OK I picked up an 8 weeks old toy poodle/pomeranian mix as a rescue on Sunday.
She was just at the vet 2 days before and was spayed. But they didn't give her her shots yet as they wanted her to heal and recover from the operation sinch she was so tiny.

I was to come have her get her vaccinations 2 weeks later on Thursday nov 30th.

So 1st day (sunday) she was very excited and explored the house some :)
She ate a lot that morning at the shelter I got her from (I watched her eat)
That was purina puppy chow. I had bought her some purina ONE puppy chow because my cats and dogs loved the purina one type food.but as custom the shelter gave me an animal rescue kit made and packaged by Pedigree.

This kit came with 12 puppy diapers, 3 sealed 10 packs of training papers, 2 bags of dried pedigree puppychow and one can of canned pedigree puppy food, and a toy.

All packaged together.

So that eve on Sunday I tried giving my puppy the purina one puppy food... she wouldn't touch it. So I figured id try the doggy kit with the pedigree puppy food. She didn't want that so I figured id open the can and try putting a little of the canned food mixed in with the pedigree puppy chow. She ate it then.

But an hour later she started dry heaving and spitting up only liquids. (just clearish saliva)
And it only happened twice that night so I didn't think much of it she was back to her normal self. Monday she woke me up playfull and chewing on my nostrel. She was hungry and wanted food and water. So again we fed her the pedigree dry food and the canned food. And again an hour later she spit up again (clearish salive again) and had a runny bowl movement. So wife and I decided that we weren't going to feed that to her anymore since it apparently didn't sit well.

(remember we got a clean bill of health from the vet who did the checkup and spayingthat friday)

Later that day she slept most the whole day and wouldn't eat any other puppy food we tried but she would drink a lot. This went on intoteusday and she wouldn't drink but would sleep all day. And she didn't have any change in breathing or any abnormal bumps bruises, rashes, her tummy wasn't tender from the operation it wasn't distended from internal bleeding from (wife is a family physician) so she had a general idea of what to look for for problems that all creatures have even though she wasn't a vet. Something made me go check the food that pedigree gave the shelter for any warning that I may have missed or tips with a picky puppy.
When I noticed at the bottom of the back that bith bags of pedigree puppychow was two years old and 3 months past expiration! The pedigree had just donated the stuff a few weaks ago! But it was 2 years old AND expired! So wife and I are beating ourselves up over peading bad puppy food to her! Even if it was only once 1 night and once the next morning!

So now its Wednesday. She is still not eating but she drinking a lot still and still wags her tail when we come visit with her. And she has enough energy to go hide and sleep behind everything in the whole house every 20 minutes. Has no irregular breating or funny look in her eyes or abnormal pulse.

She just won't eat anything and she has lost enough weight now that her puppy diapers don't stay on her.

I'm in a tough spot of having zero (yes I mean absolute zero money we had just got done buying a brand new house and appliances and set up fees) to take her to the vet since we just spent 300 bucks on her spaying and another on puppy supplies! No credit cards or anything! And unfortunately don't get paid for another 2 weeks and none of the vets in our are will do work now for pay later despite my wife's position as the new doctor at the only clinic in the whole county and town!

So now that you have heard this long story. Do any of you have a suggestion as to what I can to feed her? I know in the people world my wife gives things like ensure and other protein shakes for elderly or sick people who don't eat.

Is there something similar that is available for dogs that we may try... or any other safe foods that we can perhaps make soft or liquid form for her to drink or us to feed her to gain nutrients until she gets better?

Thanks for any information you may have.

Btw my wife and I have had many dogs each over our 34 years each but none younger than 8-9 months old so we are in new territory with our puppy of 8 weeks!

It could be new home, new water, new food. Any sudden change in diet can lead to digestive upsets. I hope that is all there is to it. Not much dog there to survive some of the nasty viruses around. Perhaps the best thing is to try a bland recovery diet, perhaps using ingredients you have on hand.

OK, out of the manual I have from a large, knowledgeable dog guide school.

Bland recovery diet for dogs.

3 parts cooked rice, one part boiled hamburger or chicken, or cottage cheese. I think you can substitute boiled potatoes for the rice. Once in an emergency, we bought a plain baked potato from Wendy's.

This is meant for short time settling a dog's digestive tract. It is not the complete and balanced diet they need long term. If the above settles her tummy, slowly start to work in the Purina 1. If she still won't eat it, perhaps go back to the regular Purina puppy chow. I started a number of puppies on it, and they did fine. Biggest problem with it is the larger, softer stools that are harder to clean up.

Please read over the stickies at the top of the Dogs forum. The material should help any new puppy owner.

