Sunday, October 30, 2011

So You Need to Make Your Dog Vomit ...

Daniel and I were home by ourselves for most of yesterday.  Our grandson was here, and he and The Husband left at mid-morning to go next door to Hartwood Winery to work their Harvest Festival.  (As would be expected of someone as talented and artistic as my husband, he mans the face painting table.)  I planned to take advantage of the day and see how many collars I could make for the booth at our upcoming Canine Cancer benefit.

I was upstairs in the sewing room, the men-folk hadn't been gone for more than ten minutes, and I heard strange noises coming from downstairs.  (While the guys had been waiting for time to go next door, they were playing a game of chess on a little magnetic travel chess board ... the kind that also includes magnetic checkers the size of dimes.)  Daniel, dear neurotic Daniel, was busily chewing and eating the checkers.



It's been a while since Daniel ate anything dangerous.  His former favorite foreign objects were socks, shoe strings, and junk mail.  Who would think that he would pick checkers off the coffee table and snack on them?  The checkers he ate had to come back up, and (fortunately for Daniel) I'm really good at first aid AND I'm not squeamish. 

If you are ever in a situation like this, where your dog has eaten something and you have to make him/her vomit, here's what to do ... these directions use normal household items and are for a dog the size of Daniel, who is a 70 lb. greyhound ... check with your veterinarian if you have a dog who is considerably larger or smaller than Daniel.

1.  Get the bottle of regular old hydrogen peroxide out of your medicine cabinet.
2.  Draw up about 2 ounces of peroxide in a turkey baster.
3.  Make dog swallow the peroxide.
4.  Let dog outside.
4.  Dog will inevitably rush to the closest patch of grass to try to soothe his/her now-icky feeling tummy.
5.  Within a few minutes, dog should vomit.
6.  If dog doesn't vomit, which usually is what happens with Daniel, you can administer another ounce of peroxide ... which usually does the trick.
7.  If dog STILL won't vomit, administer a turkey baster full of water and shake the dog to get its tummy feeling REALLY icky. (a vet tech gave me this trick while I was on the phone with her after Daniel had eaten a sock and wasn't vomiting after two doses of peroxide.)

If your dog has eaten something that is REALLY dangerous, don't take things into your own hands.  Call your veterinarian and get your dog there as soon as you can.  This is what we did last year when Daniel ate an unknown amount of Grandson's ADHD medication.  (After we counted the pills in the bottle and accounted for the ones scattered about, we determined that he didn't get a lethal dose ... but it was a sizable overdose and he required an overnight stay at the emergency vet.)

Sifting through the contents of Daniel's stomach after he vomited, I found at three red checkers and two black ones ... all chewed up and quite jagged on the edges.  It was a good thing that I heard what he was doing, and that I knew what to do fix the situation.

Now YOU know what to do, too.

15 comments:

  1. I am going to have to remember this...as Maggie is a golden retriever, and everything goes in her mouth!!! Thanks!!! Donna

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so glad that you knew what to do and that Daniel is OK.

    You'd think they would learn after a while not to eat strange things, LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, I hope I never need to know that but...thanks! Glad your boy is okay! xo Diana

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh my gosh. That's great advice should I ever need it. My dogs always eat icky smelly things, but fortunately nothing life threatening.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are the best doggie Mom! Glad you knew what to do and that Daniel is OK. hugs, Linda

    ReplyDelete
  6. I need to pass this on to my daughter, who has a dog that eats everything it can get hold of. Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete
  7. THANK YOU for this!! I printed it out and pasted on the inside of the cupboard where I keep all ER stuff to get to in a flash!
    And Daniel? Stick to grass!
    xo, misha

    ReplyDelete
  8. OH NO, poor Daniel. He and Misty are two of a kind. She hate about 8 inches of leash recently...ugh! We keep a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on hand at all times now, since Quinn had a propensity for eating things as a puppy!

    Give Daniel a hug for me and tell him that he can't win at checkers by eating them!

    Kat

    ReplyDelete
  9. Glad that all is well with Daniel! If you're ever in a crunch and don't have peroxide then ordinary table salt will also do the trick. It's a little harder to get it to the back of their mouth, but it's almost always available quickly.
    I'm catching up on posts.... the greenhouse is glorious!

    ReplyDelete
  10. A day in the life..... of mommy.

    I'm so glad 'everything came out ok'!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank-you for stopping by my blog -- in looking through yours it looks like I found a "kindred spirit" too! Thanks too for the tip on dog first aid: our golden has been known to eat some strange stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I had to do that once when Ellie got into a box of chocolates. Interestingly, I think she had already rejected the bad stuff because nothing like it came up after the hydrogen peroxide. I felt really bad for her retching to no avail. Thankfully, in her old age she only chews on biscuits and pizza crusts and rarely a stick of butter, but thanks for the reminder and the turkey baster tip. It's tough using a tablespoon on a dog.

    ReplyDelete
  13. GOod to know! and... I cannot imagine a dog wanting to eat ..CHECKERS.

    ReplyDelete
  14. For my beagle, Max, it's milk that does the trick every time :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. I realize this post is quite old,but you just saved our bacon! Thank you! Our dog just got a sizable chunk of very dark chocolate, and wouldn't throw up even after 2 doses of peroxide.(We have a good deal of experience with administering it, unfortunately). The baster of water immediately did the trick! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by and reading what I share. Comments are welcome and very much appreciated. Spam and trolls are not!

Related Posts with Thumbnails