Our dog is apparently trying to poison herself

Having a sick dog is a very scary thing.  I imagine that the feeling of helplessness is pretty akin to having a very sick toddler who can neither tell you whats wrong or if something you've tried to alleviate their illness has helped or made it worse.  We got to experience this twice with Grace the last few weeks.

In the six months we've had her we've become quite accustomed to her puppy chewing habits and for the most part have found ways to curb them, for example, she will chew through power cords but not if they are plugged in, only when they are just left to lay on the floor.  So we have learned to not be lazy and just leave things like cords and the occasional shoe on the ground and to close closet doors at night.  But over the 24th her stomach was bothering her and so she, in typical dog fashion, ate some grass to help her get rid of whatever it was.  Only one problem, Gav had fertilized the lawn just the night before.  Poor puppy was sick and throwing up every morning for the rest of the week.  Luckily, my parents were willing to keep an eye on her the days when it was really bad.  After a little research I felt a bit less worried about her when I found out that it is a very common occurrence and that because she's not super little her system would just work it out.  Then, just a week after getting over that round of food poisoning, it happened again only this time it was truly frightening.  I got home from work this last Thursday to a nice pile of regurgitated food, gross I know, and after cleaning it up we found a mangled and punctured AA battery on the floor.  Even though the oils in common batteries aren't as strong and concentrated as the acids in, say a car battery, they are still very acidic and can cause burns and even ulcers in a dogs mouth throat and stomach, plus they contain a very scary concentration of lead.  She continued to throw up and be extremely lethargic for the next hour and a half.  We inspected her mouth and there didn't seem to be any burns and with a lack of battery acid even on the battery  let alone the floor or her fur, we concluded that it must have been dead, luckily.  As we debated whether a trip to the emergency vet was necessary we managed to get her to drink some milk and pepto to help neutralize whatever acid she did ingest as well as some peanut butter covered bread to help coat her stomach and throat and provide at least a little barrier. 

When she finally stopped throwing up we decided to wait on the vet trip and see if she would bounce back.  Thankfully all it took was the milk and pepto and then an hour or so of a good deep nap, closely monitored by my nervous self, and she obviously felt much better.  By the next morning she was back to her old self, as if the previous night had never happened.