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My dog ate a tampon, vomited, now brown liquid. What's wrong?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Labrador Retriever | Female | unspayed | 5 months and 2 days old

My chocolate lab named khloe weighing about 45 pounds (I know this is disgusting I don’t know how it happened) ate a tampon. We called our local vet and we were told to give her hydrogen peroxide we did and it worked she puked it out and the next morning we noticed she is puking a brown liquid. Is she okay?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Stacey Anstaett, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on August 10th, 2018

I'm glad the tampon came out! And you certainly are not the first one that's happened too. Hydrogen peroxide can often successfully induce vomiting as in Khloe's case, which is good. However, it also causes significant irritation to the wall of the stomach. This can cause bleeding in the stomach. Digested blood appears brown. Therefore I am concerned that Khloe may have some pretty significant gastritis. I would recommend that you get her to a vet, they will likely prescribe a medication called sucralfate (carafate) that is very helpful in cases of severe gastritis. An acid reducer such as Pepcid may be indicated as well--however I would not recommend giving that without first seeing a vet. If she happened to eat anything else strange from the trash, stomach acid is a vital part of digesting material and making it most likely to be able to pass through. Taking her in would certainly be my first recommendation. However, If you want to avoid going to the vet if possible, and she only vomited brown liquid once, and she is otherwise acting ok--active, happy, interested in whats going on around her, eating when offered--its reasonable to give her 24 hours with small amounts of boiled chicken/white rice to eat, and see how she does. Keep fresh water available at all times but don't allow her to drink large volumes at a time. If at any point she becomes lethargic, has no interest in food, or she vomits more than 2-3 times in a 12-24 hour period, take her in. Thanks for asking Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

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