What to Feed a Yorkie After an Upset Stomach

For a healthy adult Yorkie who had one bout of vomiting or a day of loose stool, is otherwise bright and drinking, and has no other symptoms, the usual advice is unglamorous: rest the stomach briefly, then reintroduce food gently and in small amounts. What follows describes that general approach so you know what your vet is likely to mean when they say 'feed something bland for a couple of days.'

Water comes first

A dog this small dehydrates quickly, so keeping fluids going matters more than getting food in. Offer small amounts of fresh water frequently rather than a full bowl gulped at once, which can come straight back up. If your Yorkie cannot keep water down at all, that is a veterinary call — not something to wait out.

What a bland diet usually means

Bland here means plain, low-fat, and easy to digest: typically a simple cooked lean protein with a plain cooked starch, with nothing else added. No oil, no butter, no salt, no seasoning, no onion or garlic in any form, and no sauces or stock. Skinless, boneless, plainly cooked chicken or turkey with plain white rice or plain cooked potato is the combination most owners are given.

Portion size for a 5 lb dog

This is where advice written for a 60 lb Labrador goes badly wrong. A Yorkie's whole daily intake is small, so 'a small meal' means something quite different here. The principle is to give roughly the volume she would normally eat in a day, divided into more, smaller servings than usual — perhaps four or five tiny portions rather than two meals — so the stomach is never handling much at once.

• Start with a very small amount — a spoonful or two — and wait a few hours.
• If it stays down, offer another small serving rather than a large one.
• Spread the day's food across four or five small servings instead of two meals.
• Do not add treats, chews, dairy, or toppers while the stomach is settling.
• If anything comes back up, stop offering food and contact your veterinarian.

Getting back to normal food

1. Once she has kept small servings down for a full day and stools are firming, start reintroducing her regular food.
2. Mix a little of the normal food into the bland portions and increase it over two to three days — going back too fast is a common way to end up repeating the whole episode.
3. Return to the usual meal schedule and portion once she is fully back on her own food.
4. Reintroduce treats last, and only after everything else is settled.

When to stop and call

Contact your veterinarian if the upset lasts beyond about 24 hours, returns after you reintroduce food, or is joined by any of the red flags at the top of this page. Also call if you are simply unsure — an upset stomach in a 5 lb dog has far less margin than the same episode in a large breed, and no clinic will mind the question. This article is educational and does not diagnose or treat anything; it describes the general approach owners are commonly given so you can follow your own vet's instructions with more confidence. Where their advice differs from anything here, follow theirs.