Puppy Has Been Throwing Up All Day - Trifexis

[SoSa]

Ace is 6 months old. We started him on Trifexis on February 25th. The very next day he threw up bile very early in the morning. My vet told me that was a usual side effect and everything I read about Trifexis, said as much. When we gave Ace his next dose on March 25th, he was fine until 5 days later when he threw up. I didn't connect the incident with his dose of Trifexis because it was five days after the dose. He threw up once on that day. He got his next dose on April 25th. Exactly five days later he threw up. Because Inlof everything that happens with Ace on a calendar, I saw the connection between the bouts of vomiting after a dose of Trifexis. He threw up once on April 30th. Now that I began to see a pattern, I thought maybe it gives him an upset stomach but it didn't really concern me because he would puke once and that would be it.

Well on Monday, May 25th, I gave Ace his dose of Trifexis. Today, three days later, he pukes everytime. he eats. He has not kept down any food today. He had four separate bouts of puking. I know he's super hungry, so I fed him some plain rice and boiled chicken. That came up too and it's super yellow in color.

He's not lethargic, but he did sleep alot today. He has had energetic moments today. Right now he is bringing his ball to me because he wants to play fetch. He's running atound. He is drinking, but he cannot hold down any food. I was hoping he'd be able to hold down the chicken and rice.

The vet is closed so I have to wait until the am to talk to her. I am stressed and frustrated and feel bad for the little guy.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

A lot of dogs here have had bad reactions to Trifexis. If you do a search, you'll find the info. Obviously, this is not the right preventative for Ace and I would stop using it. There are many alternatives, ask your vet for something else. You may need separate products, one for HW and one for fleas & ticks. I use Heartgard and Frontline, and there are lots of other products available too.

I would definitely take him to the vet tomorrow and see if you can get something for the nausea. 

It's good that he's drinking, with all the vomiting he could become dehydrated. I hope he feels better soon. 

[Chris Ringle]

I would take your calendar with you that shows the pattern of Ace vomitting after the Trifexis. Some vets may have a hard time linking it happening several days out but the number of times it has happened should help. As Karen said, there are many other options for heart worms and flea control that he may tolerate better. If this is definitely the combination of medications you and your vet want him on, you could consider, instead of the Trifexis, getting separate prescriptions for the heartworm part and the flea part and giving them at different times of the month. My Aussiedoodle could tolerate them separated but not combined in the Trifexis. In all honesty, even though I got her to where she could take the medications, I switched her to Sentinel as soon as it came out again. There was just too much concern out there about the Trifexis and Comfortis (the flea control part of it) for me to be comfortable giving it.

[sandy b]

We use Revolution which is topical with no problems. Max has been on this for 7 years.

[SoSa]

We are so stressed out. So, positive news first, Ace went all day yesterday without throwing up and so far today, he's been able to keep everything he has eaten down. However...

... on Thursday in addition to the vomiting, he started liicking his paw. Thursday night we realized it was turning red. Yesterday, it was still red and by this morning it was super swollen. We have soaked it twice iin epsom salt, put a topical antibacterial on it, and covered it.

He is still pretty lethargic, definitely not himself at all. He is normally hyper this time of the day. Alls he does is sleep. Usually when we open the door, he runs to the door. He doesn't budge when the door opens. He doesn't really want to walk. He'll eat, but does not drink from his bowl. awe have to give him water from his Gulpy water bottle. His breath is awful. Puppy breath is never great, but it is unusually bad.

We're headed to the vet now for our appointment. I am so scared for this little guy.

[Chris Ringle]

So, so sorry you are going through this. With the swollen, red paw, I have to wonder if he might be reacting to a bite of some kind. Prayers that the vet has some answers for you and he gets better quickly. Please keep us posted.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Please let us know what the vet says.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good luck.

[Jenny and Cooper]

Hi Sosa, I just saw this post.  I'm so sorry about Ace.  I hope the Vet has good remedies for Ace.  I think you are at the Vet as I type this.  Hope all goes well.  Keep us posted!