I agree with bland diet. However, I would call vet and ask for an antibiotic. Your puppy could have gotten a bacteria from the food and it could still be in the gut. Plus her immune system is down from her new home and OVH surgery. Maybe they could bill you, or have some returned meds at a discount. We do this often if we have returned meds-but we give them no charge.
Plain rice is best to start, after a day or two you can add plain lean hamburger, cottage cheese, and plain yogurt is good to help replace the good bacteria. Digestive enzymes are also good, especially if you are going to continue to feed only dry food. Heard of Activia (sp?) yogurt it is the same principle.
Also, stage 1-2 baby food is good for introducing more tasty bland food. The meats could be mixed with the dry dog food. I would recommend a puppyfood that has NO by-products, corn, or unnatural preservatives.
I ran a shelter for 5.5 yrs and understand the giving away food or being part of programs-however that doesn't mean they are the BEST choice for your pup.
Good Luck!

Thanks ill try your suggestions, also I have a question for you two. I saw that here in town our store sells an ebsilac brand puppy milk replacement that's heavy on vitamins and proteins.

Would it hurt at 8 weeks for me to give her this to drink until she starts to eat solids again?
(as a temperary get some minerals,vitamins and protein in any way possible) like my wife does by giving sick or elderly ensure or boost to help soften the blow of not eating.

Also both of you say plain yogurt as well as cottage cheese. Is there any preference with puppies lowfat or not? (ive just moved to Wisconsin and the stores have 14 different type curds here!! ) also the lean hamburger is that raw or cooked?

Thank you for your help they are suggestions I shall try. By the way the shelter was notified about the pedigree food donated to them BY pedigree was 2 years old and they disposed of it and are quite upset with the pedigree for "donating" 2 year old expired unsafe food for a tax break instead of destroying the bad food. Also if any vet work is needed the shelter will reimburse us for the money loss as they feel bad for not actually checking the experation date on the food that the pedigree corporation gave her a few weeks ago.

Ill be honest I don't blame her at all... I've never went out and looked for the experation date on my canned or dry dog food because in my 34 years of many many dogs and pupies I've never bought more than 2 months supply of dry and 1 week supply of canned.
I will now though!

Our poodle is an indoor dog and before for our adult dogs that were indoors before we moved to our new place with a yard we fed the adult dogs a purina that was anoutdoor formula mixed with grass and grains to help with the digestion.

But I'm not seeing any of the same for puppies. Any alternative until she gets old enough for adult foods? Also we plan to give her mostly dry food but suplemented with moist food or even canned food.

If you want to use the puppy milk replacement you can, but really you don't need to. If you feed her any of the things listed I'm 99% sure she will eat. The hamburger should be cooked! I'm not against raw foods, but it has to be the correct raw food. No steak tartar for your puppy.
Lol, yes I'm sure you have tons of choices. Lowfat is a good choice. Usually just plain flavored is fine.

That's good they will pay for vet cost. The digestion really shouldn't be a problem but in this case the puppy may just need a little help getting her gut back into shape.

See this site for a comparison of all foods www.naturapet.com If you want to stay with Purina the only food of theirs I would recommend is the ProPlan Selects for Puppies- It is Turkey & Barley. Otherwise check out the site for a store near you that has 'fit for human consumption' petfood. This means what goes into the food is something you would put into your body. Not the leftovers or throwaways.

And Kudos for adopting!

If you are short of funds, there is no sense to waste money on exotic dog chows such as turkey and barley. My advice is based on the practices of a large dog guide school with experience with thousands of puppies. At one time they were using regular Purina both puppy and adult. They have switched to Pro Plan chicken and rice largely over the issue of the stools being easier to clean up.

It was a very helpful site thanks.. I like a lot of the information given.. even if they did too much pranching and preaching here natrua stuff is the best.

I did a lot of looking around for reviews on the Innova and Innova EVO foodsthey seem to be a close compromise between the raw food diet my wife was reading about and the dry foods I've grown up with. But what intresed me a lot is how much real meat they use and make as their primary ingredients! Since she is a little toy poodle the 14 bucks a bag won't kill the bank ill be trying that... BTW she ouldnt eat any of the food on her own but we did get her to to swallow the babyfood that we put on her tongue so she got a Little nurtients tonight. As well as we mixed a little pedialyte into her water to keep her electrolytes up.. she is keeping this down. In the morning ill do the babyfood again and try thr cottage chease ahain see if she will eat it. She seams a little more ennergetic now even if still sleeping a lot and her eyes don't look weary anymore. So wife and I aren't so woried that she is going to fall over dead on us. I feel bad for the poor little puppy separated from mother at 5 weeks, sent to a rescue to avoid being shot. Then have an operation at 8 weeks old then 2 days later adoped and taken to a new home again (us) and amid all that adjusting gets sick from her new parents! Poor poor little girl. Thanks again everyone for your idea's ill keep posting in here over the next few days as to twila's progress

My latest puppy had the same symptoms. Turned out to be a gastric infection. Keep a close eye on your puppys stool. If u see anything bad please take her to vet. That said, when my pup was in doggie hospital they had her eat tiny portions of raw kangaroo meat. This was done every 4 or so hours. She wouldn't eat anything but that. Gradually they built her back up to normal eating habits. Took about a week. Now she is a natural born guts! I do hope your puppy gets well soon.

