While having both a dog and a cat in the same house can certainly bring more joy and excitement, it can sometimes lead to more headaches. One of the hardest things to control with a dog is what they put in their mouth. You could feed them the best meals 3 times a day, and you could still find them rummaging through the trash 30 minutes later. If you have a cat in your house, you can be pretty confident that at some point your dog’s curiosity and hunger will lead him/her to your cat’s food bowl. While we recommend training your dog as early as possible that the cat food bowl is off limits, there is only so much you can do. In today’s article, we are going to discuss the side effects of a dog eating cat food.

My Dog Ate Cat Food and Is Now Sick

While eating small amounts of cat food will probably not have any adverse effects, if you dog eats a good portion of cat food, he/she will most likely get sick. Your dog will most likely develop either vomiting or diarrhea. This is because your dog’s digestion system is not able to properly break down the ingredients in cat food. 

If your dog ate cat food and is now sick, we recommend taking the following steps:

Milk

Milk can be very helpful in passing stuff through the digestive system. You should give him/her a cup of milk, and see if it makes things better over the next 2 to 3 hours.

Miralax

While Miralax is primarily used to help constipation in dogs, it can also help pass cat food quickly through your dog’s digestive system and out. You should only give your dog around 1 tablespoon of Miralax once a day. Miralax can easily be mixed into your dog’s food or water. 

Dog Hairball Control

Another option is to give your dog a hairball control medicine. There are tons of options to choose from, and you can get some for as low as $20 on amazon. 

If irritation continues for longer than 3 days, then you should contact your vet. There is a chance that your dog has damaged his intestine or other digestive organ while trying to digest the cat food.

How to prevent your dog from eating cat food

The best way to keep your dog from eating cat food is to place the cat food bowl in a place that your cat can access it while out of reach of your dog. Many pet owners just put the cat bowl on the ground because they forget that cats are avid climbers. Try putting the cat bowl on a counter or near a window and make sure your cat can reach it.

Another option is to just make sure your cat eats all of the food before he/she leaves. That way your dog will have nothing to steal. Another option is to look into automatic cat feeders.