mealtime vomitting

[blueskies]

good news is we got our 4 1/2 month old pup, Sadie, on Friday :D bad news is Im stumped as to what is causing her to vomit several times per day. The first partial day I rationaed out her food and she inhaled it (she is underweight :( ) a few ninutes later it all came back up. Subsequent feedings I have reduced her intake amount adn fed her every couple hours thinking ok her little belly cant handle much at a time. She is holding it down longer but yesterday was bad with her vomitting 3 or 4 times and today she has vomitted only once. Our Lab pup will sometimes eat too fast and vomit unchewed kernels but this isnt the case with Sadie, she vomits chewed and looks to be partially digested food. Any suggestions aside from limiting activity after meals (not sure this will work as this evening it was 2 or 3 hours after she ate that she vomitted) and keeping the meals smaller and more frequent during the day?
Also wanted to ask for those of you with pups in the same age range (4 1/2 months) what size are they? Sadie is not only underweight she is petite and frail appearing. Soaking wet I dont believe she weighs more 15 pounds (my 10 month old daughter is 18+ pounds and from lifting both her and Sadie I can feel a definte difference in weight, Sadie is much lighter) She got a clean bill of health at the Vet's on Friday, no even any puppy worms. My thoughts were perhaps not a good qulaity feed previously and maybe she is shunted a bit and is going to be on the petite size at maturity anyways? *boggle*
Thanks so much for reading this far, any imput or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!

 

[JulieM]

There several things causing the vomiting, like stress or eating too quickly - also if you changed her food suddenly from what she was eating. There may also be something in the food that doesn't agree with her. Are her stools OK or is she having trouble there, too? You might want to try a 24-hour fast, then start her on boiled hamburger and rice for 2-3 days, and gradually add the kibble back in. That will give her stomach some time to settle down, and slowly adjust to the kibble instead of having to deal with it all at once. She should be eating 3-4 times a day at her age.

15 lbs at 4.5 months is a bit small, but if she's not completely emaciated-looking (and the vet would have told you if she was!) then she's probably OK. Different dogs grow at different rates - and Boxers go through "walking skeleton" phases

 

[blueskies]

thought about the switching of foods but I knew to make the change gradually. she had loose stools yesterday from the mixed food but today she is back to normal. (goes frequently too) just got a reply from the person we got her from (yes i emailed them to ask if this was something new for Sadie) the woman told me basically its my fault for mixing her food as their vet recommends Eukanuba so keep her on it *sigh* Granted this is our first Boxer baby but I have shown and raised Rottweilers in the past and am not a complete newbie :confused: the food they had her on is not readily available here so since they said they didnt have any of it when I asked to have a bit to mix I stopped on the drive home from getting Sadie to buy a bag but our Lab pup is on Purina Puppy Chow and thats what Ive always used with great sucess with the Rottweilers in the past so I figured as long as I stuck to the rule of a slow change over she would be fine. The woman also told me I was feeding her too often and only to feed her 2 times a day. IMO that is too little for a pup this age, especially since she does need to add a few pounds. She is not skeletal but any means but looks to need around 5 to 10 lbs to be a healthy lean build (her pin hips poke up and the ribs are quite visible) The woman means well by her reply but I think there is more to it than just the food. I think probably coming into a new home contributed as well ... since she has only vomitted once today I am going to continue with small frequent feedings for a day or so to let her adjust to her new home and hopefully she will realize it isnt a competition to eat. (not sure where she did come from a multi dog household ... maybe she had to eat quick to get her share??) Definitely will keep a close eye on her and will call a Vet ASAP if things worsen but I think I jumped the gun on being concerned :rolleyes:
Thanks so much for the help!!!