Like most people, at some point in a dog’s life, it will experience vomiting. This is not in and of itself a bad thing, as vomiting is usually the body’s way of getting rid of toxins. While no one wants to vomit or watch their dog vomit, this is a reality for most pet owners. Vomiting is often a sign of something very minor, but it can also be a sign of something more serious. You need to know when to take action and what to do for your dog when he or she is vomiting.

Symptoms

Of course, when vomiting the symptom that you are worried about and looking for is vomiting. Yet, with vomiting there are other symptoms that you will want to watch for. If your dog vomits just once chances are he or she just ate too much, ate too fast, or something didn’t settle right. If your dog vomits several times you will want to watch for dehydration, lethargy, diarrhea, weight loss, blood in the vomit, or ineffective vomiting. These are things that will actually spell trouble for your dog if they are not followed up on.

Prevention

You can help to prevent vomiting in your dog. The idea is t limit your dogs access to things such as trash, bones, food, foreign materials, and toxins. You can do this by ensuring that you have a pet proofed home and yard and by always walking your dog on a leash. When you control their environment you can better control your dog’s intake, which usually will limit vomiting except when there is a health condition. Overall these prevention steps put you in better touch with your dog’s health.

Treatment

To treat vomiting you will need to identify the problem. Most of the time you just need to do away with the cause of the vomiting such as trash, new food, or toxins. If the dog has become dehydrated you can treat at home with plenty of water and rest, or if it is a more severe case the veterinarian may treat the dog with IV fluids to restore their electrolyte balance. If there is concern about poisoning the dog may be kept in the hospital so that tests can be run and the dog can be observed for the effects of poisoning. The cause of the vomiting will usually determine the treatment, but generally it is removing the cause of the vomiting, followed by restoring fluids, and slowly reintroducing food.