Vomiting (in dogs, causes and cures)
From the book How to Raise a Dog in the city and in the Suburbs
Due to their feeble-mindedness about eating anything and everything that comes their way, dogs let themselves in for all kinds of stomach upsets. Many of these upsets are minor. The dog eats something undesirable, the stomach rebels, vomiting follows, and that’s all there is to it. Any dog should be allowed to vomit once or twice with no questions asked. If he continues though, try to diagnose the trouble. Continued vomiting can mean worms or a foreign object in the stomach or throat; it can be a symptom of oncoming distemper, hepatitis, or other diseases, poisoning, constipation, or kidney disorder.
The treatment, of-course, depends upon the cause, but the first step in any case is to take the dog off food for twenty-four hours. Don’t give him water either, just cracked ice occasionally. The next step is to clean out his system and quiet his stomach down. Give him an enema and a dose of milk of magnesia. If he vomits up the milk of magnesia, don’t repeat it — just give the enema. Use warm water for this with bicarbonate of soda, a teaspoonful to a pint. Use any ordinary human rectal syringe or an infant-sized one, depending on the size of the dog. To settle his stomach, give two and half grains each of bismuth subnitrate and cerium oxolate in the white of an egg, or, if you haven’t this, or can’t get it, give rhubarb and soda or plain bismuth in the white of an egg, with a little whisky. This treatment should be given every two hours until the vomiting stops. If it doesn’t stop and the dog seems to be weakening fast, if there is blood in the vomitus, or if the vomitus is black or a dark brownish green, or if there is a temperature, get professional help at once.
Of-course, any book which recommends giving your dog whisky as part of a concoction to settle its stomach must be my favorite book on dog-care, and indeed this one is. I was lucky enough to pick up the 1953 edition in a used bookstore and I heartily recommend it if you can get it via Amazon
While I truly love passages like the one above for their sheer literary value, I don’t necessarily endorse the implementation of that precise regimen when your dog throws up. In the first place, as the good doctor himself says, a little throwing up is no reason for panic. In cases of continued distress, vomiting, and/or diarrhea, I do tend with my own dog to lean on Pepto-Bismol (cherry-flavored) and — especially if eating is not taking place — a little Gatorade to keep the strength up. I have never attempted, well, treatment from the other end, and may God be between us and all harm.
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However, each situation is different and of-course you should always consult with your local veterinarian, as my legal team reminds me. As to rye, bourbon, scotch or Irish, I think that decision properly rests between you, your pooch and your bartender.
Just another tale of a dedicated pooch staying beside a lost child and keeping her warm through a cold night. The 
This story is a double winner for Yours Truly, highlighting as it does both the best and noblest aspects of man’s best friend and the importance of the right of Americans to bear arms under the Second Amendment. 
In Los Banos, California, last Saturday, a hunter waded into the water to retrieve his decoy ducks and almost found himself in Davy Jones’ Locker. (Well, alright: the bottom of a pond hardly qualifies as Davy Jones’ Locker, but I just love the expression and would like to see it return to common usage — or enter it for the first time — whether used appropriately or not.) The hunter had left his loaded shotgun on the ground, apparently, and his female Labrador stepped on it. The story (which I suppose only the hunter and the dog can fully vouch for) is that her stepping on it caused the safety to disengage and the shotgun to fire, hitting the man, who was about 45 feet away. 
In Canada (British Columbia), in a town called Boston Bar, a Golden Retriever got in between a cougar and an eleven-year-old boy, quite possibly saving the boy’s life. From 
It’s a dog’s life. That expression was originally coined and used to characterize a life of misery (where you might be treated like a dog, get sick as a dog, and die like a dog). In more contemporary times it’s often heard and used in exactly the opposite sense, that of a dog’s life as one of carefree laziness, with every want fulfilled. Since dogs have, in many societies, gone from working beasts thrown scraps to pampered pets who shop at canine boutiques, it’s not hard to understand how the expression has garnered its new meaning. 
