it’s raw, but not for everyone) and stick to it. Lay off the crappy treats and either buy decent treats or make your own. Treats are full of crap just like kibble. Please do your puppy a favour and invest in a decent diet for her.

Your poor pup - she's being fed all sorts and you wonder why she has a dodgy stomach?

Stop mixing foods and stop giving her treats - that includes sheets of chicken (whatever they are) and her old kibble. She needs to be on a grain-free, additive-free complete food - at sixteen weeks she's so young, she can't cope with loads of treats and foods the way an older dog can.

Mine has only ever had one incidence of diarrhoea - he was starved for 12 hours, then given plain chicken for 24 hours, then his usual meals again. But no treats, no leftovers, no bits of food from plates - nothing else.

And yes, we only feed natural chews or foods - nothing marketed as a treat by pet food companies comes into our home!

He gets chicken on walks for recall, at home it's things like pizzle sticks, antlers, hooves, buffalo horns and dried meat or pigs ears etc. That's it.

You seem rather blasé about this whole incident, from the beginning. Please look after your puppy properly and stop feeding her a mixture of crap and chopping and changing, poor girl

I have a dog with a life long stomach condition who also gets colitis. They key is not to keep swooping food about until they are back to normal and lay off the treats.

Some of the prescription food is often stuff that is partially digested (I quizzed my vets once about the gastro friendly stuff they feed them when sick) so that it can easily be digested without the dogs body having to work to break it down. Kibble can be very harsh on the stomach. Have you seen how much it expands when you add water. If you normally feed kibble then I would stick to the vets wet food until well to give your puppy chance for his stomach etc to recover from whatever it is.

I feed a good quality wet food and when my dog is ill I don't feed anything other than his normal food (no treats, no bits of chicken or rice). But what I do is split the amount into 10 feeding sizes and feed him every hour for 10 hours so he gets a bit of normal easy to eat (wet) food that his body is used to but NOT in any large quantity. Once we have done that for a couple of days I then feed double the amount every 2 hours etc until we get back to normal quantities and serving times.

This can take a few days. You can't think well he hasn't had vomiting or diarrhoea for a few hours or a day so much be ok and start normal feeding and treats. You need to give it time and take it slowly until you are sure they have recovered.

I’m not blasé at all.
And she’s not fed crap.
Her kibble is cold pressed and costs the same per month as our entire families weekly food shop for one week.
All it contains is salmon, sweet potato and brown rice. It’s gluten and grain free, but we stuck with it as she’s been on it since being weaned.
So her kibble is probably more GI friendly than the food the vet gave her which has all sorts of things on the ingredients.
The vet wasn’t going to prescribe GI food as she said the kibble was plain enough, but I asked for it as puppy wasn’t eating and was refusing kibble and I was worried.
Vet said as soon as runny poo stops to put her straight back on kibble as she’s just being fussy turning her nose up at it and if she’s hungry she’ll eat.
Wish i had just stuck with the kibble, but when a puppy is refusing to eat you try anything don’t you (hence the scrambled egg day)
I agree re the smackos. She doesn’t usually get them. Husband bought them for dog training. She usually has some natural salmon puppy treats in the shape of tiny fish.
Can’t remember the name of them.
And the chicken was 98% chicken. Didn’t think it would be all that horrific for her if I’m honest, but others obviously think so!
Anyway she’s back on the GI food.
Poo still runny today but a bit more solid. Will give her purely GI food and nothing else. Managed to bribe her for a wee with a bit smeared on a spoon this morning.

Treats wise she has beef tendons and goats ears in the evening.
And just checked and training treats are grain free, hypo allergenic salmon mini treats.

I wouldn't feed any of those treats until your puppy is 100% and has been for several days. You need to let her stomach settle down.

By ‘crap’ I’m referring to aldi treats - if she has good quality ones then why are you giving her those? It doesn’t make sense, no wonder her system is confused

We bought them on the recommendation of the dog trainer as they can be broken up into tiny pieces and to keep her interested at training. So DH listened and grabbed them on the shop and now we have 3 bloody parks of 10 of the things.
They recommend cheese, hotdogs, ham, chicken, smackos etc.
Stuff that’s classed as junk food that you wouldn’t give them normally apparently as they have to be high value treats.
Will stick with chicken, beef and bits of meat from now on.

The good quality training treats take her about 20 seconds to chew each one, so when we were training and needed to give treats in quick succession it wasn’t working! The mini salmon bites are tiny but really chewy! Plus they weren’t that exciting for her when she could smell hotdogs everywhere!!!

Yes I wouldn't give her any treats at the moment - just stick with one food and one food only for a good few days. Puppies have very sensitive stomachs at the best of times, let alone when they've had the runs.

I'm very shocked at your vets advice to go back to the original kibble as soon as pup has a solid bowel movement to be honest, and at your trainers advice to use junk food to train your dog! When we did puppy classes our trainers used fresh meat - ideally ham or chicken fresh from the deli counter, or occasionally bits of cheese for older dogs. Mine recalls for bits of fresh cooked chicken with no issues at all.

If your dogs stomach is fine on the food the vet has given, keep her on that for a good three days, and then transfer her very slowly onto the food you want her on in the long run. It should take at least 7-10 days to get her onto the new food completely. You need to mix the tiniest amount in and slowly, slowly increase it as long as her bowel movements are solid.

Good luck!