The Undercover Vet: Foreign bodies - no......not illegal immigrants!

Very quiet day today at work so lots of time to blog!

As vets, we often encounter animals eating foreign objects. Sometimes, they move along the gut naturally and eventually pass out in the stools (browner and smellier than before). Often however, they have a tendency to get stuck somewhere inside.

There are numerous times when owners are worried about the dog eating something embarassing - such as condoms, underwear and illegal drugs. With some cases, vomiting can be initiated to bring the object out of the stomach. If they are lodged further down and causing an obstruction, surgery is often needed.

I had one owner who was worried that her dog (golden retriever) had eaten a mango stone. Large stones, corn cobs and so on, often get stuck and cause a problem. This owner however wasn't sure if the dog ate the stone, so she decided the best way to find out was to give the dog another mango stone and see if she ate it. Unsurprisingly, the dog gulped down the second mango seed - meaning the dog now had 2 stones stuck inside!! The dog had surgery to remove the 2 stones and recovered well fortunately.

I also have a regular client who has 2 lovely cats that are costing him a fortune. Every autumn, these cats have a habit of eating objects that get stuck inside. One cat likes plastic objects and the other likes carpet/material ones (carpet muncher?). Each cat has had 6 to 7 operations to remove these objects that have caused a problem. The owner has a young child and so finds it impossible to stop the child leaving or throwing objects around which the cats promptly decide to swallow. He has tried everything to stop the cats but nothing works. So far, the cats have always recovered although the owner knows one day, the cats' hobby may kill them.

We should have dedicated the new wing of the hospital to his cats considering the cost of 12+ operations probably subsidised it!