what should i feed my dog after vomiting yellow bile

Dog vomiting bile: A diet plan for getting your dog back to normal

Do you often find your dog throwing up bile? While this can be a very scary situation, there are many things you can do to reduce these bouts of sickness. Most importantly, you can make a number of changes to your dogs diet to keep their stomach and digestive system in tip-top shape.

Heres an overview on chronic bilious vomiting and how you should manage your suffering dogs diet.

What is bile?

Bile, a fluid that helps the digestion process, is produced in the liver, stored in the gallbladder and released into the bile duct, says Dr. Barry Kellogg, a senior veterinary advisor for the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (HSVMA). Bile breaks up the fats that your dog eats, which makes it easier for them to digest fatty foods.

What is bilious vomiting?

Your dog will only experience bilious vomiting if they have an empty stomach. When it has been a while since they have eaten, or if fatty foods are fed, bile leaks back into the stomach and may cause some irritation and vomiting, says Kellogg. In this scenario, your dog will vomit fluid, mucus and bile, instead of food.

When it has been a while since they have eaten, or if fatty foods are fed, bile leaks back into the stomach and may cause some irritation and vomiting.

Dr. Barry Kellog, senior veterinary advisor

The vomit usually looks foamy and is yellow, light green or dark green, says Dr. Denise Petryk, technical services veterinarian at Dechra.

If you find your dog throwing up bile, should you take them to the vet?

You dont necessarily need to bring your dog to the vet if they are not experiencing any other alarming symptoms. It depends on the situation, says Petryk. If the vomiting occurs twice weekly or daily, go to the veterinarian.

Should you change your dogs diet?

If your dog is vomiting bile on a regular basis, you may need to change their diet. According to Kellogg, you should avoid fatty foods. For instance, you should never feed your pet the fat trimmings from the meat you eat for dinner. A fatty diet might serve as the root cause for your dogs chronic vomiting or may worsen the problem at hand.

What feeding times are best when your dog suffers from bilious vomiting?

One of the most important ways to lower the frequency of your dogs bilious vomiting is to put a particular type of feeding schedule in to place. Increasing the frequency of feedings may help, says Kellogg, as this will allow you to ensure that your dog doesnt have an empty stomach.

However, its important to make sure that you still give your pet the same amount of food overall because you dont want to overfeed them. If you are going to be gone during the day, consider hiring a pet sitter to come to your house and feed your dog small meals one or two times an afternoon.

If your dog is suffering from bilious vomiting, you should try to provide them with their normal dog food just before they go to bed. Then, you should feed them again right after you get up in the morning. This is especially important if you notice that the vomiting episodes typically happen first thing in the morning. Because your dog doesnt eat anything during the night, they will tend to wake up with an empty stomach, unless you change their feeding schedule.

What are the best types of food to feed your dog?

One of the most important ways to help your dog feel their healthiest is to provide them with a nutritious diet. At least 75% of an animals intake should be balanced and complete food as certified by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), says Kellogg. You also want to make sure that you provide your pet with food that has all the required substances, including vitamins and minerals.

As always, before you purchase any dog food, you should read the label on the bag or container to see what types of ingredients are included. These ingredients are always listed from most to least prominent.

Kellogg prefers dry foods as a mainstay because theyre economical and more likely to be balanced and complete. Canned food, however, contains more liquid, which could help your vomiting dog stay hydrated. As such, Kellogg says that canned food can make up 25% of your dogs diet. You could even try to freeze some canned food and offer it as a treat! This forces your dog to eat slower, which could also help to prevent them from having an empty stomach.

As far as human food goes, a small bedtime snack of something low-fat, like carrots or cucumbers, can help prevent bilious vomiting, says Petryk. If you want to feed your pet a bland diet, Petryk recommends that you try to incorporate cooked rice, boiled chicken, low-fat cottage cheese, tofu, canned tuna and boiled hamburger into their meal plan.

What to Feed Dogs After Theyve Vomited

Dogs vomit for many reasons. Some are life-threatening, others are just a mild annoyance, and a whole bunch of causes fall somewhere in between. But once your dog is on the road to recovery, youll wonder what to feed them so they dont start vomiting again.

In this article, well look at what and how to feed dogs at home after theyve vomitedand even more importantly, when you should head to the veterinarians office instead.

Should You Feed a Dog After They Vomit?

The short answer? No, whether its an emergency situation or not.

Emergency Cases of Vomiting in Dogs

Your dog may need to be seen by a vet right away, and trying home treatments first or giving your dog some food could be dangerous. If any of the following apply to your dog, call your veterinarian or a veterinary emergency hospital immediately for advice:

• Your dog is very young or old, or has a health problem that could make them especially vulnerable todehydration, inadequate nutrition, and other effects of vomiting

• Your dog has vomited at least three times within 24 hours

• Your dog is trying to vomit but nothing is coming up

• There is blood in your dogs vomit

• Your dog seems weak, disoriented, or in pain

• Your dog has severediarrheaor other worrisome symptoms in addition to vomiting

Mild Cases of Vomiting in Dogs

On the other hand, if your otherwise healthy adult dog has just vomited once or twice and seems to feel pretty good, its possible they just ate something unusual or have a mild case of gastroenteritis and will feel better soon.