[SoSa]

Thanks everyone. Back from the vet. Ace has a bad infection on his paw. He was given a Covenia injection (antibiotic) and a Rimadyl Chewable with is a pain med. He is also in a collar to keep him from getting to his paw.

The vet was hesitant to link what has been going on with Ace to Trifexis since Ace's symptoms present outside of a 24-48 hour window. But with these symptoms only occuring after a dose of Trifexis and never any other time, I cannot help but think the Trifexis is related to his vomiting, lethargy and red itchy skin, all things listed as Trifexis side effects.

He did say that the paw issue could be a spider bite which is definitely possible as we have spiders all over this time of the year. He also said that he has been seeing more and more dogs coming in having gastrointestinal issue with salmon based food. Then he said down the line, we may want to consider a basic chicken based food and of course recommended what they have, Science Diet or some other food called Royal Canin. He told us not to change anything now and to only give him his kibble and to withhold treats to rule out any food issues causing his vomiting. Ace has been on this food since he started eating solids and never had any issues, so I really do not think what hapoened this week is because of his food. I do plan to switch his food once we get through this, but to something recommended here on DK. He also told us what we all know about doodles with their retriever nature, being vacuum cleaners, eating anything they can get their mouths on. He said he's had countless retrievers come in with issues from ingesting sonething they should not have eaten.

The vet said we should begin to see improvement of his paw within 72 hours with the antibiotic injection and the pain meds. So now, we wait, in hopes that our Ace gets back to normal.

We did see a glimmer of hope when at the vet's office, he broke out of his lethargic state and started running, jumping and wagging his tail. He was so excited, he even piddled all over the place. We were actually happy to see him do that.

Right now he is resting by my side. He ate some dinner and took his pain pill. My entire family is just so worried. My husband has been shedding tears. He didn't want a dog, so that tells you how worried we are. I just cannot wait until he is all better.

For reference purposes, Ace's antibiotic injection was $122.00. The pain pills were $22.00 and the collar was $15.00.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I hope the meds work well and Ace's paw is better soon.

Regarding the Trifexis, even if the vet is "reluctant" to link the vomiting incidents to it, the bottom line is that there is absolutely no reason in the world to continue giving it if there is even a chance that it's the cause. There are many alternatives, as some of us have already mentioned. I can't help but think that your vet is pushing it because perhaps it has a larger profit margin than some of the other preventatives, or perhaps it is more difficult to get outside of a vet's office; I really don't know. But it doesn't make sense to me to continue using something that seems to cause illness in your dog within days of taking it. It the vomiting were due to "gastrointestinal issues" from the salmon in his food, he wouldn't only be vomiting once a month a few days after he gets the Trifexis, lol. He eats the food every day, all month. If the salmon didn;t agree with him, it wouldn;t agree with him all month, not just 5 days after taking Trifexis. Ditto for the "Retrievers eat anything they can get hold of". If that were the cause of the vomiting, it wouldn;t only happen 5 days after he gets Trifexis every month. And you'd see odd things in the vomitus. This is just common sense. I really think you need to advocate for Ace and firmly tell the vet that you are not comfortable with giving him Trifexis and would like something else. Tell the vet that it can be a test. If the vomiting happens again once you have discontinued the Trifexis, then you will know it wasn't the Trifexis causing it. You need to know once and for all, and that would seem to be the most sensible way to find out. 

(And LOL to the vet recommending a chicken based food; more dogs have sensitivities to chicken than to any other animal protein, mainly because it is so common in dog food.)

[SoSa]

Exactly!

We are so DONE with Trifexis. The vet actually did recommend switching to Revolution even though he said he didn't think there was a correlation, which makes me think that he knows there probably is a correlation.

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

I completely agree with Karen and good for you that you're done with Trifexis … at least until you have more time to observe Ace.  What is it with these vets?  I love my vet but he gave me a 24-36 hour window and FInn's reaction was 3 days later. They were willing to prescribe very serious drugs for epilepsy but not admit he had a reaction to the heart worm medication. I sure hope Ace is feeling better soon.