What are the things my dog should really not eat?
One of the frustrating things that young dogs do is eating the wrong things. If this is your dog, you know the exact feeling. You come home and there are bits of thing everywhere. OMG what might they have swallowed? …….What a bother!
If you know your dog has eaten something problematic we recommend to come to the vet and make your pet vomit. Most dogs will vomit when medicated, but this still doesn’t guarantee that every object has been expelled.
We once had a Labrador who ate it’s dog lead. It didn’t appear when we made him vomit and he showed no significant changes for the next few months. 108 days later on a walk he made some awful heaving noises and up came the dog lead in a big vomit. The lead looked pretty good considering it had been 108 days in the dog’s stomach.
This is a quick list of thing we have taken out of dogs and cats gastrointestinal tracts.
- Corn cobs
- Palm nuts
- Football socks
- Underpants
- Mango seeds
- Peach seeds
- Soft toys
- Ribbon
- Bones
- Nerf gun bullets
- Pieces of ball
- Sand
- Sanitary products
- Rope and twine
- Fur balls
- Rocks
- Rugs
- Towels
- Hair bands
- Kinetic sand
- Sticks and skewers
Here is our latest culprit. The beautiful Ziggy the 18 month old Labrador. She presented with with intense, profuse vomiting and was very subdued. Dr Jill slowly palpated her abdomen and could feel a 50mm object in her upper abdomen.
Xrays showed a classic obstructive pattern of gas filled loops of bowel, but looking back on the xrays we can see a possible foreign body.
Ziggy’s in-house blood tests showed she was dehydrated but her kidney and liver function were good. Ziggy was stabilised with a fluid bolus, intravenous antibiotics were initiated and she was anaesthetised.
Dr Heidi opened her abdomen in surgery finding gas filled loops of bowel ending in a 50mm cylindrical object. 
This was removed with an enterotomy incision. Time for the big reveal….. it was a corn cob.
Ziggy was cared for at NEVS our emergency service overnight. They are experts in intensive care.
After surgery despite plenty of pain relief and support, Ziggy was a bit slow and miserable for a week. She is now completely recovered and her owners are definitely keeping her away from corn cobs. 
