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A dog that’s sick once and goes back to playing: every owner has seen it. A dog that’s sick again and again, flat and miserable, or retching with nothing coming up, is another story. The colour, the timing and how your dog seems tell you a lot.
Emergency, go to the vet now if your dog is retching without bringing anything up and the tummy looks swollen, if there is blood, if they may have eaten something toxic or a foreign object, if they are being sick with diarrhoea and seem very flat, or if it’s a young puppy, an elderly dog or a dog with a health condition. For anything they may have swallowed, the Animal PoisonLine is on 01202 509000 (24 hours, paid service).
Not the same thing, and your vet will ask. Vomiting is active: the dog drools, licks its lips, retches, the tummy heaves, then up it comes. Regurgitation is passive: food slides back up without effort, barely digested, sometimes in a sausage shape, often straight after eating. Coughing or breathing trouble goes more with regurgitation, which points to the oesophagus.
The yellow liquid is bile. Classic picture: a healthy dog brings up a little yellow liquid or froth early in the morning before breakfast, but never their food. After a long night without eating, gut contents flow back into the empty stomach and irritate it. Vets call it bilious vomiting syndrome.
What helps most: smaller, more frequent meals, including a small late-evening snack taken out of the daily ration, not added to it. Mention it to your vet, who will check there’s nothing else going on.
Saliva and air from an empty stomach. Once on its own, it’s rarely serious. But a large dog that keeps retching, brings up only a little froth or nothing at all, drools and has a swelling belly may have a twisted stomach (gastric dilatation-volvulus), an absolute emergency.
Wolfing the meal, a run straight after eating, a sudden change of food: the usual suspects. A slow-feeder bowl, splitting the meal in two and switching foods gradually over a week often sort it out. If it keeps happening, your vet will look for a digestive cause.
Plenty of dogs eat grass without being sick, and plenty are sick without eating grass. Now and then, in a dog that is otherwise well, it’s no cause for panic. If it becomes daily, it’s a digestive sign to show the vet.
If your dog has been sick once or twice, is still bright and has none of the warning signs above:
Rest the stomach by holding back food for a few hours, up to 24 hours at most for an adult. Never take water away: offer small amounts often, so they don’t gulp a bowlful and bring it straight back up.
Restart gently with a very small portion of something bland, such as well-cooked rice with skinless chicken breast, then build up over a day or two before going back to their usual food.
This doesn’t apply to puppies, tiny dogs, seniors or dogs with a condition (diabetes, kidney or heart disease): for them, phone the vet from the start. And if the sickness comes back, book an appointment. If cost is a worry, PDSA offers free and low-cost treatment to eligible owners.
A single episode in a dog that is eating, playing and toileting normally is usually not serious. Keep an eye on them for 24 hours and book the vet if it happens again.
Most often an empty stomach overnight. A small supper before bed usually helps, but let your vet rule out other causes.
Yes. Colour, contents, any blood or foreign object: a photo really helps the vet, especially if it doesn’t happen again in front of them.
Sources: MSD Veterinary Manual, Vomiting in Dogs, Merck Veterinary Manual, Gastric Dilation and Volvulus, Linder, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, bilious vomiting syndrome (2021), PDSA, Animal PoisonLine
