Your Pet Ate Something Unsafe: Induce Vomiting or Not?

Laurie Anne Walden, DVM

Photo by Ryan Walton on Unsplash

Your pet has swallowed an object, something toxic, or medication intended for another animal or a person. Should you try to make your pet vomit? Here are the short answers:

• Cats: NO
• Dogs: maybe

 
If your pet has been exposed to something that might be dangerous, seek veterinary advice before giving any treatments at home. Call your veterinarian’s office, a local emergency clinic, or an animal poison control hotline:

• ASPCA Animal Poison Control: 888-426-4435
• Pet Poison Helpline: 855-764-7661

 
Animal poison control services have a consultation fee, but calling is usually well worth the cost because their consultants are veterinary professionals with extra training in toxicology and access to specialized information.
 
Cats
None of the products that might be used to induce vomiting at home are safe for cats. All of the possible home remedies given by mouth (like hydrogen peroxide) can severely damage a cat’s esophagus and stomach.
 
At the veterinary clinic, we use injectable drugs to induce vomiting in cats. These drugs have some additional effects, like sedation, that need to be monitored and possibly reversed with other medications. Cats don’t always vomit even after receiving these drugs, so they might need other decontamination methods. The veterinary joke (we love cats so we tease them where they can’t hear) is that cats vomit when you don’t want them to but don’t vomit when you do want them to. Still, injectable medications given at a clinic are safe and usually effective for inducing vomiting in cats.
 
Dogs
The only vomit inducer that can be given by mouth and is safe for dogs (in some cases, not all) is 3% hydrogen peroxide. It’s sensible to keep a fresh bottle of peroxide on hand if you have a dog. But don’t use it unless a veterinarian tells you to. Making an animal vomit can be dangerous:

• Irritating substances and sharp items can damage the esophagus on the way back up.
• Some items are a choking hazard when they come back up.
• Liquids, especially oils, pose a risk of aspiration pneumonia (from being inhaled into the lungs) if they are vomited up.
• Animals that are drowsy/sedate or have impaired neurologic status are at risk of aspiration pneumonia if they vomit.
• Brachycephalic (flat-faced) animals are at increased risk of choking and aspiration pneumonia if they vomit.
• Hydrogen peroxide at too high a volume or too high a concentration (greater than 3%) can irritate the esophagus and stomach.
• Vomiting won’t remove the item or toxin if it has moved out of the stomach into the intestines, so the window of time to induce vomiting might have passed.

 
Never give a dog salt, syrup of ipecac, oil, or mustard to try to induce vomiting; these are all unsafe for dogs. Don’t try to induce gagging by putting a finger or object down a dog’s throat—it’s not likely to work and would put you at risk of being bitten.
 
To induce vomiting in dogs at the veterinary clinic, we use drugs given by injection or as eye drops. Dogs that receive these drugs need to be monitored and might need other medications to reverse the effects.
 
Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/selective-focus-photography-of-dog-lying-on-ground-uKtvYMGe8ls

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