Your dog ate what? All the things pets eat and how they keep Emergency Veterinarians in business!

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 As an ER veterinarian I make dogs vomit about every other shift for eating something they shouldn't have. I try to make cats vomit about once every couple weeks but that is not always successful thanks to cats not following the vomiting rules! 

I have made dogs vomit lots of things and I have also surgically removed lots of items from dogs GI tracts.

So what is all the stuff that animals eat that they shouldn't? This is the top list of things I have seen and the list just keeps growing:

  • Socks (personally I counted 32 baby socks in my yard after all the winter snow melted one year from my 3 dogs poop!)
  • Underwear (sometimes it doesn't belong to the people that live in the house 🙀)
  • Xylitol containing gum, candy, supplements (xylitol is highly toxic to dogs)
  • Grapes and raisins (big no no for dogs)
  • Ibuprofen, Excedrin, Tylenol, Aleve
  • Corn Cobs
  • Rocks, rocks and more rocks
  • String, rope, floss, shoelaces, hair ties (these are favorites of cats and they cause a linear foreign body in the intestines which can cut cinch up and cut through the intestinal wall which is very bad news; the longest piece of string I have surgically removed from a cat's intestine was over 10 feet long and went from the stomach to the anus!)
  • Marijuana in all different forms (THC can cause life threatening neurological problems in dogs)
  • Rat poison
  • Knife! (ya crazy)
  • Sewing needles
  • Toxic plants such as lilies and ivy
  • Birth control pills and other prescription meds
  • Chocolate (the darker the chocolate the more toxic it is to dogs)
  • Rising bread dough (this vomit made the hospital smell like a bakery!)
  • Dice
  • Golf balls, tennis balls, bouncy balls
  • Nerf darts
  • Remote controls
  • Rubber Ducky
  • Squeakers from inside toys
  • Batteries
  • Used tampons and sanitary pads
  • Used condoms
  • Wedding rings
  • Diapers
  • Fish hooks
This list just keeps growing and growing and definitely does not include everything I have seen but is at least the most memorable!

Here is an odd piece of knowledge you may not know. Many veterinarians like to keep a kind of gallery of the foreign objects they surgically remove from animals. I know one emergency Vet who has a whole drawer filled with socks, wrappers, pieces of toys, rocks and much more she has removed over the years. I personally only have a single rock that a child of a client took home after I removed it from their puppies intestine, washed it, and painted it with a note that says "You Rock Doc!" that is one of my favorite gifts ever from a client!

If you see your pet eat something they shouldn't (see above list!) take them to see a veterinarian right away-if within a couple hours we can try to make them vomit most things or use an endoscope to retrieve others from the stomach. If it something like a medication or a plant call a pet poison control helpline while on your way to the vet. There are a couple helplines out there and as emergency vets we need the toxicologist smart brains to help us decide how to treat each specific toxicity. 

Most of all do not feel bad-I am a veterinarian and I have had to make my labs vomit at least once a year for eating stuff they shouldn't. It stinks but it is an unfortunate byproduct of sharing our homes with pets! 
Here are my 3 dirty naughty
boys!
4/17/24: Add brillo pad to the list removed last night from a 5 pound pup along with 5 inches of intestine! Do not let your pup get into the trash!

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