Is mankind the only creatures that puke or are there other animals who spew?

Question

Is mankind the only creatures that puke or are there other animals who spew?

Answer 1

Leolupus is correct. There are animals that cannot vomit such as horses. This makes them particularly succeptible to digestive problems that could become life-threatening.

Answer 2

Any animal that has a digestive system remotely similar to ours can throw up.

Dogs, for example, will eat grass to intentionally throw up if they've got an upset stomach. Cats, horses, deer and most other large mammals have stomachs and throats that are like a human's except for different sizes and shapes, and as a result will also vomit when sick.

Some animals will regularly throw up as part of the digestion process,m which is something humans don't do. Owls, for example, will swallow a mouse whole, digest the meat, and then spit up a ball of fur and bones which they wouldn't have been able to digest. Cows and other grazing animals will half-chew their grass, digest it a bit, then spit it back up and do more chewing later (which is part of why they have more than one stomach). Mother scavanging dogs such as dingoes and coyotes, and large birds (mainly vultures and raptors) will leave their children behind, go get food, come back, and throw up some of it for their babies to eat rather than carrying it back.

Finally, certain tiny one-celled creatures (such as hydras) will have only one hole for both food going in and waste coming out, which I suppose could technically be counted as barfing too.

Answer 3

You have obviously never had a dog or cat! Many animals vomit - it's an evolutionary mechanism for ridding the body of harmful substances that may have been ingested.

However, there are animals which cannot vomit - rats can't, and despite what your first answer says, neither can horses.

When an animal such as a wolf brings up partially digested food from the stomach to feed its young, it is called regurgitation rather than vomiting, since it is a deliberate action, not an involuntary response to illness or ingesting something harmful.

Answer 4

Some reptiles actually vomit as a defense mechanism. The Eastern Hognose, a non-venomous snake, will regurgitate (spew) its last meal in hopes that a predator will eat that instead of the snake itself.