My puppy has a beef allergy and eats paint chips. What should I do?

While modern paints do not contain lead, chewing wood can still cause intestinal injury and even result in foreign bodies. Signs of this would include lethargy, vomiting, loss of appetite, and/or diarrhea. You should do your best to reprimand Louie if you see him chewing the wall or furniture, and can even try some Bitter Apple spray to deter the chewing. I hope this helps and that all is well!

Poor Pepper! If she has a food allergy/intolerance issue, then she needs to be on a strict veterinary prescription food allergy diet like Hills Z/D or Royal Canin Anallergenic. These diets are called "hydrolyzed protein" diets because they have gone through a special cooking process that breaks down potential allergens in the diet so Pepper's immune system doesn't recognize them as a problem. She needs to eat one of these diets exclusively for 8-10 weeks to see if there is a benefit. Hope that helps!

If Sammy has been vomiting that frequently, we need to consider other causes in addition to allergies including parasites, gastrointestinal foreign body or intussusception, liver disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Since he is a puppy, a fecal exam, deworming and abdominal x-rays are strongly advised. Please follow up with your veterinarian to discuss these tests. As far as diets are concerned, a novel protein (rabbit, duck, venison, kangaroo) or hydrolyzed diet is recommended.

She will likely be unaffected, particularly if she chewed the wood into small pieces first. If she swallowed a large piece there would be potential for stomach upset or gastrointestinal obstruction. I would monitor her and call your vet if she vomits, develops diarrhea or has a decrease in appetite.

Most likely if he was chewing on the cartridge, he would have punctured it and have evidence of ink in his mouth. Its possible, though seems very unlikely, that he could have swallowed it whole. If he isn't showing any symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, drooling, etc, then you don't need to take him to a vet tonight, but you can take him in tomorrow for an xray to see if it looks like there may be pieces of the cartridge present. While you are there, your vet can examine his skin and discuss any concerns for allergies, etc. Thank you for asking Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

It can take up to a couple of days to see problems from a foreign body if one was going to occur, but given that Snowball ate a very small paint chip, I doubt that will happen. I'd also expect to see some GI upset by now. It's great that she is eating, drinking, and behaving normally, and I wouldn't be too worried about her. In all likelihood, she will be just fine. I hope this helps!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This is possibly due to allergies. It really comes down to figuring out what is causing his allergies so that they can be treated or the specific allergen avoided. A secondary infection is likely and also needs to be addressed. This should not be causing him to not eat well as you describe so I am suspicious that there is something else going on like a gastrointestinal condition which may be affecting his appetite. Your veterinarian would be able to check on this. There are many things that can cause allergies though in most cases they can be broken down into 3 big categories: flea, food and environmental allergies. Allergies are usually worked up in a stepwise fashion starting with flea allergies as this is the easiest and cheapest to take care of. If not on a flea preventative, then it would be a good idea to get started on one. If already on one then it would be a good idea to change to something else (there are many new products out in the market). If not improved in 1-3 months then it is time to move on and check for food allergies by switching to a novel diet (new protein and new carbohydrate). If that does not seem to be the issue then you are left out having to check for environmental allergies which require blood and/or skin tests. Allergies can be very frustrating to deal with at first but so rewarding at the end when we are able to treat them effectively!