Thanks for the encouragement! Well this morning she is a little more active than last.. and she had babyfood poo hehe. Because we forcefed her some baby food last night.

Looked like it digested well. So far progress has been showing in babystep.. wich it much better than none. If going at this pace I'm confident she will be up at 4 am waking me up tearing my nostrel off in the attempt to kiss and play like she did the 1st 2 days we had her.

Ive had many many dogs and cats as well as other animals while grouing up in the country but this was the first time I ever had one 8 weeks old and she had me quite worried.

My family and my wife's family makes it a habbit of getting our pets from shelters and human societies. (we got our tabby cat from the pound and I always joke aboit bailing her outa jail!) and our 1 year old greyhound/austrailian shepard mix we got when one my wife's patients died of cancer. Twila our puppy was saved by a shelter because her original owners were one of those breeders who shoots any non pure puppies. And since she was toy poodle with a smidge of pomeranian she was slated to die.

Hey chill26 any idea where I may find some of that kangaroo meat that won't cost an arm and leg? I'm currently feeding her with what's left of our grocery money and my wife and I are living off PBJ and top ramen until nov 28th payday until then things are very time since we just moved into the house.

As I said, dogs don't need exotic diets. In fact, the dog guide school warns us off them, a quote from their manual, ''Stay away from premium foods and special diets like lamb and rice or turkey and barley. A few days of the bland diet, and the hamburger or chicken is boiled, and you should be able to go back any commercial dry puppy chow.

Since when is lamb, turkey, rice and barley exotic? And the Turkey & Barley IS Purina ProPlan!
"The nutritional quality of meat and poultry by-products, meals, and digests can vary from batch to batch. James Morris and Quinton Rogers, two professors with the Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of California at Davis Veterinary School of Medicine, assert that, “There is virtually no information on the bioavailability of nutrients for companion animals in many of the common dietary ingredients used in pet foods. These ingredients are generally by-products of the meat, poultry and fishing industries, with the potential for a wide variation in nutrient composition. Claims of nutritional adequacy of pet foods based on the current Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutrient allowances (‘profiles’) do not give assurances of nutritional adequacy and will not until ingredients are analyzed and bioavailability values are incorporated.”2

ill be going with innova food when she starts eating I ready up on the food in a lot of places and they are one of the few that uses real chicken and fish meats.. not leftovers

I don't see any innova large dog food for my greyhound/shepard mix so ill swithc her from purina one to purina pro plan.

as researching while its not as good as the innova it does have a lot more nutritional value than purina one.

You may already know this, but just remember when switching food, do it gradually. Just gradually add some of the new food with the old in stages over a 2-3 week span, depending on size of dog and amount of food, until they are completely on the new. This will help prevent tummy upsets. I found when switching foods, it also helps to add some water to their kibble by making it hard for them to pick out the taste they like most.;)

This simply is not true. Some chows may have more appetizing ingredients and be more concentrated, but all but the cheapest provide a good, complete and balanced diet. Suggestions otherwise require ignoring all the dogs doing very well on chows such as Purina one. Much of what you read about dog chows comes from people selling the more expensive ones. Innova may not be any better for your dog than Old Roy.

As for the leftovers, they include all the nutritious internal organs predators eat first. When they kill something, the first thing they do is rip open the under belly and gorge on the intestines, spleens, kidneys, pancreas, etc. that people turn their nose up. Even much of the livers make it into pet food. At the slaughter house, they are removed, ground up into meal and sold to the commercial pet food suppliers. The more expensive chows not using the meal need to find other sources of nutrients to replace the internal organs. The finished chows all end up with the same balance whether the main ingredient is corn, or food grade meat.

Feed Pro Plan with confidence. I know of thousands of valuable, hard working dog guides that eat it. The smaller, firmer stools it produces are much easier for the visually impaired to clean up.

Well thanks everyone for youe advice!


Twila this morning was a bundle of energy and followed my wife all around this morning and even ate some of the moist soft puppy food on her own today. (no more babyfood finger yey!) now the trick is to get some weight back on her over times her butt is scrawnier than mine now!

Good to hear it! Hope everything goes well.