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My dog won't eat, vomits, and lost weight. Is eating dry food okay?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Toy Poodle | Female | spayed | 13 years and 7 months old | 12 lbs

Gigi is off her food since about November. She started vomitting but the Vet could not find anything wrong after taking a blood test. She has lost quite some weight. I bought now Hills for Sensitive Stomach & Skin small & mini Adult. Gigi will eat this at times dry out of my hand. Later she will drink lots of water, but will not eat it wet. She hardly eats other food as well. When she eats this she has no runny tummy. Is this a problem because she's eating it dry?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Strydom, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on February 4th, 2020

More testing needs to be done to find out what is going on. You cannot allow her to continue to barely eat food. I suggest x-rays and/or abdominal ultrasound as the next steps in finding out what is going on.

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    Answered By Maria DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on August 28th, 2018

    Did she lose weight during this time? I would talk to your veterinarian about starting an antacid with her about 30 minutes prior to meals. It may help her with wanting to eat. I would also recommend base line blood work to make sure there is nothing systemic starting with her. If this trend gets worse then I feel it does warrant further diagnostics like x-rays or ultrasound. This would make sure there is no foreign object in her stomach. If you do the x-rays I would do it when she has had a 12 hour fast to make sure if there is something in her stomach we don't mistake it for food. If everything is normal and she isn't losing weight I wouldn't worry too much, but I also wouldn't add anything to the food since if you start doing that she may not eat her dog food at all. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

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