When your dog snaffles the cat food..

I'm fairly certain that if you're a dog owner who also owns cats, you might have been in this situation. If not, well this could be what happens to your dog.

Yesterday, we heard the telltale warthog like snorting of a certain dog helping himself to our cat's dry food. He's only ever done this once before, because he knows he's not to touch it. However, it looks like we might have to revisit the cat bowl position to being somewhere out of his reach. Common sense, right?

So about 5am this morning, we heard a lot of retching, followed by explosive diarrhoea. This happened about five or six times in total, and we have one very unhappy and feeling sorry for himself, dog. If your dog does get hold of cat food, wet or dry, and he/she starts to vomit and poo everywhere, do the following:

• Starve for twenty four hours.
• Water, water, water. Lots of it. Sit with the bowl next to your dog, let he or she lick it from your fingers if necessary.
• Watch like a hawk, cat food is really nasty for dogs.
• You can help the dog by giving them electrolytes - I've done my research and it's safe to give them.
• Watch their urination, low levels of urination indicate organ issues, in which case you'd need to take them to a vet ASAP.
• Take them outside for air, but don't walk them.
• After the twenty four hours, feed your dog SMALL amounts of boiled white rice. No more than a tablespoon at a time. Don't add anything to it, just feed the rice. See how they handle that for the day, you're looking at about a tablespoon six times a day, perhaps four for a smaller dog. Don't let them bolt it down, hand feed it if necessary. Once they've been twenty four hours without vomiting, put them back on their normal eating schedule.

Any blood in their stools or vomit, take them to a vet immediately. Don't mess about, just take them. Fainting, collapsing, any sort of behaviour like that, straight to the vet. Dehydration is something that can be addressed at home, but sometimes it needs vet intervention.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to cuddle my dog.

 

This is awful, I'm very sorry for your dog! I hope he is better now. I had no idea that cat's food can be bad for dogs. I don't have any cats because Homer hates them.

 

Yeah you have to be really careful. They can't digest catfood, and it makes them really ill. He's laid at my feet at the moment, and I've been feeding him lots of water. He's going to be OK, he's just very sedate and sleepy. Lots of cuddles and gentle water feeding for him today.

 

I always thought that there isn't that much of difference between cats ad dogs food, I thought it's just a matter of flavor. So thank you very much for sharing! Although as I said I don't have any cats, my neighbour does and now I'll be more careful to keep Homer away from it. I'm glad to hear that your dog feels better now, I hope he'll be perfectly healthy soon.

 

He's fine today. He actually bounced back really quickly, and is eating normally now. He has been making stupid noises at the dishwasher all afternoon, and demanded to sit on my knee, when I was trying to type something on my laptop. He's way too big to sit on my lap on the sofa, never mind when I'm at my laptop!

 

Very sorry to hear, glad that he's feeling better! My friends dog has been eating their cat food for years. She thinks it also might be him retaliating against the cats, since she got them after she got him. They don't really get along at all. Just out of curiosity, what does the rice do for the dog?