In this case, you dont need to rush to the vet, but the first step in treating mild vomiting in a healthy adult dog is to stop feeding them. Putting food into an upset tummy is irritating and makes it more likely that vomiting will continue.

Take your dogs food away for 1224 hours, and dont give them any treats or table scraps. Leave water out for your dog to drink, but if they tend to tank up, keep the water level low to encourage them to drink small amounts frequently.

However, there are some dogs that should never go without food. Young puppies can becomehypoglycemicif they dont eat frequently enough.

Dogs that are on insulin fordiabetesor have tumors in their pancreas (insulinomas) are also at high risk for hypoglycemia if they dont eat regularly. Call your veterinarian for advice before withholding food for any dog that isnt healthy and at least 1 year old.

What to Feed Your Dog After Fasting

After the fasting period (if appropriate), you can use food as treatment if your dogs vomiting is acute and mild. Acute vomiting starts suddenly and doesnt last for more than a few daysfood poisoning or stomach bugs like norovirus are common examples of acute vomiting in people.

Mild vomiting doesnt significantly affect a dogs overall well-being or occur more than two or three times in 24 hours. If you didnt know your dog vomited, you might not think anything was wrong.

So your dog has acute and mild vomiting, and youve withheld food for 12 to 24 hours. Now what? Start reintroducing food gradually. Think of how you might start eating after youve been vomiting: You wouldnt immediately order yourself a pizza; youd probably start with toast or a few crackers and see how it goes. You want to do something similar for your dog.

Start by offering your dog a small amount of bland food thats easy to digest. Your options are:

Homemade Food

Mix the following:

• Boiled, white-meat chicken (no skin or bones) or lean hamburger meat

• Cooked white riceor boiled and mashed potatoes

While these recipes are not nutritionally complete and balanced for long-term feeding, they are safe for dogs to eat for a few days.

Over-the-Counter Food

These highly digestible diets, easy on a dogs stomach, are offered by reputable pet food manufacturers:

Prescription Diets

Most veterinarians will have at least a few cans of prescription, highly digestible dog food in stock. These are two good options:

Your Dogs Regular Food

If your dog is on a special diet or you simply cant get your hands on a highly digestible dog food, slowly start your dog back on their regular diet.

Wet foods are generally a better option than kibble, at least in the short term. Wet foods tend to be more digestible than dry, and the extra water will help keep your dog hydrated.

How Much to Feed Your Dog Each Day After Vomiting

How you start feeding your dog again is just as important as what you feed them. This feeding guide will help you gradually transition back to a normal diet for a dog that has been vomiting.

Day 1

Day 2

• Offer your dog 10% of their normal meal size. Wait a few hours.

• If your dog has not vomited, offer them 25% of their normal meal size. Wait a few hours.

• If your dog has not vomited, offer them another 25% of their normal meal size. Wait a few hours.

• If your dog has not vomited, offer them 50% of their normal meal size.

Day 3

• Offer your dog 50% of their normal meal size. Wait a few hours.

• If your dog has not vomited, offer them another 50% of their normal meal size. Wait a few hours.

• If your dog has not vomited, offer them a normal meal size.

Day 4

Day 5 and on

Call your veterinarian if at any point during this process your dog starts vomiting again, wont eat, or their symptoms are getting worse.

Is There a Prescription Diet for Dogs With Chronic Vomiting?

There are prescription diets for many conditions that cause chronic vomiting. Once a dogs vomiting has continued for more than a couple of weeks, it is considered chronic rather than acute. Many health problems can cause chronic vomiting in dogs, including:

Diet plays a part in managing many of these diseases. For example:

Dogs with chronic vomiting often dont have a great appetite. You may find it tempting to prepare your dog home-cooked meals, but this can be dangerous if it goes on too long.

Most recipes for home-cooked diets are not nutritionally complete and balanced, even for healthy dogs.

Add in a chronic illness, and preparing a healthy diet for long-term feeding becomes almost impossible without the input of a veterinary nutritionist.

Its vital for dogs that have been vomiting to get the right nutrition. Your veterinarian can help you pick the best food based on the specifics of your dogs case.

Featured image:Chalabala/iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

WRITTEN BY

Jennifer Coates, DVM

Veterinarian

Dr. Jennifer Coates is an accomplished veterinarian, writer, editor, and consultant with years of experience in the fields of veterinary...

