Vomiting

by Brandy
(New Jersey)

Our Dog Bailey

We recently adopted a puppy who is about 6 months old. In the past week, she has vomited undigested food twice. The first time was immediately after eating, and she ate her food in about 30 seconds. We decided to go out and get her a food cube to slow down her eating. It seems to have helped, until today, when even with the cube she vomited all of her food up again.

She went to the vet about 2 weeks ago and was found to have whipworm. We gave her the medication the vet gave us and we are not seeing any further evidence of this in her stool. Also, she was just spayed last week, so at first we thought perhaps it could be a lingering reaction to the anesthesia, as it happened the day after the surgery. Now, however, we are a little more concerned.

We do have an appointment with the vet scheduled for a week and a half, and while we hope this is the last occurence of this, we were wondering if we should call and bump up the appointment? Could this still be a reaction to the whipworms or the anesthesia? Is it normal for puppies of this age? Are we perhaps feeding her too much (we feed her twice a day, morning and evening).

Thank you for your help.


Hi Brandy
Vomiting up undigested food is often caused by eating way too fast (as you observed), or eating on an empty stomach, or eating and drinking too much one after the other.

If your pup seems happy and healthy otherwise, I don't think it's something to be too concerned about immediately. I would try giving her three meals a day, and use a large, shallow dish (even a baking pan would do) so that it's more difficult for her to gobble down her food so fast.

By eating 3 times a day, her tummy won't be so empty by mealtime, and the shallow dish slows her down. Also, don't offer her water right away, wait 30 mins or so before allowing her access to the water dish.

I doubt this is a reaction to the anesthesia or to the whipworm or it's medication. After a week, the side-effects of both of these should have worn off.

If this doesn't happen again I think she can wait for her vets appointment that you have scheduled, but if it starts to happen regularly, or if she seems sick (has vomiting, diarrhea, excessive lethargy etc.) then I'd recommend taking her to the veterinarian right away.

Best of luck with that cute pup of yours!