Below is some advice for flushing your pet’s mouth. You should contact us if you have an emergency with your pet such as difficulty breathing, moderate-severe bleeding, collapse, broken bones, seizures, eye injuries or head injuries.

Always assess the situation for any safety hazards before assisting your pet- do not put yourself in danger.

In all cases of suspected ingestion of chemicals or toxic substances, you should seek immediate veterinary treatment. However, first aid in the form of flushing your pet’s mouth can be administered.
Do not attempt to induce vomiting in your pet – this can cause more damage in certain cases, and we will often seek advice from the Veterinary Poison’s Helpline for guidance on this in practice. Please keep any packaging of the substance your pet may have swallowed – this can be very useful to us when treating your pet.

Method

You may need an extra person to help restrain your pet. You can use any method which will provide a slow stream of tepid water – this can be in the form of a sports water bottle, shower head or hose. Be extremely careful not to angle the water towards the back of your pet’s throat or the back of their mouth – this can cause water to go into your pet’s lungs. Instead, angle the water stream from several other angles. Take care to keep the pressure of water low, to reduce the risk of aspiration. You should flush the mouth for 15-20minutes. If you have someone with you, they should contact us in the meantime so that we can make arrangements for veterinary treatment as soon as possible – it is important not to delay treatment in cases of poisoning.

Please see our poisons page for more information.