# My 7 month old maltipoo hiccups, gags and vomits



## curlgirl (Apr 8, 2007)

I have a wonderful, playful, energetic 7 month old maltipoo puppy. He acts like a perfectly normal puppy, and even the vet wants to take him home with him. 

I'll try to give as much backround info on him as possible. He had ringworm, which was treated with oral and topical antifungals before we even got him. He has had all of his shots, been neutered and had teeth pulled. 


He is perfectly healthy except for the fact that he hiccups and gags, and occasionally vomits. He's also not a very big eater, and he's picky. We do get food into him, and 99% of the time it stays down just fine. But several times a day, regardless of when he has eaten or had something to drink, he just starts hiccuping and/or gagging for no apparent reason. We are very careful to make sure that he does not get into anything. He also vomits sometimes. 

The first time he vomitted it was a thick, yellow and white liquid. I took him to the vet and he thought he might have gotten into something. He had us put him on just plain chicken and rice for a few days and he stopped vomitting. But all along, since we got him, he's been hiccuping and gagging. We've told the vet about it and had him examined. He has not found anything wrong. The past two days, he has eaten and then hours later thrown up some of his undigested food. Is he eating too much too fast? He gets 1/2 cup 2-3 times a day. 

Other than this digestive upset, he has been a very happy little guy. 30 seconds after he vomits, he is running around playing. I am wondering if this is something as simple as him drinking his water too quickly. 

We feed him Purina Pro Plan Puppy Chow, mixed with a little chicken broth and some chicken for flavor. Sometimes if he is really being a picky eater, we'll add a little of the Iams gravy, or we might mix in a little Eagle Pack wet food instead of the chicken broth. Basically, it's the same kibble every day, with either some wet food or some chicken broth mixed in. 

WHY IS MY PUPPY GAGGING AND THROWING UP? (AND HICCUPING)


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## cshellenberger (Dec 2, 2006)

I would get away from the Purina and Iams products. They are very low quality. The problems may clear up after that. Also, chicken broth has ALOT of salt and that's not good for dogs. Go to the Eagle Pack dry or another really high quality puppy food. Some other brands to look at, include Solid Gold, Wellness, Natural Balance, and Canidea.

BTW, the hiccuping is normal, it means she's growing


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## curlgirl (Apr 8, 2007)

Thanks. That's good advice. I have been worried that there is something wrong with him. I didn't know that hiccuping is normal for them. 

We have been giving him the Purina because that is what he was being fed before we got him. I got him from my uncle (who is also his vet) and that's what he had been giving him. We didn't want to change anything when we first got him. We are trying to get him on just the Eagle Pack now, but we don't want to change his diet too quickly since he has such a sensitive little tummy. So we've mixed the two together, and then when that is all finished we're probably going to go with just the Eagle Pack. We only started adding some of the Iams gravy because he really was not eating. He seems to like it. 

With all of the pet food recalls I am glad that I have been giving him the Purina and the Eagle Pack, two of the few brands not affected. 

That's a good point about the chicken broth. We actually do give him the low sodium one because that's all we buy. And lately we've had a lot of homemade chicken soup, with all the fat skimmed off and no salt added. My mom does not use any salt when she cooks. 

Actually, when he started vomitting the yellow and white mucus-y stuff and I brought him to see his Uncle Jack the vet, he told me to give him some chicken broth with rice and chicken for a few days to settle his stomach. I asked him if we could add the chicken broth to his regular food since he loved it so much, and he said yes as long as it is low sodium. LOL, he told me to be a Jewish mother and make him some chicken soup! It worked though!


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## cshellenberger (Dec 2, 2006)

Absolutely stop the Iams gravy, I believe it is on the recall list as it has whey protien in it as a thickener. Your dog will not starve itself, so just give the kibble and make it eat what YOU want it to eat.


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## curlgirl (Apr 8, 2007)

Carla, I just looked at the recall list. There are several Iams foods on the list but the gravy is not one of them. I just looked at the ingredients on the bottle and it has no wheat gluten in it. I don't mind giving him that if it makes him like his food more. I'm sure it isn't the gravy that makes him have digestive upsets because we only started giving him that about a month ago and he has been gagging for much longer than that. I guess I won't worry so much about it though, since he has had several vet exams and has been given a clean bill of health even though they know about the gagging. It's just an awful thing to see him go through that!

Thanks again! 


Elyse


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## cshellenberger (Dec 2, 2006)

Tyr breaking up the meals, that may help as he won't have an empty tummy.


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## luvntzus (Mar 16, 2007)

My dog always vomits yellow bile if he goes too long without eating. It's actually very common, especially with the little guys and I'm surprised your vet didn't mention it. I would feed him small frequent meals.

As far as him not having much of an appetite, small dogs are pickier in general and I read something that made sense- since small dogs have smaller noses, there's less surface area and they don't have as strong a sense of smell. Dogs don't actually have a very good sense of taste- they mostly go by their noses.

That's great that you've switched to a healthier food! Eagle Pack Holistic (not their natural line) is awesome. You could add in a few healthy things to encourage your puppy to eat. It's REALLY important though to either add something to the food or not, give your puppy about 10 minutes to eat it and then take it up. If you "doctor" the food after you've given it to him or make a fuss it will only teach him to play games and hold out for something better. But anyway, some healthy things to add in are canned food (I would stick to the Eagle Pack line to keep things simple for him), meat babyfood (with no onion flavoring), or plain yogurt.

Edited to add that hiccups are normal, just like with humans. The gagging seems like maybe a soft palate issue or possibly kennel cough; but then if your vet checked and didn't find anything then it could just be something like inhalant allergies. I know especially at night sometimes my Shih Tzu gags. It usually coincides with me having a sore throat from being under the heat or air conditioning vent. I think it's a combination of allergies and the air blowing on us.


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## cshellenberger (Dec 2, 2006)

There's also a thing that shorter faced dogs do that's called 'reverse sneezing' It's caused when an irritant is at the back of the throat near the sinus area. This can be stopped at times by holding the nose and making the dog breath through it's mouth. It's a trick I picked up on a Pug site.


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