Duck dog in trouble...

R

Rich Alley

Member
I need some advice (and support) concerning my 7 year old lab's current problem.

She ate about two corn cobs after our cook out last Saturday. My fault, as I left the garage door open at camp. She cannot keep food down, but is still quite strong. She has passed and regurgitated several pieces since then, and an x-ray shows a couple of smaller pieces in the intestines, but a barium enhanced x-ray shows a bigger piece lodged in the stomach, with barium not going beyond that. We are keeping her home tonight, and will have a new x-ray at 8 in the morning.

The vet said that if that cob has not moved, she would have to do surgery to get it, as inducing vomiting might be a real disaster. I guess these larger cobs could take months to dissolve by gastric juices, and a lot can go wrong in the process. She mentioned that some facilities such as Tufts in Boston (we are 3 hours away), are doing endoscopy work, and might give it a try without cutting. They would have to see the pics to be sure.

Has anyone encountered this problem and reached a solution through endoscopy or surgery? I would appreciate any suggestions anyone might have. Emily (quite a name for a hunter, eh?) is otherwise in good shape, and is one of the family for sure.

I have learned the hard way that what is trash to me is a bountiful meal for a lab.

Thanks.
 
Hi my name is Robyn and I am Colin Wheeler's wife and he read this to me and I thought that I would take the time to respond to you. I manage a vet hospital now but I worked in an emergency vet hospital for 5 years and we came across this problem many times. We are also lab owners. In my experience the endoscopy procdure is less invasive but the likely hood of it being retrieved in the fashion I would say is slim. If you choose to start with this route it may and probably will end up with Emily being cut anyway. The scope itself will be somewhere in the ballpark of $800-$1000 and if this is unsuccessful you will be looking at an additional $1500.00-$2000.00 for the surgery and recovery. If this was our dog, knowing that there is definitely a corn cobb in him I would choose to have him cut open and have it surgically removed not only due to cost but he will not be under anesthesia as long if he had to get both done. Recovery time for having it surgically removed is about 7-10 days and it consists of making sure that she is eating and drinking normally and passing normal stool, maybe some antibiotics and possibly some pain meds and keeping her quite until sutures and or staples are removed. We have seen many dogs recover just fine from this when it is caught early, some have not been so lucky, when not caught early. Good for you for knowing and watching your dogs actions and behaviors. The other bonus to having her cut is that the doctor can take a look at the rest of the intestines to make sure that there is no further obstruction that a scope would not be able to get at. I hope this is useful to you and I would like to know how Emily makes out! Take care and good luck!
Robyn Wheeler
 
Rich,
I'm a vet and would recommend being aggressive with getting the cobs out surgically. I don't think you will have much luck getting things of that size with an endoscope. I worry that the cobs will compromise the blood supply to the gut. I've seen this and had to remove about 15 inches of dead intestine. Hope all goes well.

Brian
 
Good luck with the surgery.With luck,she may pass the cob before she goes under the knife.
Had a Boykin pup that swallowed a knotted sock.The vet could feel the lump and sceduled surgery for the next day.
Luckily he passed it that morning.I thought he had heaved.The vet said it was no longer there,so checked the trash and sure nuf,thesock was there.
 
Thank you Joe. Looks like the surgery will happen this morning. I was wishing for a better outcome, but that's the way it seems to go.

Rich Alley
 
Rich ,

You made the right decision. Stomach and intestine obstructions are truly life threatening and need to be acted on agressively for the best outcome. My little female has had several of these surgeries. The first was a twist in teh intestines. I almost didn't bring her into the emergency room vet on a sunday night. I was going to wait til monday morning since she was just acting "Off" with some vomiting but was running around like normal. I'm glad I did as I was told had I waited she would have died.

Second time was a few years later when she got a blood clot in the intestines. After the first event , I told them to do an exploritory right away.

The last event was just recently when she ate several whole mallards I had for training. My fault, I accidentaly left them out of the freezer when I wet to work . As soon as I saw she had distress we went to the vet. Probably saved her life as her stomach was blocked.

She is 11 years old, was bouncing around the next day and I really had to watch her to keep her quiet for the 2 weeks of healing til the staples could come out.

good luck,

baumy
 
I thought Colby puked a huge tape worm..turned out it was one of my white socks that the kids were playing tug of war with him. The new rule in the house was "No more tug of war with clothes". I never thought about a corn cob being deadly to a dog..Colby used to chew on them but never swallowed one..learn something new everyday here.
 
Yep, corn cobs are bad news. they grab the intestinal wall. IMO, endoscopy would be a waste of time and $. An enterotomy is the way to go.. Good luck, I hope that all goes well.

It should!
 
thud corn cobs...he loved em...(apparantely not alone on that).

We never gave him more than (3) or (4) but that was because it was typically while we were on the deck oin the summer and you could just hand them to him when you were finished...

Scary....never, ever, ever, would have thought that it was anything more than giving him something that he enjoyed eating.....

Last corn cob I'll ever feed to a dog thats for sure....

Steve
 
When they chew them up, it is not always a big deal. When they swallow one that is still intact by and large, it is a really big problem. This usually happens when the dog sees the owner coming to take it from him! That is probably why you never had problems Steve. The dog wasnt stealing them and gobbling them down.
 
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