Dog Food Poisoning Symptoms

Symptoms for dog food poisoning are similar to human food poisoning, such as vomiting, diarrhea, lack of appetite, and generally feeling unwell. If your dog is suffering from this they will not be toileting much more than usual and feces will be in large amounts unlike other lower digestive system illnesses.

What Causes Dog Food Poisoning?

The cause of food poisoning is as you might expect brought on by eating or swallowing something that the body cannot cope with or find unfamiliar. This can include something your dog has found and eaten around the house, garden, on a walk, or in the garbage where the illness gets its nickname 'garbage disease'.

When this happens the body will try to reject the unwanted substance by flushing it out of their systems either via dog vomit or dog diarrhea much the same way as humans and other animals cope with unwanted or damaging substances in the digestive system.

A change of diet or dog food may bring this illness on because your dogs' body is not used to the new type of food it's getting, this does not mean that the food you are using is unsuitable for your dog, but does mean that you will have to introduce the food more slowly.

What Your Vet May Say or Do

To cure dog food poisoning is to enable the dog to get rid of any offending foods or substances in the digestive system easily. To do this you will need to stop feeding your dog for 24 hours and give them only water. If you carry on feeding your dog your dogs' body will never be able to get rid of all the food in its system, thus making the digestive system think there is more bad foods to get rid of resulting in continuous vomiting and diarrhea.

To begin your dogs' detoxification and clearing of the system you should feed your dog on only water for 24 hours as stated previously to be sure that all offending foods have passed through the body. After this time you should begin to feed your dog little and often with bland foods such as boiled rice, pasta, boiled chicken, turkey or white fish, this ensures that the stomach is eased in gently and doesn't reject the food because of its strong taste.

After feeding your dog on a bland diet and after your dog has produced at least two normal stools you can gradually start introducing them back to their normal foods. To do this begin mixing the bland food with some stronger tasting normal food and slowly increasing the amount of normal food you put in until your dog is eating full portions of their normal every day food.

This process should take no longer than 48 hours after the initial 24 hours. If the vomiting and/or diarrhea does continue or become worse over this period then a vet should be contacted for further advice. The vet will then look at other symptoms such as obstructions, infections, or inflammation caused again by dog food poisoning.



Other Possible Conditions

Dog Gastric Bloat
Dog Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Dog Intussusception
Dog Pancreatitis
Dog with Obstruction in the Digestive System
Dog Parvovirus Infection
Dog Pyometra (uterine/womb infections)