What to do if your dog is vomiting

What the appearance of the vomit tells you

• White or yellowish foam, usually gastritis or an empty stomach. Common in dogs fed once a day.
• Undigested food, eaten too fast, a sudden change of diet, food intolerance.
• Yellow-green bile on an empty stomach, in the morning, bilious vomiting syndrome. The fix is often simply a second, later meal.
• Grass, bone fragments, plastic, string, a foreign body or simple scavenging. A small soft object passes; something sharp or linear (string, elastic) is dangerous.
• Reddish or dark brown, like coffee grounds, digested blood. Emergency.
• Visible worms, parasitism, needs deworming and a check-up.

Vomiting or regurgitation? Not the same thing

Regurgitation is passive: food comes up without effort, undigested, right after a meal, and the dog may eat it again. Vomiting is active: the abdomen contracts, there is nausea and salivation, and the dog settles afterwards. Repeated regurgitation raises the suspicion of megaesophagus or an oesophageal obstruction.

What to do at home, step by step

1. Fast for 6–12 hours. Only for a healthy adult with a single episode. Not for puppies, elderly dogs or diabetics, in these, hypoglycaemia develops quickly.
2. Water freely available, in small and frequent amounts. A full bowl drunk at once can trigger another episode.
3. Reintroduce food gradually after 6–12 hours: small portions of bland food (plain boiled, deboned chicken with white rice) every 3–4 hours for 24 hours.
4. Return to the normal diet over 2–3 days, mixing gradually.
5. Keep a record of the number of episodes, the time, the appearance and the behaviour between them. This helps the vet a great deal.

When to go to the vet immediately

• vomiting every 20–30 minutes, impossible to stop;
• a distended, hard, painful abdomen;
• repeated unproductive retching;
• blood in the vomit, or black tarry stools;
• lethargy, a dog that will not get up;
• suspected poisoning, chocolate, xylitol, toxic plants, human medication;
• suspected foreign body: string, elastic, a chicken bone;
• vomiting with bloody diarrhoea;
• vomiting in a puppy under four months, high risk of dehydration and parvovirus.

Reducing the risk

• feed twice a day, at fixed times, not one large meal;
• use a slow-feeder bowl for dogs that bolt their food;
• no intense exercise 60–90 minutes before or after meals, in predisposed breeds;
• transition between foods over seven days, never abruptly;
• keep chocolate, xylitol, human medication and toxic plants out of reach.