Dealing with a sick dog is very important and something not to ignore. When dogs get sick, it's differently than when we people get sick. A lot of times it's really not a big deal. Supporting good dog health, means giving your pet good dog nutrition as well. Bad food diets can cause poor dog health, and cause them illness. Lot of times it's the food they're eating, but obviously not the only possible cause. Plenty of things like worms, parasites, food allergies, inflammatory bowel disease and other things cause sickness in a dog. Finding out the causes are important, but getting them to the vet will help you find out for sure. However, there are still things you can do and be aware of to help your sick dog.
Instructions
Know the symptoms. For example, if a dog just simply throws up, that doesn't mean they're sick. Sometimes a dog just gets into something they shouldn't have, and they throw it up. Or they drink their water too fast, choke on it, and puke. That is quite common and nothing to worry about.
Actual symptoms are constant diarrhea, or very loose stool. Constant puking anytime they eat, along with dehydration. To check for dehydration, press your finger on their gums. If it goes white for a second after you release your finger, then they're not dehydrated. Also, sometimes a dog won't eat their food when they're sick as well. Sometimes an injury can cause them to be sick. Check your dogs energy, see if he or she is moving normal. Possible symptoms also are hair loss, coughing, blood in urine, blood in stool, and constant scratching.
Don't let them eat for 24 hours. If your dog doesn't have serious symptoms, meaning hair loss, blood in urine, or blood in stool then going to the vet might not be needed. Dogs do get sick, it's not always serious. Sometimes it could just be something they got into, and it's caused them to be sick. Or it's the food that they're eating. Don't feed your dog for 24 hours, water is okay. Let them get it out of their system, whatever has upset their stomach.
Feed them chicken and rice after the 24 hours of no food in their system. Chicken and rice will help settle your dogs stomach. The chicken should be skinless, cooked with plain white rice. I'd feed this to your dog for the next 24 hours, or until they're symptoms are starting to go away. If the symptoms don't improve within a few days, take your dog to a vet.
Changing dog foods? If you've just recently changed your dogs diet, this can probably explain why they're sick. First off, you can't just change a dogs food right away. You need to do it gradually. You mix in the old dog food, with the new. If you did this, and they've still gotten sick, then maybe it's allergic to the food. Go back to the old diet and contact your vet.
Feed your dog yogurt. Yogurt helps your dogs digestive system. Yogurt will destroy harmful bacteria in your dogs digestive system as well. I'd buy the plain yogurt with no-fat, and feed it with your pets food. Just a tablespoon a day is enough.
Take your dog to the vet. If the symptoms don't improve, get your dog to the vet immediately.