Pet Protect

When your dog vomits, it’s not necessarily a bad sign. Usually it’s just nature’s way of cleansing the body of an unwanted object or food that your dog may have ingested. So, don’t worry too much if your dog vomits once in a while. However, when your dog suffers from repeated vomiting, this may be an indication of a more serious illness. Especially if the throwing up is combined with other symptoms like diarrhea.

Types of dog vomiting

There are two distinctive types of vomiting:

Occasional dog vomiting

As mentioned before, this type of vomiting doesn’t indicate that there is a serious illness. Usually the dog’s stomach is just upset and it wants to cleanse the body from unwanted food or other materials. Other common and obvious reasons are overeating or eating too fast. So make sure to dose the food of your pup / dog well and maintain a fixed meal schedule. Try to avoid feeding your dog table scraps for example.

Even though this type of vomiting is usually no indication of an illness, do contact your local vet if you see that your beloved pet is suffering too much.

Repeated dog vomiting

It’s usually more alarming when your dog vomits repeatedly. In this case, we always recommend to visit your local veterinarian for advice. Frequent vomiting can dehydrate your dog’s body and can be life threatening if the issue remains unattended. So don’t take the risk and always put your dog’s health in the first place. Unlike for cats, it’s unnatural for dogs to vomit on a daily basis.

Repeated vomiting can have several causes:

• (Partial) blockage in the intestines is a first major cause of excessive throwing up. The blockage can be caused by eating an unnatural object that is too large to excrete and gets stuck in your pup’s intestines. As we all know, dogs eat about anything, so common objects that get stuck are stones, socks, tennis balls, golf balls, small toys, etc.
• Bacteria in the intestines caused by rotten or infected food. Usually this kind of vomiting can be controlled and stopped by the intake of antibiotics prescribed by your vet. Also good to know: when you know that your dog ate poisoned food, contact your vet immediately. Your vet can induce vomiting by giving your pet the right medicine.
• The worst case scenario is that your dog has a serious illness like cancer, kidney problems, a hernia and other organ failures.

Treatment of dog vomiting

The treatment of vomiting is highly dependent on the causes. Basic causes of vomiting, like eating spoiled food, can be treated by giving the right medicines or antibiotics. In more serious cases, your dog will be kept overnight on an IV drip to ensure that dehydration will not occur. In more mild cases of vomiting, your vet may recommend medicines like Tylenol or Pepto Bismol.

When your dog ate an unnatural object, your vet will try to locate it by making x-rays or ultrasounds. Depending on the size and location, some objects can be excreted naturally, in other cases surgery will be needed.