Vomitus Doggy-Us

I think I am old enough now that I can use the phrase, “You remember the good old days.”  If you listen to the “older than me timers” you could feed your dog scraps, bones, pork or anything else lying around. They wouldn’t get sick and still live forever. And that’s a long time.  I am not sure how true all this is, but I still hear it said by many of our charming senior clients.  These days, we get several calls about vomiting or diarrhea patients every single day.  Our patients compared to the past seem to have a much more “sensitive constitution,” as my grandma would have said.

There is good news and bad news with these symptoms, which often go hand in hand. Fortunately, the vast majority of our cases are nothing more than an upset stomach for some very simple reason. Unfortunately for us as veterinarians, vomiting and diarrhea are such vague signs that they can be associated with hundreds of diseases, from benign to deadly. Fortunately, we don’t have to work up every case with blood work, radiographs (x-rays), ultrasound, ct scan, exploratory surgery, etc. to diagnose a cause.  Unfortunately, sometimes we do.  Fortunately, most vomiting and diarrhea cases are really easy to treat, oftentimes with things you can do at home and with over-the-counter medications you may already have.  Unfortunately it may take a few days to get things under control.  Fortunately, most of these cases will be normal very quickly.