# Dog ate cat food, has runs :|



## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

My 10.5 m/o doxie mix ate an unknown quantity of uber-rich Evo grain-free cat food on Saturday night. He walked off, and a minute later I heard the cat hiss, and found that the cat had broken into the dry food container (with a screw-on lid, tyvm) and the dog was hoovering down cat kibbles. :doh:

And so, naturally, he spent all day yesterday with diarrhea. He woke my husband up once last night to go out, and still has it this morning. I only fed him half his normal dinner last night, hoping it would just clear up once the cat food passed, and this morning gave him chicken & rice. 

He seems completely fine other than the runs. He is hungry and drinking and has energy and seems happy. Obviously if ANYTHING else seems wrong we'll be at the vet immediately, but right now it is more inconvenient than anything. Fortunately I'm home all day and can let him out as often as he wants to go. How long can I home treat with chicken & rice before I need to give up and go to the vet? Should I add some pumpkin too?


----------



## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

I would add pumpkin and maybe just give the vet a call ...... probably all that protein! Poor boy and poor you! 

It used to take my dogs a couple days on the chicken and rice and pumpkin to get over tummy issues.


----------



## hamandeggs (Aug 11, 2011)

I would probably fast for a meal or two to let his system reset itself.


----------



## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

My only hesitation is that when you call the vet all they'll tell you is to come in, which I wouldn't hesitate to do if I felt like he was sick vs. gluttonous.


----------



## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

Afaik there isn't anything toxic to dogs in cat food (but I've never paid much attention to cat food)

The sudden jump in protein and fat in evo could certainly be enough to cause diarrhea. I wouldn't think there'd be a need to take any particular actions. If you wanted to add anything, I would care more about giving fiber and probiotics than switching to chicken and rice. Just switching to chicken and rice is enough to cause more diarrhea too.


----------



## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

He hasn't gone since 1 pm -- almost 8 hrs! Longest stretch since it started Sunday morning. Fingers crossed that we make it through the night and he's back to normal tomorrow!


----------



## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

Snowball had the same problem, but it was our fault, not his or the cat's and he had much more restricted supply... We couldn't for the life of us figure out what was causing the soft-serve until the dog disappeared into the cat's room one day and we caught him "playing" with the cat's food-ball. :doh:

Hope your puppy feels better! Fasting for 24 hr followed by chicken+rice really helped us.


----------



## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

Just wanted to update to let everyone know that Hamilton is cured!! He stopped having runs Monday afternoon, had about 24 hrs without going, and has been doing well ever since. Phew! Then we got home from class Tuesday night and my husband fed the cats while I was cooking dinner, and didn't put Hamilton behind the gate and he ran and ate half a bowl of cat food. I yelled at my husband, but fortunately Ham didn't get an upset stomach from it.


----------



## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Hehe, dogs never learn their lesson about cat food, no mattter how much of a tummyache it gives them!

My dogs can steal cat food with impunity (tummy-wise anyway; the cats do object if they catch them at it), but Toby once ate about a pound of rabbit food. . .super high fiber. . .yeah. It looked like cow pies .


----------



## jax's_mommy (Oct 13, 2012)

My doxie did that to. He was only 9 weeks when that happened. 
He had diarrhea and vomiting.
When i took him to the vet, he said the cat food is to rich for the puppies stomach so it upset it. He gave me a antibiotic for the vomiting and told me to get kaopectate (at walmart) giving 2-3 cc's for the diarrhea.
Cleared up in a week. 

Hope your doxie gets to feeling better soon


----------



## pittie pete (Nov 12, 2012)

Once my pooch ate a few slices of pizza. It gave her bad runs too.I ran into a vet and asked him about it. He said give her a half of a omdium. The same kind people use for the runs. I did so and a day later she was better. Was a easy fix!


----------



## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

pittie pete said:


> Once my pooch ate a few slices of pizza. It gave her bad runs too.I ran into a vet and asked him about it. He said give her a half of a omdium. The same kind people use for the runs. I did so and a day later she was better. Was a easy fix!


I hesitate to give him meds since I figure usually when something like diarrhea happens, the body is trying to flush something offensive (in this case, cat food) and I'm not sure that it sitting in his gut longer would have benefited him in any particular way. Certainly if it had gone on longer than the two days it did, and didn't respond to some fasting and bland diet, we would have gone to more extreme measures!


----------

