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Sick Dog Symptoms Or Not

Dog vomit with ease, seemingly at will, and often without apparent cause. One thing that almost never causes a dog to vomit is eating too fast. Bolting food is the natural way for a dog.

If your dog is eating too much, however, is another matter. The capacity of a pup's stomach to hold food is phenomenal. Life Magazine once ran a story about a five-pound puppy that ate a five-pound ham, all but the bone! Examples, of course, are the ultra-extreme. Adult dogs, on the other hand, can hold only about one and one-half ounces of liquid for each pound the dog weighs. Many dogs may even hold as much as two ounces per pound of body weight, but any quantities above this almost always will induce vomiting.

Vomiting, like diarrhea, is often seen in puppies. Dogs at this age have the exasperating habit of eating such things as dirt, stones, sand, bedding, toys, foil, paper, socks, almost anything else they can get into their mouths. Vomiting can also come in adults from eating bones, sour food, garbage, carrion or feces. In these cases, vomiting is a sign of gastritis, which is an inflammation of the stomach. Gastritis is rapidly produced by such things as garbage, carrion or caustic chemicals. Older dogs eventually learn that the foreign materials will make them sick, and stop eating them. There are some dogs never seem to realize that garbage, buried bones or sour food may do the same thing - and neither do many owners!

A serious consequences of vomiting is that, once begun, vomiting can persist, even though the cause no longer exists. The usual course in such cases, if uncorrected, follows a characteristic pattern. A dog has a more or less violent seizure of vomiting that ordinarily eliminates the causative substance or object. The vomiting continues, but in a somewhat less violent nature, giving the appearance that the dog is improving.

The loss of fluids and electrolytes will causes an imbalance and a noticeable thirst develops. Mild depression develops as well as anorexia, and the vomiting begins to become more severe. Thirst is exaggerated, loss of fluids and electrolytes is accelerated and depression becomes marked. The vomiting becomes more and more violent and the continued loss of fluids and electrolytes creates a critical imbalance. If the situation is allowed to continue uninterrupted, the dog eventually dies from electrolyte imbalance and dehydration.

How to stop  your dog's vomiting problem, liquid foods should be fed first. Things like beef and chicken broth not only supply a few calories, but are excellent for establishing many of the electrolyte balances that have been disturbed by vomiting. After 48 hours it is usually possible to finely chop a little hard-boiled egg into the broth. If this does not cause a return of the vomiting, then a little cottage cheese, some vanilla ice cream or a little toast and milk can be offered. Resumption of the regular diet can commence as soon as the bland foods are tolerated for at least 24 hours.