Greenbriar Animal Hospital

1. Is your dog vomiting liquids as well as food (drinking and then vomiting it back up)?
2. Is this a puppy under 4 months of age, or an adult weighing less than 10 pounds?
3. Is your dog acting ill, not drinking well, or not wanting to eat anything?
4. Has your dog had repeated watery stools or vomiting (more than 3 times today)?
5. Is there red blood or black, tarry stuff in the vomit or diarrhea? 

If you answered YES to any of the above questions, your dog should be seen by a veterinarian ASAP. If all answers were NO, call your veterinarian at your first opportunity and follow their recommendations. These symptoms can mean serious, contagious, and even life-threatening problems so don’t wait!

Major tips for dogs with vomiting and/or diarrhea 

Give their digestive system a rest by not feeding anything for 24 hours (6 hours for pups <4 months).

Most dogs with vomiting and/or diarrhea benefit from an exam, prescription medication, and in some cases, additional fluids to help replace those lost via liquid stools and/or vomiting.

Encourage drinking, especially the first 24 hours, but only offer ¼ to ½ cup of water at a time (or put 2-6 ice cubes in a bowl; your dog will crunch them up or drink the water as they melt).

If your dog is not improving within 2-3 days, gets worse over the next 24 hours, or gets back to normal but the problem recurs after he/she is back on regular food, call your veterinarian for an appointment. Bring a stool sample with you – use a plastic spoon and scoop some up, then put spoon and stool in a ziplock bag.

If your dog has repeated bouts of vomiting and/or diarrhea every few weeks or months, please call your veterinarian for an appointment. An exam, testing, food changes and/or medications may be needed.

See our “Bland Diet Recipe for Dogs” for how to feed your dog during bouts of vomiting and/or diarrhea.

Miscellaneous helpful things to know about 

Dogs (especially most puppies) vomit and/or have diarrhea easily. They tend to eat things they shouldn’t like mulch, rabbit poop, tissue paper, and garbage and these are not dog-friendly food items. Dogs can and will eat poisonous items like human medications, chocolate, toxic plants, and more. Ibuprofen and Aleve are poisonous to dogs (aspirin and Tylenol can cause major side-effects, too). Some dogs have sensitive systems and need a permanently restricted diet. Treats that are high in fat can cause digestive upset (these include treats that mimic human high-fat foods), so stick to crunchy biscuits or dental-type chews as much as possible. Table scraps that are high in fat (meat scraps, chicken skins, gravy or pan drippings, butter) can cause life-threatening pancreatitis in dogs. If your dog gobbles his/her food and then sometimes vomits it right back up, you need to slow the eating process down. Add cool tap water to the food, mix wet food in to the dry, spread the food out on a cookie sheet, try a special bowl with pillars so the dog has to work harder to get at the food, or get a large smooth rounded rock and put it in your dog’s food bowl – he’ll have to move the rock around to get at the food!