Are you a good dog owner who holds your dog’s ears back when he or she vomits? (Remind you of your college days?! 🤮) Not only from my clients but also from my family and friends, I receive a plethora of inquiries from worried doggie mommies and daddies about sudden vomiting. The Meowing Vet recently spoke with writer Anna Davies for Ollie dog food to answer her questions about canine vomiting. Read the full interview below to learn the common causes of acute dog vomiting, at-home treatments to try, and signs of when to take your puking dog to the vet.
check out Davies’ write-up for Ollie’s dog-themed blog here.
When is dog vomit “normal” and when does it warrant a vet visit?
For starters, dog owners should know how to distinguish vomiting from regurgitation as these two types of “barfing” have different causes. Regurgitating food or liquid occurs when ingested contents never reach the stomach and passively move back up from the esophagus. Regurgitation occurs with disorders of the esophagus, such as megaesophagus (as can occur with hypothyroidism) or esophageal tumor or stricture.
A dog may lick his nose or drool if he is nauseous.
In contrast, true vomiting involves active abdominal contractions and nausea (which your dog may display as repeatedly licking his or her lips or nose while salivating). Diseases of the stomach or small intestine most commonly cause vomiting, although issues with either the inner ear or certain regions of the brain can also promote your dog to vomit. Furthermore, eating or drinking food or water too rapidly and then bringing it back up may involve either regurgitation or vomiting.
When discussing the not-so-pleasant yet very common topic of dog vomit, pet owners should realize that there is really no such thing as “normal” vomiting. Vomiting always means that something’s just not quite right. Though some causes of canine vomiting are not particularly worrisome and may resolve without treatment (termed “self-limiting” acute vomit episodes), dog owners should know when vomiting becomes life-threatening and when to seek veterinary attention.
A plethora of so many things can trigger vomiting in dogs! Common self-limiting causes of vomiting include car sickness, dietary indiscretion (when your dog eats something he or she shouldn’t), mild gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining induced by a variety of triggers), and gastrointestinal parasites. Other more worrisome causes of canine vomiting that can escalate to a life-threatening emergency include…
- Pancreatitis
- Kidney or liver failure
- Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)
- Toxin or foreign body ingestion
- Gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV)
- Certain infectious diseases such as parvovirus, distemper, or leptospirosis
Protect your dog from toxin ingestion by reading The Meowing Vet’s articles on human foods toxic to pets, poisonous springtime household plants and mushrooms, toxic winter holiday plants, and the dangers of rat bait toxicity.
Puppies and geriatric dogs can become dehydrated much more quickly than other dogs, requiring a visit to your veterinarian.
As long as your dog is acting normally and seems to have a fairly normal appetite, he or she most likely has a self-limiting cause of vomiting. However, if your pooch has been vomiting chronically (meaning over a week), you should schedule an appointment with your veterinarian – even if your dog appears to be feeling well. You should also call your vet if your dog begins vomiting more frequently (more often than every 1-2 hours). Puppies (especially unvaccinated ones) and geriatric dogs should also visit a vet since these pets can more rapidly become dehydrated with significant electrolyte abnormalities in comparison to other vomiting dogs.
Moreover, some causes of acute (or sudden) vomiting can be life-threatening. You should always take your dog to the vet ASAP if you suspect your dog has swallowed a foreign body (such as a sock or ball), if your dog suddenly begins drinking a lot of water and/or urinating much more frequently, is lethargic, is acting “drunk”, has a very distended or bloated abdomen, has blood-tinged vomit, or begins producing copious amounts of diarrhea (especially if the stool is bloody or black, a common sign of GI ulcers or hemorrhagic gastroenteritis). If your dog has been diagnosed with other medical conditions such as Addison’s disease (hypoadrenocorticism), diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, or diseases of the liver, you should also contact your veterinarian without delay.
Is there any way you can help a sick pup feel better? Is there a canine version of the BRAT diet?
