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What Is That? |
It is important to differentiate between vomiting and regurgitation.
Vomiting is a dynamic process, with the dog actively using its stomach muscles.
The material produced by vomiting will look digested.
Regurgitation is a passive process, the dog appears to just burp up contents.
The material produced does not appear digested.
Talk to your veterinarian if you have any questions or notice continued vomiting or regurgitation from your dog.
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When you come home to find a mess on the floor, it is easy to assume
that the dog vomited. Vomiting is very common in dogs, as they often eat
weird things! There are actually many other causes of vomiting,
including parasites, kidney disease, liver problems, pancreatitis, and
food allergies. Overall, there are probably at least 101 causes of
vomiting.
When you take your dog to the veterinarian, the doctor will ask
questions and determine if the dog is truly vomiting, or if the dog
really has regurgitation, because they have different causes. You will
be asked if you saw the process and what the mess looked like.
Vomit
Vomiting has many causes, but results in the stomach ejecting its
contents through the mouth. Very active vomiting can also cause
intestinal fluid to be brought up. When vomiting, a dog will often
precede the act by retching, actively using the abdominal muscles, to
force the contents up and out of the body. The process is often
strenuous and dynamic.
The vomitus, meaning the material that was vomited up, comes from the
stomach or intestines, and therefore contains a lots of fluid. The
fluid may be a range of colors, from clear, to white foamy, yellow,
green, brown, or even red if there is fresh blood. Blood that has been
in the stomach longer will become digested, and look like coffee grounds
when vomited up.
Of course, there could be many other things in the vomitus depending
on what was eaten. There could be dog food, which will look like it is
starting to digest rather than its original form. Non-food material may
look digested, or it may look like the original form depending on
whether the material can be digested. Objects like metal, plastic, and
many fabrics cannot be digested.
Regurgitation
Regurgitation, on the other hand, comes from problems in the
esophagus, the tube that leads from the mouth to the stomach. A dog that
is regurgitating will just burp up material. There is no active
movement from the abdominal muscles pressing on the stomach.
Since the food or other material does not make it to the stomach, it
is not digested; food will look much like it did when it was eaten.
Sometimes there can be water in the material that is regurgitated if the
problem is a megesophagus. This is a disease where the esophagus is not
a straight tube, but becomes flaccid and dilates. Things that are
ingested may just sit in this dilated area, not reaching the stomach,
and will be regurgitated later. Often, there can be fluid with food
that is regurgitated.
Diseases of the esophagus include ulcers, inflammation, foreign
bodies stuck inside the esophagus, tumors, and megesophagus. This is why
it is important to know if that mess on the floor is caused by
vomiting, or by regurgitation.
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