Home > Blog > Pet Emergencies on a House Sit
Quick Facts
| The emergency with no home remedy | Bloat (GDV). The stomach twists and can kill within hours. Surgery is the only treatment |
| What actually saves the animal | Time. Veterinary care within a couple of hours, not a remedy at home |
| The signs that matter most | Unproductive retching, a tight drum-like belly, restlessness, panting, collapse |
| Higher risk | Large deep-chested breeds, one big meal a day, fast eaters, anxious dogs, ages 7 to 12 |
| What is never a home remedy | There is nothing to give, hold or massage. Trying is the delay that kills |
| What we always have on a sit | A 24-hour vet line. It has paid for itself over and over |
| If you are unsure | Treat it as an emergency. That is the entire rule |
If you are wondering whether it is an emergency, treat it as one. Call the vet, tell the owner, and do not attempt a home remedy. Bloat can kill a dog within hours and there is no safe way to treat it yourself.
Two things before we start. I am not a vet, and nothing here is veterinary advice. It is what I have learned from sitting, from reading constantly because this website demands it, and from the scares that have actually happened on our sits.
The second is that this page is deliberately narrow. It is about recognition, which is the part you have to do alone at three in the morning: working out whether what you are looking at is an emergency, or something that can wait until it is light.
The whole process, from the first application to the handover, is in our book Travel More for Less. This page is about the one part of a sit that no amount of planning fully covers.
For most of Europe we point sitters at TrustedHouseSitters first, partly because of the vet line I come back to at the end. For the wider safety picture, our house sitting safety guide is the place to start.
If You Are Wondering, It Is an Emergency
There is one rule on this page and everything else is detail. If you are wondering whether it is an emergency, treat it as one.
The reason is not that vets are free, or that a wasted trip costs nothing. It is that the emergencies which kill animals are the fast ones, and the fast ones are usually decided before you have worked out what you are dealing with. A dog with a twisted stomach does not give you time to become certain. A cat with a blocked bladder does not either.
The cost of being wrong in one direction is an evening in a waiting room and a consultation fee. The cost of being wrong in the other is the animal. That asymmetry is the whole argument, and it is why I have never once regretted picking up the phone.
The escalation itself, who to call in what order, and what to do when the owner is on a plane, is covered properly in what to do when the owner is unreachable. This page is only about the judgement call that comes first.
Bloat: The Emergency With No Home Remedy
This is the section I most want people to read, because the way it gets searched tells you everything about how badly it is understood. People look for a home remedy for a bloated stomach in a dog. There is no such thing, and looking for one is how dogs die.
Bloat, properly called gastric dilatation and volvulus or GDV, is when the stomach fills with air and then twists on itself, by 180 or 360 degrees. The twist closes off both the entrance and the exit and cuts off the blood supply. The stomach expands rapidly, the animal goes into shock, and the pain is severe. Once a bloat starts, death can follow within a few hours, and if the twisted stomach is not corrected surgically within a couple of hours, death is likely.
There is nothing to give, no position to hold the dog in, no oil, and no massage that helps. Every one of those is time spent not driving to a vet.
| What you may see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Unproductive retching or heaving, with nothing coming up | The classic sign. The stomach is twisted and nothing can pass |
| A belly that is swollen and tight, like a drum | Gas is building with no way out. This is late and it is critical |
| Restlessness, pacing, unable to settle, looking at the abdomen | Pain. A dog with bloat does not lie down quietly |
| Panting, drooling, weak pulse, collapse | Shock. This is the end stage and every minute counts |
Some dogs show all of it and some show only a few. The retching with nothing coming up is the one that should have you in the car, and it is worth saying that plainly to a homeowner before they leave: if I see this, we are going to a vet, not discussing it.
Risk is higher in large and giant deep-chested breeds, so Great Danes, Dobermans, German Shepherds and Mastiffs, but it can happen in any breed, and it is rare in cats. The other things that raise the odds are feeding one large meal a day instead of two or three smaller ones, eating very fast, being thin or underweight, an anxious or fearful temperament, and age, with dogs between seven and twelve most at risk. An anxious dog in a strange house is a dog that is more wound up than usual, which is worth taking seriously, and separation anxiety on a sit is often what you are actually looking at.
Food bloat is not the same thing, and you cannot tell from the outside
There is a milder version where the stomach distends with food rather than twisting, and it looks identical from the outside. There is also gastric dilation without a twist, which frequently does become a twist. All three are told apart by an X-ray, and only by an X-ray. This is the practical reason not to agonise over which one you are looking at. That is the vet's job, it takes them minutes, and guessing costs you the window.
If you are sitting a high-risk breed, it is worth asking the owner before they leave whether the dog has had a prophylactic gastropexy, a preventative surgery that secures the stomach in place and is the only true way to prevent a GDV. It changes how you read the situation. Our guide to looking after dogs during a sit covers the day to day, and getting feeding amounts wrong is worth reading before your first sit with a big dog.
The Triage: What Cannot Wait, What to Call About, What to Watch
The graphic above is the short version and the one worth saving. It divides into three columns, and the middle one is where most people get stuck.
Go now covers the signs that mean a car journey rather than a conversation. Unproductive retching, a belly that is tight like a drum, collapse, a seizure, a dog that cannot stand, a cat straining in the litter tray with nothing coming out, and heatstroke with staggering or heavy drooling. These are not things to photograph and think about.
Call now covers everything where the answer is likely to be "watch it, and ring us if it changes". It ate something it should not have. Repeated vomiting, or vomiting with diarrhoea. It has stopped eating or drinking. It will not settle, or it is panting while at rest. And the fifth one, which is simply any doubt at all. That is the whole reason a vet line exists.
