Did you know that dry dog foods can quickly go rancid if stored in a warm or sunny place and make a dog sick? A dog's dry food should be stored in a cool, dry place. If you have a smaller dog, buy a smaller bag of dry dog food. That way, the oils in the food won't go bad before you get to the bottom of the bag. Store your dog's food in an airtight container.
Dogs may vomit for a variety of relatively benign reasons: to expel something they shouldn't have eaten, but sometimes vomiting can be a sign of a serious condition of anything from head trauma or toxin exposure to pancreatic cancer or gastrointestinal obstruction.
First of all, it is important to distinguish between vomiting and regurgitation. The latter happens with undigested food coming up out of the esophagus with no abdominal effort. Usually, regurgitation is a sign of esophageal disorders. Regurgitation must be differentiated from vomiting because the causes and treatments for the two conditions are different.
Vomiting is usually preceded by signs of nausea such as drooling, licking lips, and swallowing excessively. Some dogs may eat grass, possibly to protect the esophagus when the dog vomits, because the grass can wrap around and cover sharp objects like bone shards. Vomiting is an active process. It involves obvious contractions of the abdominal wall, also known as heaving.
Dogs often have a well-deserved reputation for a willingness to eat almost anything. When a dog throws up, it is the body’s way of correcting a mistake. Most owners have witnessed their dogs eating something unsavory, only to see it come back up a few minutes later. Other relatively benign causes of dog vomiting are motion sickness and bilious vomiting syndrome.
Of course, vomiting is also a symptom of many potentially serious diseases such as gastroenteritis, intestinal obstruction caused by foreign material, tumors, displacement, inflammatory bowel disease, parasites, exposure to toxins, some types of cancer, liver disease, kidney disease, infections and a dozen other problems.
There are times when a vomiting dog requires immediate treatment. If your dog exhibits frequent vomiting, projectile vomiting, lethargy and depression, severe diarrhea, decreased urination, abdominal pain and/or enlargement, repeated attempts at vomiting but nothing is produced, the presence of red blood or material that looks like coffee grounds in the vomit or the vomit is bright green, a vet should be contacted immediately.
On the other hand, if your dog has only vomited once or twice and seems to feel pretty good, the following home treatment is a reasonable option:
1.Take away all sources of food and water for six to eight hours.
2.If the dog does not vomit during that time, offer a small amount of water. If your dog can hold that down, gradually reintroduce larger amounts of water.
3.If after 12 hours of being allowed to drink, your dog is still not vomiting, offer a small meal of boiled white meat chicken (no bones and no skin) mixed with white rice. If your dog can eat this without vomiting, increase the size and decrease the frequency of his meals over a day or two and then start mixing in his regular food. This whole process should take around three days.
If at any point your dog starts to vomit again, see the veterinarian. The vet will more than likely be able to diagnose the dog's condition by asking questions, performing a physical examination, and running X-rays, bloodwork, fecal analysis, urinalysis, ultrasound imaging, biopsies, and other, specialized diagnostic tests. If you can bring a sample of the dog’s puke and stool with you, it may also help in the diagnostic process.
Don’t change your dog’s diet suddenly. Always use a gradual approach because sudden dietary changes are a common cause of intestinal upset in dogs. Don’t give your dog toys that can be swallowed or chewed into pieces. Don’t give your dog bones, but if you do give it bones, large, uncooked varieties (such as femurs or knuckles) are less likely to break into sharp shards. Avoid table scraps because some human foods are downright dangerous for dogs (e.g., grapes, raisins, chocolate, xylitol (a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener), onions, garlic, chives, macadamia nuts, and high fat items) but dogs with sensitive stomachs may not even be able to eat safe foods without vomiting. Don’t let your dog scavenge in garbage. It often results in gastroenteritis and increases the risk of foreign-body ingestion and toxin exposure.
The five most dangerous foods for a dog are:
Chocolate: the amount of chocolate a dog consumes will also determine the toxicity, symptoms of chocolate poisoning to look out for can include vomiting, diarrhea and seizures; the darker the chocolate is, the more serious the poisoning can be.
Xylitol: this is an artificial sweetener found in sugarless gum, candy, and baked goods and it can cause liver damage and a life-threatening drop in blood sugar in dogs. A 10-pound dog would only need to eat a single piece of sugar-free gum to reach a potentially toxic dose. Low blood sugar can develop within 10 to 15 minutes of ingestion, in addition to vomiting and loss of coordination.
Grapes and raisins: they can cause kidney failure. Vomiting, increased urination and increased thirst are symptoms of poisoning.
Onions and Garlic: eaten in large amounts they can cause the destruction of red blood cells and lead to anemia in dogs.
Alcoholic beverages: alcohol can be found in desserts and even created in a dog’s stomach if they ingest homemade or store bought yeast dough used in making bread, rolls and pizza. Even small amount of alcohol, both ingested through alcoholic beverages and produced in the stomach, can be life threatening.
All About Dog Vomit
Coprophagia
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