Written by Dr Tim Laws
In my thirty-year career as a vet, I am still amazed at the different things dogs eat. A foreign body obstruction is the term vets use to describe a blockage in the digestive system which requires surgery to be removed. In some cases, it is difficult to determine if a dog has an obstruction as some items don't show up on X-ray.
The most common item to cause a foreign body obstruction is the corn cob (the second being garden rocks). Dogs love corn cobs! The humble veggie is usually scraped off the dinner plate after tea and innocently given to the dog (or dogs will find them in the compost heap). The cob is usually swallowed whole and doesn't digest so gets stuck somewhere in the small intestine. Other food related objects responsible for causing problems are kebab and paddle pop sticks. I vividly remember a dog coming into the clinic in extreme discomfort, and I was able to feel the points of a kebab stick which was stuck horizontally in the abdomen.
Fish hooks are another item commonly swallowed as dogs are attracted to the bait or just the fishy smell of the hook. Sometimes the hooks pass through the dog without incident or are easily removed from the stomach with surgery. If the fishing line is still attached to the hook and someone pulls on the line after swallowing, the hook will often get stuck half way down the oesophagus and we have to use an endoscope to try and dislodge it.
Another common problem we see at the clinic is the dog who has been fed cooked bones. Cooked bones will not digest in the stomach, and if the dog swallows a large piece, it will often get stuck, or even worse, pierce the gut.
Other items responsible for causing blockages are not food related and are just swallowed by an enthusiastic young dog who loves to chew things up or carry toys, balls etc around in their mouths.
Over the years, some of the things we have removed from a dog’s intestinal system include the following: stuffed or plastic toys and game pieces, various balls, various clothing items like underwear and socks, curtains, bath plugs, TVs remotes, fencing wire, foam rubber, plastic bags and a whole roll of cling film.
We once operated on a dog which had swallowed a stuffed toy whole. We retrieved the undamaged, although slimy, toy from the stomach; I am not sure if it was given back to the child.
The usual symptoms of a dog with an obstruction is they are lethargic, off food, vomiting and often not passing any faeces so if your dog is showing these signs and /or you are missing your favourite pair of underpants, you had better give your vet a call.