Finding out your furry friend has ingested something they shouldn’t have can be a terrifying thought, especially if you’re not sure what exactly that is. You may be surprised at how often we give a gastric foreign body diagnosis in animals.
By foreign material, we mean anything that actually shouldn’t be in the stomach. That includes anything from grapes to bits of plastic, little toys, dummies, socks, and anything you can imagine. Dogs have a habit of just putting things in their mouths without putting too much thought into it.
At North Coast Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care, we do see some sharp objects that have been consumed, and they do cause us more concern. So what do we do about dogs that have eaten foreign material?
What to do if your dog has a gastric foreign body diagnosis?
The first point of call is to take your dog to the nearest vet clinic as soon as possible. It can be quite easy to remove from the stomach for softer foreign material if we can make your dog vomit. Items such as soft toys, socks, underwear, dummies, etc., are quite safe. So if your dog’s ingested a foreign material like that, take them down to your local vet clinic. More often than not, they’ll give them either an injection or a tablet that will encourage them to vomit. Fingers crossed, whatever they’ve ingested comes out straight away.
Ingesting sharp objects
However, if your pet has ingested items that are abrasive, sharp or that are likely to be irritant like a chemical, we will avoid inducing vomiting. We’re talking about fishhooks, needles, tacks or earrings because, as you can imagine, if you want to make your dog vomit after eating something like that, there’s a chance that it may irritate the oesophagus on the way back out.
So what other options exist? Fortunately, most objects ingested are opaque, which means they’re quite firm. They’re a density similar to or denser than bones. This means they’ll show up quite well on a radiograph. The first point of action is to take an X-ray and confirm that your pet has ingested it, as metallic objects appear very easily in X-rays.
Once we’ve confirmed that there’s something in the stomach, we can use an endoscope to remove the sharp material from the stomach. An endoscope is a light and fibre optic cable source.
First, we’ll anaesthetise your furry friend for maximum comfort and insert the scope down the oesophagus into the stomach. At the end of the endoscope are tiny pincers that grab the foreign material. Our trained vets then pull it back out through the oesophagus. Although this route is efficient, it can take a while to find little things in the stomach.
If you suspect your dog has ingested a sharp object, please don’t feed your dog. If you can imagine going into the stomach with a small scope, finding a small needle or a little tag can become even more complicated if there’s a lot of food there.
So if we don’t get the foreign material out of the stomach, what is the next call to action? The next step is to go into theatre and look at removing any foreign material via surgery.
It involves making an incision into the abdomen, exteriorising the stomach and removing the material. We recommend you don’t wait to bring your pet to the vet if you’ve witnessed them ingest an object because if you wait and it goes past the stomach, it’s a lot more challenging to retrieve. So call your vet, and make an appointment.
Don’t wait too long
Waiting too long to bring your dog to the vet may result in your pet needing more than just X-rays and vomiting. This may lead to an endoscopy or surgery. Even if the object is a soft material and you wait too long, it may end up in the small intestine, causing blockages, resulting in no other option but to remove it surgically. At North Coast Vet, we try and avoid surgery and look for one of the more conservative ways of treating it.
If you suspect your furry friend has ingested a foreign body, bring them to your nearest vet immediately, this happens more commonly than you would think. At North Coast Veterinary Emergency, we’re here 24 hours a day, seven days a week – call us today to see how we can help you.
