My Dog Is Vomiting
Most vomiting in dogs settles on its own. The pattern that does not, and the one presentation that is a surgical emergency.
Is this an emergency?
If the vomiting repeats, if there is blood, or if your dog is retching without bringing anything up while its abdomen looks swollen, call immediately. That last combination can be gastric torsion.
Dogs vomit more readily than most animals, and a single episode in a dog that is otherwise bright often means nothing more than that it ate something it should not have. What matters is the pattern.
The emergency to know about first
A deep chested dog, a swollen tight abdomen, restlessness, and repeated retching that brings nothing up. This is gastric dilatation and volvulus, where the stomach fills with gas and twists. It is rapidly fatal and it is measured in hours, not days.
Large deep chested breeds are most at risk: German Shepherds, Great Danes, Setters, Standard Poodles, Dobermanns and Boxers among them.
If this is what you are seeing, call and come immediately. Do not wait to see whether it settles.
Vomiting or regurgitation
Vomiting is active: the dog braces, the abdomen contracts, there is often drooling and lip licking beforehand, and what comes up is partly digested or bile stained.
Regurgitation is passive: food comes back with no effort, often soon after eating and in a tube shape.
Tell us which you are seeing.
Common causes
Dietary indiscretion, meaning the dog ate something it should not have, is the most common by a wide margin. Beyond that: a sudden change of food, intestinal worms, viral infection including parvovirus in unvaccinated dogs, pancreatitis, foreign bodies, kidney and liver disease, and poisoning.
Bile vomiting early in the morning on an empty stomach is common and usually responds simply to feeding a small meal last thing at night.
What you can do at home
For a bright, well hydrated adult dog that has vomited once or twice:
- Withhold food for six to twelve hours, but leave water available
- Then offer small amounts of a bland, low fat food
- Build back up to the normal diet over two or three days
Do not fast a puppy, a small breed or a diabetic dog. Do not give human anti-sickness medication or painkillers; ibuprofen and paracetamol cause serious harm in dogs.
When to come in
Vomiting that repeats over more than a day. Blood, or material resembling coffee grounds. Retching with nothing produced, especially with a swollen abdomen. A dog that will not drink or cannot keep water down. Lethargy, pale gums, or a painful abdomen. Known or suspected ingestion of a foreign object or a toxin. Diarrhoea alongside the vomiting. Or a puppy or an unvaccinated dog, where parvovirus needs excluding urgently.
Puppies dehydrate very quickly. Leave much less time before calling.