Can Urgent Care Help with Food Poisoning?

Food poisoning is an unpleasant experience. It’s a foodborne illness that happens when you consume contaminated foods or drinks that infect or irritate your gut. A visit to urgent care for food poisoning may help with mild symptoms, while more severe symptoms may need advanced treatment.

Here’s how to know if you have food poisoning and exactly when to visit urgent care for treatment.

Symptoms of Food Poisoning

Food poisoning is an infection you pick up from foods or drinks caused by parasites, viruses, chemicals, or bacterial infections. Food poisoning symptoms vary, depending on the cause, but there are a few telltale signs.

Symptoms typically show up within a few hours to days or weeks after eating some bad food and include:

• Nausea or upset stomach
• Vomiting
• Stomach pain
• Stomach cramps
• Diarrhea
• Watery stools

You can often manage these symptoms at home with self-care and rest. Stay hydrated and drink plenty of fluids, like broth, water, or electrolyte drinks, and eat bland, low-fat foods as you start to feel better. In most cases, it will pass on its own within 48 hours and without medical treatment.

However, if your symptoms last or you see blood in your stool, you may need additional treatment. Bloody stools may mean the bacteria or other organisms have infected the gut lining or intestinal mucosa. Rarely, an infection can advance outside the gut and cause widespread infection or severe symptoms that affect your nervous system or other organs, such as your kidneys.

When To Go to Urgent Care for Food Poisoning

So, how do you know when you need treatment? Exactly when should you go to urgent care for food poisoning? As a general rule, you may need to visit an urgent care clinic, such as a Next Level, if you have common symptoms of food poisoning that don’t get better after 3 days.

Urgent care is ideal for minor food poisoning, and treatment can help with uncomfortable symptoms. For instance, you can visit urgent care if you are experiencing:

• Ongoing vomiting
• Diarrhea for longer than 3 days
• Fever below 102° F
• Dehydration

Food poisoning causes you to lose fluids and minerals through diarrhea and vomiting. If you’re unable to keep fluids down or tolerate fluids, you may develop dehydration. Signs of dehydration include:

• Weakness
• Tiredness
• Extreme thirst
• Dizziness
• Dry mouth
• Headache
• Less urine than normal
• Dark-colored urine

Dehydration is most dangerous in children and older adults, but it’s also a risk for anyone who has persistent vomiting and diarrhea. A visit to urgent care can catch and correct dehydration before it becomes serious or causes complications.

What Can Urgent Care Do for Food Poisoning?

Treatment at urgent care for food poisoning usually focuses on easing symptoms and prescribing medications for infections where possible. A provider may order some diagnostic tests, such as testing a stool sample to identify the bacteria, parasite, or virus. They may also run some blood tests to check your mineral levels and monitor for other conditions.

Additionally, they may offer treatments to help, such as:

• IV fluids and electrolytes
• Anti-nausea medications
• Antibiotics for bacterial infections
• Antiparasitic medication for parasite infections
• Anti-diarrhea medication

When To Go to the ER for Food Poisoning

Food poisoning rarely progresses to a condition that requires a visit to the emergency room. Still, severe food poisoning can happen and may cause complications.

A few signs and symptoms may indicate you need to skip urgent care and go to the ER instead. These include the following:

• A high fever of 103° F or higher
• Severe cramps and stomach pain
• Confusion
• Fainting
• Vomiting blood
• Trouble breathing
• Severe dehydration
• Blurry vision
• Muscle weakness
• Black or dark red stool

Some bacteria or other organisms spread throughout your body and cause systemic illness, which can lead to serious medical conditions. Older adults or people who have weakened immune systems are especially vulnerable. Emergency room staff will check whether infections have reached your blood or caused other conditions and will offer advanced treatment.

Feeling Sick After Eating Something?

If the thought of food poisoning scares you, stay calm. While it is an uncomfortable experience, it usually passes on its own without treatment. However, if you have minor symptoms but you’re not getting better, or you think you’re developing dehydration and need help, try an urgent care center.

Next Level urgent care clinics provide quick and compassionate care to help address your symptoms and get you feeling your best again. Find one of our 45+ clinics near you and walk in, or book an appointment online.