In order to settle the “tummy” of dogs with mild vomiting, pet owners should withhold all food for 12 hours. Take up the water bowl too, because we don’t want your dog to be guzzling down too much water and upsetting his or her GI tract further, which can result in even more vomiting. As long as your dog is no longer puking, you may provide a few laps of water or feed a couple of ice cubes every 1-2 hours.
After 12 hours has passed without your dog having further vomiting spells, you may begin to re-introduce some food. We want to choose a soft, bland diet that is gentle on the GI tract and easily digestible, similar to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) that pediatricians recommend for children with GI upset. Dog owners may boil chicken and rice (no oil, seasonings, or chicken skin) and start feeding small amounts every 4-6 hours initially. If your dog does not vomit, the amount of food can be gradually increased and the frequency of the feedings decreased; so long as your dog does not barf further, you may then resume his or her normal dog food. (Keep in mind, though, that some dog food brands or ingredients may not be right for your particular dog – for instance, if your pet has food allergies.)
If your dog continues to vomit despite these at-home treatments, especially if the frequency or amount of vomiting worsens or if your dog’s behavior declines further, you should take your canine companion to the vet.
Any other natural remedies? Any way you can massage a dog’s tummy to help pass gas or get their tummies to stop cramping? What else do you recommend to pup owners?
As a natural means of reducing nausea, some dog owners may give their dogs a small piece of ginger root or sprinkle a bit of ginger powder on food. Be forewarned that some dogs do not like the taste however.
I personally have advised clients to perform gentle abdominal massages on pets that have constipation, but I do not have concrete training or first-hand experience with massages during bouts of vomiting. As long as your dog does not resist, gently rubbing his or her abdomen when he or she has an “upset tummy” may provide some comfort. However, if your dog acts very painful or yelps when you gently touch the abdomen, take your dog to the vet for further examination as pancreatitis, gastric ulcers, intussusception, or obstructing foreign bodies can be particularly painful causes of vomiting.
My best advice for dog owners is three-fold:
Familiarize yourself with the signs of life-threatening vomiting to know when to seek veterinary attention for further diagnostics and treatment. There is nothing sadder than seeing a critical patient that could have been easily treated if a pet owner had not waited so long to take his or her pet to the vet.- Do not feed your pet table scraps! Trust me, I know how difficult it is to resist those sweet, pleading eyes of your doggie’s cute furry face! However, since the majority of acute vomiting cases are caused by dietary indiscretion, many upset “tummies” can be avoided by not feeding your dog human foods that may induce GI upset. Especially avoid feeding rich, oily, greasy foods such as fatty meats like ham or fried foods, which can induce pancreatitis, or extremely painful inflammation of the pancreas. Furthermore, some human foods can be toxic to pets, such as onions and garlic, grapes and raisins, and some sugar-free foods or gum containing xylitol.
- If you have a new puppy, please, please, please deworm regularly and vaccinate appropriately. Parvovirus is a very preventable cause of acute and life-threatening vomiting and immune system failure in puppies (as well as unvaccinated adult dogs), and many puppies do not survive infection with this virus even with appropriate treatment. Fortunately, the parvovirus vaccine is very effective at preventing this nasty disease, so protect your new pup responsibly.
Click on the image below to be directed to Anna Davies’ blog article for Ollie dog food, which features snippets of her interview with The Meowing Vet as displayed above.
Anna Davies is a freelance writer and former senior editor of Cosmopolitan.
Ollie is an all-natural dog food company that delivers customized human-grade ingredients for your dog.
The next time your dog is looking a little “green,” consider the discussed causes of canine vomiting and consider trying The Meowing Vet‘s at-home treatment recommendations if your dog is stable. Know the signs of when you should take your vomiting dog to your veterinarian, and if in doubt, always err on the side of caution and consult with your vet.
– Maranda Elswick, DVM
Visit our site later for an article on common causes of diarrhea in dogs and cats. 💩
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