My Christmas morning started at 5am, much earlier than I had hoped. As I groggily came to, our daughter stood by our bed shaking me but not for the reason I anticipated. Instead of pleading to open presents early she was telling me that our 6 year old Bouvier had vomited all over the basement. With less than the cheer of old saint Nick I stumbled down to throw towels on puddles, scrub carpet, and wrestle with our small steam cleaner (a must have for pet owners with any fabric in their homes) to make sure all was back to normal by the time the rest of the family awoke. I noted in the vomit small pieces of cloth and rubberish material and this gave me pause. The spectre of a gastrointestinal foreign body is always on a veterinarians mind when a pet begins to vomit. Dogs especially, will not uncommonly eat all sorts of things that they cannot pass. Intervention in these cases ranges from simple to quite complicated surgery and a variety of outcomes are possible.
Mud Bud rallied, though, ate his breakfast and was fairly bright the rest of the day. I told the story to the staff the next day ending with the unfortunate phrase,”I really thought I would have to take Mud Bud to surgery on Christmas.” The staff looked around nervously for wood to knock on. And, not five minutes later, my wife called and said that Mud Bud was not doing well. Lethargic, not moving, and unwilling to follow our kids around (a sure sign of serious illness for him) there was no doubt that something was wrong. Our boys rushed him to the clinic and, when appointments were finished, we took him to surgery immediately. The obstruction was difficult to access and the surgery long and challenging. At the end I had taken two large socks and the remnants of a garden glove that had anchored itself at the outflow of the stomach and was threatening to saw through the small intestine. Another 24 hours and our pup would not have survived. Our boy recovered almost too quickly. It was heart warming to watch him return to following the kids around and eating again. He was rapidly his old mischievous self. This is veterinary medicine at its best. A defined problem and solution. The owners get their pet back.
As we passed through the Holidays I thought it appropriate to use this story to highlight some important points about pets being naughty and eating things they shouldn’t:
- Studies indicate there is a genetic predisposition to increased appetite that causes some dogs to seek out food and perhaps foreign objects more aggressively. If this describes your pup, be careful leaving garments or objects around they could ingest.
- If a pet ingests a toxin or food item (chocolate, grape, raisin, onion etc) that you have a question about, we recommend immediately calling the ASPCA poison control line at (888) 426-4435.
- Vomiting and diarrhea in a pet can be uncomplicated and self limiting or quite serious. If you are concerned, we are always happy to evaluate your pet to determine if further diagnostics are required or if simple treatment measures will suffice.
- Surgery is hard on everyone. Recovery is no joke. Always feel free to contact our staff after surgery if you have questions. We are here to support you!
- Pets symptoms can be the tip of the ice-berg. This is why, in general, we try to perform thorough work ups (while giving owners options) for presenting symptoms.
- Having a sick pet is hard, draining, and seems to always happen at the worst times. At VCVC we want to be helpful and caring in that process as much as we can.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for a sedative after surgery! Keeping pets quiet can be hard!