What has gotten into Fido NOW?

by Christopher Forsythe, DVM

Every once in a while, I am amazed to see that a pet has swallowed something rather remarkable and managed to keep it down long enough to develop severe health problems and thus a trip to my office. Over the years, I have pulled some amazing things out of the stomachs and intestines of pets during surgery. This month’s article is devoted to that interesting yet nauseating part of my job: dealing with intestinal objects that get swallowed by Rover but just don’t pass out as swiftly as in.

One of the best things about dogs and cats is they love to play, they love to fetch, and they love to engage us in their activities. But on the downside, these same wonderful companions can get into trouble when such curiosity and playfulness lead them to accidentally swallow potentially harmful items which can lodge along the pet’s GI (gastrointestinal) tract. A partial or complete impedance to the flow of ingesta can create much more than a Maalox moment: you’ll think that Rover is going to hurl until his pancreas pops out!

My pet swallowed WHAT?

There are several different types of foreign bodies that can become dangerous when your pet decides to take a little taste test. The most common are balls, typically super balls or soft rubber balls. Others include socks, underwear, plastic dolls, chew toys, squeaky toys, ribbon, yarn, needles, Nylabones, rocks, bones, pens, plastic parts, rubber containers (Tupperware), bottle tops, and Styrofoam.
This is just a short list. As you can imagine, there are hundreds, if not thousands of different possible foreign bodies.

The foreign body causes fluids to accumulate “upstream” from the blockage location, and severe vomiting results. Pets generally have severe clinically signs that persist, but occasionally the vomiting will wax and wane if the foreign body dislodges and moves further along inside the body. As the pet continues vomiting, significant dehydration and electrolyte imbalances result, and several systems
are affected.

In the behavioral system, your normally sweet and happy-go-lucky pooch may become agitated and aggressive due to the cramping and sharp searing pain in his gut. You may notice him in a downward “praying” position, trying to reposition to avoid discomfort. In the cardiovascular system, pets can go into hypovolemic shock as they cope with the system wide affects of fluid imbalance and infection. And in the respiratory system, pets can develop aspiration pneumonia from breathing in vomit as they repeatedly cope with constant vomiting and struggling to breathe.

Boone, the Big Dog with the little GI tract

Boone was brought into my office over Memorial Day weekend vomiting like a Bulgarian gymnast prior to the All-Around Final. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was staying down this pet’s stomach. Mom was worried, as were the kids, because Boone was a family treasure, the mainstay of the house, the glue that held the house together.

Physical exam findings revealed a magnificent yellow lab with a face that the family, and now the family vet, fell in love with instantly. Big brown eyes, slightly sunken from dehydration, seemed to whisper “Help! Not sure what I’ve done now.”

His big, sweet, blocky mug just stared up at me, but revealed nothing else. At 10-12 percent dehydrated, the vomiting was taking its toll. His blood tests revealed low electrolytes due to his vomiting, but no other abnormalities. X-rays showed gas in the stomach and in the intestines, but no visible foreign body or obvious obstruction.

I began treatment with IV fluids and antibiotics, attempting to rehydrate his irritated stomach and intestines, trying to replace the electrolytes he had been vomiting for a couple of days. Still he continued to vomit, and he could not even hold his saliva down. And worse, the vomit became rancid smelling like a foul carcass with an odor like the smell of rotting flesh. Because his blood work supported normal internal organ function, and ultrasound did not reveal a tumor, I made the decision that exploratory surgery was necessary to give Boone a reasonable chance for survival.

After prepping the big sweet boy for surgery and opening him up to explore his abdomen, I was able
to locate the offending foreign body. Boone had a super ball lodged in his jejunum, a section of his
small intestine. The ball was approx 1 ½ inches in diameter and tightly clutched so that nothing could
pass around it. After cutting the ball out and closing the intestines, flushing the abdomen, and checking the rest of the abdomen for more foreign bodies, I closed Boone up and called his owners with the good news: Boone would likely make a full recovery, but from now on he would need to play with much larger, better supervised toys!