Following an incident with a rat yesterday - "The Toadfaced Hound" was spotted gumming something,  flinging it in the air, rolling on it, then flinging it again.  I thought I noticed a tail ...so I sent my OH!  - we trouped off to doggie hospital whereupon they made him sick and inspected the result.  "He does eat a lot of berries doesn't he?"  YES "And is that plums?" YES  "sorry" I muttered when I heard he'd then stepped in it...

Apparently, and according to the vet, if I could have made him sick within half an hour of finding him with his 'best end of rat' AND it turned out he hadn't actually eaten the missing parts we could have saved ourselves a trip.

In all the excitement I forgot to ask yesterday but I'm curious: how does one make a dog sick?  Is it salty water like people? Does anyone have a recipe?

Meanwhile the beastly boy had nothing obviously identifiable as rat in there but to be on the safe side they've given him vitamin K for two days. 

No idea how to make a dog sick, but I wonder why you'd want to - a rat is just another form of biologically appropriate raw food isn't it :-)

Sadly not if it was killed by poison - hence the vitamin K

I did offer to take the rat remains to the vet for a PM but they declined.  I wonder why!!

My vet advised me to keep hydrogen peroxide (3% concentration, the stuff you use on the skin) in because my pup was a naughty forager.  Apparently a few spoons of that will do. Luckily I've not had to use it yet!!

In the past our vet has told us to use soda crystals or mustard, but I have never had the nerve to use either! When I found them digging up daffodils bulbs and unsure if they had eaten any, just wanted the reassurance of a vet.

I've tried soda crystals twice, and neither time was successful. The vet injection is much more reliable.

We always used to use soda but it only comes in crystals now not lumps, mustard also works but much more difficult to give.

Make sure that it is washing soda not caustic soda which can destroy the dog's mouth. I'm not really convinced that we should be mucking about with this. The vets can induce vomiting much more safely but it does have to be done within a very short time of the dog eating the offending substance.

I've heard washing soda crystals.Not tried it.Sounds like your woo is fine :)

> Sounds like your woo is fine

Oh yes right as rain by the time we got home yesterday thank you and today he's been playing Jenga with the wood pile again and poncing about the garden with a paint roller in his chops!

We've either got 20 paint rollers or we are just crap at hiding the one we have - where do they all come from?!

I'll ask about home recipe vomit methods on Friday (calling in with one of the others) but luckily we're 25 mins from the 24/7 hosp so I can just about get there within the 30 min window.  I just thought that as the vet suggested it that there might be a quick and easy solution.  I was going to add it to my repertoire :)

I had an incident like that when I was a teenager, when Sally managed to get into some blue rat poison not properly secured by the council ratcatcher on our property. I didn't see her eat any, but I immediately took her to the outside tap and washed out her mouth. I was on my own at the time but my parents got back soon after, we rushed her to the vet and she had Vit K injections just in case. Thankfully she was OK :)

A few years ago I brought home one of my mother's Christmas Cakes - totally solid and black with dried fruit including sultanas and currants, and also laced with brandy and matured for months. The first thing I saw was the shredded tinfoil then I realised my dog had got into the box and gulped the lot. I made up a standard saline solution and managed to get him to drink some, thankfully it came up almost straight away... phew!

Having once seen a friend's dog become very ill after eating half a kilo of sultanas, before they were known to be dangerous, I wouldn't take any chances.

My vet told me hydrogen peroxide or washing soda. I've never liked the idea of washing soda, as it seems quite caustic, but I have used hydrogen peroxide a couple of times, and it's been successful. Luckily I wear contact lenses and always have squirty bottle of peroxide, as that is the cleaning solution I use. You can buy it from good online chemists - the squirty bottle is handy as you can stick the top in the dog's mouth and squeeze it in (but don't use it for contact lenses afterwards!!) Bracken is highly unappreciative of it though, and it does give the "mad dog" frothy mouth look! I've tasted it myself - not pleasant - but not painful or stinging in the mouth.

Edited to add -- I have found some nice cold ice cream can induce almost instant vomitting when the dog has a full stomach. Several episodes, over the years, of dog stealing dessert when I got up to answer phone or door, is how I know this. Though perhaps it is only my dog this works with!!

Claire

a tiny bit of bicarb of soda ( baking powder) did it for our dog when she had eaten something she really shouldn't have

> I have found some nice cold ice cream can induce almost instant vomitting when the dog has a full stomach

Very good idea!

I used to give Buster ice-cubes to chew in the hot weather (or an incecream to lick), but if he eats them (rather than just lick them), they make him vomit, so I stopped giving them.
I'd never have thought to use ice cream or ice-cubes if I needed to make a dog vomit!!! What a great idea :-D

Yes my sil vet nurse says washing soda ( she will kill me if I have got that wrong) However when Brooke recently "ate all the pies" well choc muffins really I went straight to the vet as I dont feel happy doing it myself.
The injection  cost £100 and she didint need anything else. the other thing that is used and I believe is what the injection contains is Ipecacuana aka   ipecac a natural herbal remebdy used on humans too
I dont fancy giving hydrogen pyroxide either,  be sure its not caustic soda for draining cleaning that would be
lethal