My doglet is sick. (Six months old, 15 lbs., J.R. Terrier mixed with something that wasn’t J.R. Terrier.) He’s vomited at least three times today, will occasionally get up and play a little (on his own) but is nothing like his usual Tasmanian devil hyper little self & mainly wants to sleep. He will eat just a little. I can’t find a vet who will see him until the day after tomorrow unless there’s an emergency and this doesn’t seem to qualify.
Any suggestions what I can do for him? Is there any type of doggie stomach medicine on the market? Anything you would advise giving him to eat? Any advice appreciated.
I should add: Ollie is terrible about picking up anything he can get his mouth on and chewing/eating it (especially sticks and paper, though he did a real number on my eyeglasses last week [didn’t swallow, just destroyed]). Last night when I was walking him he kept trying to pick up a piece of charcoal on a neighbor’s patio; I have read or seen on TV or somehow heard that when animals try to eat charcoal it may mean they have an upset stomach, though with Ollie I just assumed he was thinking “ooh, I think that’ll fit in my mouth” like he does with most things.
Knowing that your dog loves to eat anything and everything, it’s probably a sure bet he’s ingested something that’s causing problems. Has he been having normal bowel movements? If not, in addition to the vomiting, that’s a SERIOUS problem as it could be intenstinal blockage. You need to bring him to a vet as soon as possible.
When my dog gets the barfs, it’s usually because she ate something disgusting – garbage, a half a bag of cat food, a whole tray of baklava, kiddoeaddi’s Easter basket. Her predecessor swallowed a nerf football and barfed for weeks before anyone could figure out what was wrong. The vet swore the thing was whole, too, after he removed it surgically, but I digress.
The advice I usually get from my vet is to give her stomach a rest for a day and then feed boiled ground beef and rice until she improves.
If she is listless though, I’d probably find someone to take a look at her.
When my dog had a stomachache and wasn’t eating and was listless (keep in mind that he did have regular bowel movements and therefore had no blockages) the vet told me on the phone to feed him a dose of children’s Kaopectate (sp?) to fix his stomach and to try to hydrate him with Pedialyte.
You try getting a dog to take stomach medicine. I finally got him to take a spoonful heavily laced with cheese, which was enough to turn my stomach. He wouldn’t go near the Pedialyte, but either because of the medicine or time passing he got better that day.
Just wanted to make sure your dog is vaccinated. Vomiting and diarhea are some of the symptoms of parvo, a virus that showed up in the late 70’s and can live in infected dog poop for months, if not years. If your dog has injested infected dog feces, that could be another possibility, but if your dog has had all his booster shots that makes it much less of one.
I also have a puppy (9 weeks old), and you have my sympathy. My bet is that your pup just ate something he shouldn’t have and will work out of it. Still good to see a vet just to make sure. But you know puppies… anything that they can get in there mouth is grounds to eat and swallow.
He has been prior to today. To my knowledge (unless he’s gone somewhere in the house that I haven’t) he hasn’t gone today, but then he’s pretty much empty.
Although the suggestions other people have made worked in their situation, I would highly recommend you don’t try anything without taking him to a vet first. Especially the suggestions about giving him human medicine. If he’s been having normal BMs then the risk of intestinal blockage is not as high. Just make an appointment with a vet as soon as possible.
I think a major clue to his ailment has just “come up”; it stopped my heart for a second but then there was major relief. The little one just horked again and when I came over to clean it up I had a shock at “Good lord, look at the size of those worms! This baby is being eaten alive!”, but when I got closer I found (to my inestimable relief) that it was string- lots of it.
He has a toy he absolutely love- a monkey (or bear or something- hard to tell) with a stuffed body (squeaky inside) and yarn-rope legs. He’s torn it to shreds. While it is a dog toy, he’s obviously ingested a lot of it, so as much as he likes it I think I’ll stick strictly to rawhide strips in the future. I’m a lot more certain that there’s nothing seriously wrong now, but I’m pretty sure other dog-folk already know that sick pups are second only to sick babies in terms of nerve racking.
Thanks for advice. Now, can anybody recommend some toys their dogs love that aren’t made of string?
Uh, the above should read “unless he’s gone somewhere in the house that I haven’t FOUND”… just wanted to dispel any notions I may have given of my own hygiene habits.
It’s good that he coughed that up but you still need to bring him to the vet. Any string left in him might travel down his intenstinal tract and chance getting it wrapped around it and causing SERIOUS damage. As for toys, go for the hard plastic dog toys