Watch and note is the smallest column and it is genuinely there. Quieter than usual but still responsive and drinking. Off its food for one meal and otherwise normal. One vomit, then back to normal. The instruction in that column is not "relax", it is "write down the time, take a photograph of anything unusual, and tell the owner what you are seeing".
| What you see | Why it cannot wait |
|---|---|
| Heatstroke: staggering, heavy drooling, gums unusually red or pale | It happens on an ordinary walk in warm weather, and flat-faced breeds go down fastest. Cool them and go |
| Choking: pawing at the mouth, a distinctive sound, something visible | Easily confused with retching, but it is an obstruction rather than a twist, and it blocks the airway |
| A cat straining in the litter tray with nothing coming out | A blocked urinary tract, not constipation. It is a genuine emergency, especially in male cats |
| Collapse, a seizure, or a dog that cannot stand | There is no version of this that waits until morning |
| A suspected poisoning that is getting worse | Handled in full in our guide to what to do when a pet eats something dangerous |
If the situation is that last one, stop here and go to what to do when a pet eats something it should not have. That page covers the packaging rule, the common household hazards, and why you never induce vomiting on your own initiative. It is a different problem from the one on this page and it deserves its own answer.
For the quieter end of things, a pet that has gone off its food is the most common worry on a sit and the one most often nothing at all, which why a pet stops eating covers at length. And if you want the owner side of the same conversation, the questions worth asking before you accept is where those boundaries get set.
The Job Is Recognising, Not Diagnosing
I have first aid training for humans and none at all for animals, which is worth admitting on a page like this. What I do instead is read constantly, because I write about this and I refuse to write about something I do not understand.
In practice that means I know what cats and dogs can and cannot eat. I know roughly what it means when a cat vomits a few times, and when it means something more. I read about this regularly, more than most people do, and I would rather know the shape of a problem than have a perfect answer to it.
The reason is not that I expect disaster. It is that knowing what you are looking at takes the stress out of the moment. When something goes wrong on a sit, you are not starting from panic, and that makes a difficult few days far more manageable than they would otherwise be. A framework you already have is worth more than a perfect plan you have to look up.
The single most useful thing we have is the 24-hour vet line. It sounds like a small perk of a membership tier and it is not. It has paid for itself over and over in the only currency that matters on a sit, which is not having to carry the worry on your own.
Where Everything Else Is Covered
This page is one of a set, and the rest of it is already written. If your situation is below, go straight there rather than working it out from first principles.
| If the situation is | The page that covers it |
|---|---|
| It ate something it should not have | What to do when a pet eats something dangerous |
| The owner cannot be reached | Handling an emergency when the owner is |
| You need to know who pays | Vet care and costs during a house sit |
| The animal has died | What to do if a pet dies during a house sit |
| The animal has gone missing | What to do if a pet runs away |
| It will not eat | When a pet stops eating |
| You have to give medication | Giving a pet medication on a sit |
| It is an older animal | Caring for a senior pet |
| It has a terminal diagnosis | Sitting for a pet with a terminal illness |
| It has injured a person or another animal | When a pet injures someone |
| There is a heatwave | House sitting through a heatwave |
| You are worried about blame afterwards | Negligence and a pet dying in your care |
Two more are worth knowing before the sit rather than during it. What separates a prepared sitter from an unprepared one is the homeowner's side of this, and our house sitting checklist covers the handover so that the veterinary details and the permission question are settled while the owner is still in the country.
If you take one thing from this page, take the rule. Wondering is the signal. Call, and let somebody qualified tell you it is nothing.
Conclusion
Almost all of this comes down to time and preparation, in that order. The emergencies that kill are the fast ones, and the fast ones are usually decided before you have worked out what you are dealing with. Your job is not to diagnose them. It is to recognise that something is wrong, and to be in a car heading to a vet rather than on a search engine looking for a remedy.
Bloat is the clearest example and the one worth memorising. There is no home treatment, the window is about two hours, and the only thing that saves the dog is somebody deciding quickly. Retching with nothing coming up, a belly tight like a drum, and you are already late.
Caro and I have completed 20 house sits across 12 countries, driven 19,000km across Europe in our 1998 VW T4, and saved over $26,500 in accommodation costs over three years of house sitting.
DM us @housesittersguide, we answer everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the first thing to do if a dog has a bloated stomach?
Go to a vet, and go now. Bloat is when the stomach fills with gas and twists, cutting off the blood supply. There is nothing you can safely do at home, and the delay caused by trying is the main risk to the dog.
Is there a home remedy for bloat in dogs?
No, and this is the most important thing on this page. There is no position to hold the dog in, no oil to give, and no massage that helps. If a twisted stomach is not corrected surgically within a couple of hours, death is likely.
How long can a dog survive with bloat?
Sometimes only a few hours. Once a bloat starts, death can follow within hours, and surgery within a couple of hours is the difference. That is why the advice is always to go immediately rather than to monitor at home.
How do I know whether it is an emergency or not?
If you are wondering, treat it as an emergency. The cost of being wrong one way is a wasted evening and a consultation fee. The cost the other way is the animal. When in doubt, ring the vet line and let them tell you it is nothing.
How can I tell bloat apart from choking or ordinary vomiting?
Bloat is retching with nothing coming up and a belly that is tight like a drum. Choking usually involves pawing at the mouth and a distinctive sound, and there may be something visible. Ordinary vomiting produces something and the dog settles afterwards. All three can need a vet, so the distinction matters less than acting quickly.
Are some dogs more at risk of bloat than others?
Yes. Large and giant deep-chested breeds are at the highest risk, along with dogs fed one large meal a day, fast eaters, underweight dogs, anxious dogs, and dogs aged roughly seven to twelve. It can still happen in any breed, which is why the signs matter more than the breed.
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