Stomach problems strike a hungry dog

My poodle pup Wan-Wan is a sweet-natured, out-going little dog, except when it comes to food.

Put dogfood in front of her, and she won’t go near it, especially if it’s dry dogfood. If I want her to eat, I have to feed her by hand. She licks the food carefully off my hand, then waits for her doggie treat. If I don’t feed her by hand, she won’t eat.

“Just put the food in front of her, and eventually, she’ll eat,” my dog-expert friends say.

They don’t know my dog. Wan would rather starve than eat dogfood.

Catfood is a different matter. If I fed the cats on the floor, Wan would clean the food up before any cat had a chance to eat. Catfood, though, is much too rich for a dog. If I let her eat it, she would be sick often.

Thus the cats have their meals high up, where a doggie can’t reach.

I do leave a plate of dry catfood out on the patio for the two soi cats. Since Wan hates any sort of hard, dry food, I’m almost certain she won’t eat it.

To make sure, I check constantly, but Wan leaves it alone.

Then one day, Wan starts vomiting an hour or so after every meal.
    
Animals vomit. Perhaps they’ve simply eaten more than they’re used to, and their stomach is simply trying to relieve the “congestion”. You do need to monitor the situation. If your pet is vomiting because it’s eaten a poison or it's caught a disease, you need to take it to a vet urgently.

At first, I’m not worried about Wan. Since she’s vomiting only after she eats, perhaps there’s a problem with too much food.

I reduce the amount I feed her, but she continues to vomit. Finally, after two days of vomiting, I take Wan to the vet. Perhaps she’s having problems with her teeth. Perhaps she really is sick.

The vet can’t find anything wrong. Just to be sure, I have Wan's teeth cleaned, but the vomiting continues.

My vet starts talking about X-rays and even exploratory surgery. It may be that Wan has bladder stones or some other health problem.

First, we have to stop the vomiting. Lots of small-size meals seem to help, although she’s still having problems.

A few days later, Porn, who helps me with the turtles, comes in from the patio. “It’s so cute the way Wan and the cats eat together outside,” she laughs.
    
That dog’s figured out that I mustn’t see her eat the catfood, but that it’s all
right if Porn sees her because Porn won’t stop her.
    
Wan’s problem has been too much food and too much rich catfood. Now that I’ve removed that catfood from the patio and the soi boys eat inside, Wan’s vomiting stops.