Question:
Hello,

We just adopted two 12 week old purebread chi's on Tuesday (3 days). They seemed fine on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday morning noticed some diarrhea and some vomit. I didn't see any blood in the stool or vomit. The stool was kind of mucus'y and runny. We called the breeder right away and she came to look at the pups. They appear to be fine, and she suggested that we have them drink water with electrolites in it to keep the pups from dehydrating and she dropped off some puppy imodium (not sure what is it) for us to give them for the diarrhea if it becomes worse. They're going to see the vet this morning for their puppy wellness check, so we have a lot of questions for the vet. My biggest concern is that there is something in house that could be causing the puppies to get ill. We just had a 3 year old chi pass away about a month ago very suddenly. Our 3 year old became violently ill (vomiting and diarrhea) and she was gone in 12 hours. Can someone calm my fears?

The 3 year old was vaccinated regularly and the pups have had three sets of shots; 5 way, 7 way, and 7 way. So they have been vaccinated twice for parvo.

Answer:
I'm glad you're taking them right to the vet. Tiny chi puppies can die rapidly from hypoglecimia and dehydration.

It's possible all the vaccinations themselves are making your puppies sick, as apparently they would get the same dose as a Great Dane.

I'm sorry about your last dog - is poison a possibility?

I hope these puppies will be o.k.

Answer:
Poisoning is a possibility in our last dog, however I'm not sure where she would have gotten into anything. The only thing I could think if, was I mowed the lawn a day or two earlier, and I know that we had some mushrooms that got chopped up. She could have gotten into that. The vet seemed to think that the mushrooms could have made her sick, but would not have caused death. The only other thing we could think of is something genetic, or something with her bowels. Looking back, I wish we would have done an atopsy. Thanks for the kind words, we were and still are saddened by our loss.

Answer:
My Shih Tzu Puppy had the same symptoms a couple of weeks ago, vomiting, diarrhea, wouldn't eat or drink. I too took him to the vet, who put him on antibiotics. The problem was this kept recurring every few days he would start vomiting and having diarrhea again. Anyway I finally figured out what was causing him to be so sick....MUSHROOMS. Even though he was always supervised outside he still managed to eat those tiny little mushrooms without me noticing. I am not saying that this is the problem with your Puppies I just thought it wouldn't hurt to mention it.

Answer:
Well the vet saw the pups today and concluded that it is most likely just a bout of nerves, being in a new environment, water, and the like. He felt confident that it was probably not something that was in the house causing the sickness. He did advise us to watch the pups through the weekend to make sure they begin to improve. I called the breeder and she was willing to allow us to watch the pups through the weekend before we officially agree to accepting the pups. So, I think everything should be on the up and up.

Answer: