Epimeletic (care-giving) vomiting in dogs: A study of the determinating factors

Abstract

Epimeletic vomiting fails to occur in a bitch when she is kept in en isolated box apart from her puppies and their nest-pen. However, vomiting is elicited immediately after the bitch is allowed to contact her puppies in the nest-pen. If the contact occurs in a new, unfamiliar place, vomiting is disrupted but reappears again after several contacts in the same place. When after feeding, a bitch is put into her own nest-pen where alien puppies are substituted for her own, their care-soliciting (et-epimeletic) behavior induces in her aggression or avoidance rather than vomiting. Vomiting is not disrupted when some of the exterior features of puppies have been changed. Epimeletic vomiting may occur some days prior to the proestrus of the bitch and, sometimes, even during proestrus and estrus periods. Under special environmental conditions epimeletic vomiting may occur even in male dogs. The appropriate care-soliciting behavior of properly reared, not satiated puppies, and their own nest-pen are the main factors which elicit epimeletic vomiting in dogs.