Is Your Dog Throwing Up Yellow Bile? Here is What To Do

Key points

• Yellow bile usually means vomiting on an empty stomach
• There are a variety of different causes for vomiting
• Diagnostics like blood tests and imaging may be needed to work out the cause
• Easy to digest food can help in some cases

Common in:

Any age or breed of dog

Symptoms and types:

Vomiting yellow bile is quite common and occurs when does have no food left in their stomach to throw up. Therefore, throwing up yellow bile is normally accompanied by other symptoms of stomach upset, including:

• Vomiting, usually seen with abdominal contractions, heaving
• Nausea (drooling, licking lips)
• Decreased appetite
• Diarrhea
• Lethargy

You may see yellow fluid if your dog vomits on an empty stomach, which is the bile that normally aids digestion.

Understanding the diagnostics

Your veterinarian will start with an examination. They will assess your dogs hydration status, as well as looking for signs of abdominal pain and checking their temperature. If they have concerns about your pet, they may suggest some tests.

• A blood test will often be advised to look at your dogs kidney parameters, blood sugar, and liver values. Blood work can also check for signs of anemia as well for markers of infection and inflammation in their white blood cells. An additional test called canine-specific lipase may be performed, which assesses for a condition called pancreatitis a possible cause of vomiting and abdominal pain in dogs.
• Diagnostic imaging may be recommended to screen for foreign bodies (obstructions), and tumors. X-rays give an overall view of your dogs abdomen, with ultrasound being a way of focusing in on specific organs in more detail. Endoscopy can also be used in vomiting cases, whereby a camera is passed down your dogs esophagus (food pipe) to look at the inside of the stomach. This technique can also be used to remove foreign bodies sometimes or to take tissue samples for analysis.

Learning about the causes

There are multiple causes of vomiting in dogs which includes the following

Addisons disease

Hypoadrenocorticism is hormonal/endocrine issue that can cause changes in your dogs electrolyte levels and very severe vomiting and diarrhea.

Cancer/tumors

Cancer could affect the stomach lining creating irritation or ulceration, or it could be because of a mass that has caused a blockage somewhere in the intestines (guts).

Dietary indiscretion

Dogs that raid the garbage bin, eat poop, or discarded food items found on walks could get digestive upset.

Food sensitivities/allergies

A sensitivity to certain food ingredients can irritate your dogs digestive tract, with some animals requiring special hypoallergenic diets.

Foreign body (obstruction)

Indigestible items, like bedding, toys, bone, or corn-on-the-cobs could become lodged in your dogs digestive tract causing vomiting

Gastric dilatation-volvulus (bloating)

An emergency condition where the stomach bloats and then twists on itself calledgastric dilatation-volvuluscan cause dogs to make repeated attempts to try and vomit but not bring anything up.

Metabolic conditions (such as liver and kidneys)

Problems with kidney or liver function can cause your dog to become nauseous and sick.

Pancreatitis

Pancreatitisis a serious condition whereby the pancreas (a small organ involved in fat digestion) becomes inflamed and painful.

Parasites

High numbers of parasites could cause stomach upset, so routine parasite control is advised.

Toxicity

Eating toxic items can cause digestive upset. There a variety of things that are poisonous to dogs includingchocolatetodaffodil bulbsto medication likeibuprofen.

Travel sickness

Dogs can suffer from motion sickness caused by traveling in the car, puppies seem to be particularly affected.

Viral infections

Parvovirus, hepatitis, and leptospirosis can all cause vomiting. Regularly vaccinating your dog against these diseases is advised.

If your dog has only been sick once or twice you could try feeding them bland easy-to-digest food little and often.

Best treatment options

Treatment depends on the underlying cause of your dogs vomiting. Mild cases can sometimes be treated with anti-nausea medication and bland food for a few days. If, however, your pet has become dehydrated then they may require hospitalization for intravenous fluids via a drip.

Other treatments could include surgery to remove an obstruction in your dogs digestive tract, pain relief for pancreatitis, or medication for an underlying endocrine or liver condition.

Home remedies and their effectiveness

If your dog is bright with only a mild tummy upset then you could fast them for a short period (up to 12 hours) followed by small amounts of a bland food such as a commercial sensitivity diet or in a pinch cooked chicken, white fish, and boiled rice. Water should never be withheld, however. If your dog is showing any worrying symptoms, then you should always get a veterinarian to check them.

When to see a vet

You should consult a veterinarian if you are worried about your dog, but especially if you see any of the following:

• Your dog has vomited several times
• They seem depressed/lethargic
• If your dog is dehydrated (tenting of the skin when you pinch it, sunken eyes, and pale gums)
• Any blood in the vomit (this may be bright red or could be pink or brown streaks or dots)
• A fever, feeling hot to the touch
• Any abdominal pain or bloating
• If your dog has weakness or collapse
• Seizure episodes