How to tell if your dog or cat is vomiting versus regurgitating

Nothing gets us out of bed faster than the sound of retching in the middle of the night!

​But what about those times stuff just flies out of their mouths like in the movie "The Exorcist"? (You know the scene we're talking about: split pea soup!)

We know, it's not our favorite thing to talk about but it's important to know the difference between vomiting and regurgitating.

The dreaded cat vomiting!

That Retching Sound

It's the full body, gut wrenching, 'hork, hork, hork, HEAVE-HO!' we all dread. That's right: vomiting. 

Vomiting involves the abdominal muscles and is a forceful expulsion of stomach contents up the esophagus and out through the mouth.

The material brought up can be a variety of things and is known as vomitus. What might come up? All of these are types of vomitus:

• Digested or partially digested food. It's good to let your veterinarian know if you are seeing whole kibbles or partially digested kibble and it has been several hours since your pet ate. This can indicate several things such as an outflow obstruction (something blocking the food from passing through the stomach), decreased gastric mobility, or other issues. 
• Blood - known as hematemesis, is bright red, frank (fresh) blood. This can be a small flecks or large volumes. Let your veterinarian know right away if you see this in your pet.
• Digested blood - this looks like coffee grounds in the vomit. Let your veterinarian know if you see this.

Poor kitty, that's some nasty bile vomit

• Bile - typically a greenish-brown colored fluid. It may or may not be accompanied by food. This can occur if the stomach is empty and bile enters the stomach from the duodenum. 
• Mucous - can be foamy white, yellow, or greenish. This can occur when the stomach is empty, or if it is irritated.
• Hairball - vomiting up a hairball every 1-2 months can be normal. But if your cat is vomiting up hairballs more frequently, say every week, make sure to discuss this with your veterinarian. Vomiting up hairballs is still considered vomiting, and vomiting is NOT normal. We'll discuss cat vomiting in depth in a different article in the future.

The key to defining vomiting is the full body motion that goes into bringing up stomach contents.

Where did that come from?

Puppy spewing regurgitus! (Well, sort of...)

Regurgitation is when stomach contents come up the esophagus, into the mouth and may or may not make it out. This can be referred to as 'urping' or 'acid reflux'.

Essentially the big difference between vomiting and regurgitation is with regurg you don't see the classic abdominal crunches or hear that retching sound. These are silent.

Some pets will urp something up (regurgitus), smack their lips, and swallow it right back down. You may not even be aware your pet is doing this because it can be subtle. Sometimes regurg can cause coughing or gagging in pets.

Don't be fooled by a pile on the ground though. Sometimes the gastric contents come up and out like in 'The Exorcist' and it can be a large volume. These also tend to be more tube shaped like the esophagus, and can have mucous coating it. So, just because you see a pile of stomach contents on the ground doesn't guarantee your pet is vomiting, it could be regurgitation or it can also be expectorant.

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Wait? What the heck is expectorant?

The last type of bodily fluid to come up and out is expectorant. This is when a pet is coughing and they hack something up. This can be from coughing too long or too hard and they can make themselves vomit.

Cats with asthma may go undiagnosed for years with vomiting or hairballs, when in fact they may be coughing from asthma and then bringing up expectorant or causing themselves to vomit. 

So, it's important to know if your pet has a cough: did the cough start before or after the 'vomiting' episode?

When in doubt: shoot a video of what your pet is doing with your smartphone and show it to the veterinarian. Videos are great ways for veterinarians to see exactly what you are talking about and can be a huge aide when diagnosing and treating your pet.

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We hope this didn't gross you out too much. And we hope the next time your veterinary team member asks you, "does your pet vomit," you can respond back with "yes," and feel confident with your answer; or "no, actually he's been regurgitating," and know you are helping your veterinarian diagnose your pet better.

What did you think of the article? Is there anything we missed that you'd like us to cover? Leave us a comment below and we'll be happy to answer your questions!

Author

Yvonne Brandenburg, RVT, VTS (SAIM) is a Registered Veterinary Technician practicing in California and obtained her Veterinary Technician Specialty in Small Animal Internal Medicine in 2016. She is the founder of InternalMedicineForPetParents.com. For more about Yvonne visit her author page here.