Dog Ate What Foreign Object????

Dogs are notoriously known to eat just about anything.  In the past ten years of practice our hospital has removed corn cobs, underwear, Christmas ornaments...you name it. 
It is very important that owners "puppy proof" their homes in order to protect your pets from this dangerous problem. 

Below is a story about "Lena", a 6 year old mixed breed dog who we discovered ate a "linear foreign body".

"Lena" presented to our hospital with a history of lack of appetite and vomiting of 3 days duration.  In addition, when she drank water, she would vomit it right back up.  This are typical symptoms of a pet that has an obstruction or blockage from a foreign object. 
To help prove an obstruction x-rays were taken after a number of small x-ray visible beads were given to her to eat.  As you see below none of the beads move out of the stomach supporting the diagnosis of an obstruction.  (The dark areas behind the beads are intestines that are dilated and full of gas further supporting the diagnosis of obstruction.)

It was time for an exploratory surgery to find and remove the foreign object(s) from Lena's gastrointestinal tract.  Once in surgery we found a linear foreign object that was stuck and tangled in her stomach and went all the way down into her small intestines.  An incision into her stomach and two incisions into her intestines made it possible for us to remove the foreign object!!!

To this day, we do not know exactly what the object is, it appears to be a linear fabric like entity......
Lena is recovering nicely and feeling much better!!!

Kim Simons DVM

If you have any questions about this information or your pet, please give our office a call.
561-451-8838

West Boca Veterinary Center
www.westbocavet.com