Shih Poo 7 months old throwing up a lot

by Emily
(Greenwood, Arkansas, USA)

I have two shih poo puppies, they're 7 months old and they are brothers. We feed them about a large bowl of puppy food everyday and leave it in their cage for them to eat when we're not home. They get treats when they go to the bathroom and occasionally a bone, but other than that, they don't get anything else to eat. We never feed them any of our food.

They throw up at least twice a week each. It used to always be chunky and look almost like a ball. It was gray colored. Lately, it's been more runny and orange. Why are they throwing up and what can we do to help?





Hi Emily
I'd really recommend that you take your pups to your veterinarian as it's very difficult to say why they're throwing up this way without ruling out a few things.

As they're vomiting regularly, yet seem healthy otherwise, they may be experiencing an intolerance to some ingredient in their food/treats/bones etc., or even a dog food allergies.html">dog food allergy. I'd recommend switching them over to a Hypoallergenic Dog Food (but make the change slowly to avoid any further tummy upsets).

Also look at the treats they get, and the bones. Artificial ingredients such as colors, preservatives and so on, are a big culprit when it comes to digestive upsets. Pay attention to WHEN your pups throw up and try and see if it coincides with (within 12 - 24 hours) of them getting treats, edible bones etc.

Your vet may also want to rule out a parasitic or bacterial infection. Sometimes these can become 'chronic' and cause repeated, periodic vomiting. Check out my Puppy Vomiting page for more on the different causes of vomiting in pups/dogs.

If your pups get a clean bill of health from your vet, then you may want to look at some of the natural products that are available to treat digestive upsets/imbalances. Take a look at my Natural Remedies For Dogs page to see a selection of these.

Hopefully one of these things will help. Best of luck with your pups.