Items Dangerous for Dogs to Swallow
Cloth items. Dogs like the odor of their owners, so it’s no surprise that some end up mouthing dirty laundry that has people’s scent on it — socks, underwear, pantyhose, and the like. Some of those dogs then get carried away and swallow such undergarments whole, gulping them down and causing obstructions either in their stomach or intestines. “Owners of new puppies in particular should be very careful about leaving that stuff around the house until they know their dog doesn’t have the inclination to try to swallow everything he comes into contact with,” Dr. Berg says. In other words, use a hamper with a secure lid, or keep undone laundry locked away.
Plastic wrap that meat came in. “Dogs will fish this out of the trash,” Dr. Berg cautions. “It’s one of the biggies” in terms of what dogs swallow, and like cloth material, it can cause GI obstructions. “Don’t allow access to the garbage can,” he advises.
Discrete objects. These include everything from the aforementioned corn cob segments to the nipples on baby bottles, the pits of stone fruits, and plastic items such as little squeaky toys. Larger items, like a wad of fabric, tend to remain in the stomach. Smaller ones, like little rocks, often pass out of the stomach and then get stuck in the small intestine.
String-like objects. Called linear foreign bodies by veterinarians, these include string that was used to wrap meat and was then discarded. “Strings tend to be more of a cat problem,” Dr. Berg points out. Cats like to play with string-like objects and will swallow cassette tape, ribbon, yarn, and the like whereas dogs tend to go for big pieces of fabric or toys. “But the rules for species are not hard and fast,” he says. Dogs do end up in string trouble, too. The reason it’s so bad is that one end of the piece of string often gets stuck under the tongue or inside the stomach, and the rest of the string passes into the intestine. Because one end of the string is anchored in place, the intestine can’t pass the string, so the “intestine crawls up the string instead” to try to digest it, Dr. Berg explains. “The string can then literally saw through the intestine and cause a perforation.”
String also comes attached to fabric. A wad of fabric will get stuck in the stomach, but a string of the fabric unraveling at the edge will make its way down into the intestine and can also cause slicing into the intestinal wall.
Wood glue. “Don’t freak if your dog licks up a little glue,” says Dr. Berg. “But if a dog swallows a large quantity of white-colored wood glue, it can swell in the stomach as it hardens, up to the size of a softball, or even a cantaloupe. At that point, surgery is required to remove it.”
Uncooked cous cous. This expands in the stomach “big time,” Dr. Berg says, causing painful gastric distention. Other types of uncooked food that are hydrated during the cooking process are not as dangerous, but keeping them out of paw’s reach is still a good idea.
Post-1982 pennies. In 1982, the federal government, to save money in minting costs, decided to stop making pennies purely out of copper and instead use a combination of copper and zinc. Now, pennies have a central core composed of zinc with a ring of copper on the outside and a copper coating all around. “But zinc corrodes in stomach acid,” Dr. Berg points out, “so a dog can get zinc toxicity. That can lead to gastric ulcer, not to mention kidney failure.”
Note: Because pennies are small, it would be reasonable to assume they pass from the stomach into the small intestine and then into the large one before being passed from the body. But because pennies are heavy and dense, they tend to float to the bottom of the stomach, as if they fell to the bottom of a pool, and stay there.
Small magnets. “There’s a particularly notorious kind for dogs called Bucky Balls,” Dr. Berg says. They’re little round magnets that people will use as a desk ornament, stacking them into a pyramid shape or something like that. Another culrprit is children’s toys that have little magnets in them. If a dog swallows multiple magnets, which does happen, they can attract one another across intestinal wall sections, pinching pieces of the intestinal wall between them. That may then cause the wall to perforate. It’s rare, but we have seen it.
Teriyaki sticks. This one can be truly life-threatening. A dog can swallow a teriyaki stick whole (dogs really like them since they tend to have the odor of meat on them.) It will often pass through the esophagus just fine but end up crosswise in the stomach. “From there it pokes its way through the stomach wall and can then migrate through the body,” Dr. Berg says. “We’ve seen dogs with nasty infections in the chest cavity or abdomen. We’ve seen teriyaki sticks perforate the liver, too, and cause infections in the area of the kidneys.”
Sticks in general. A dog can easily crush a stick, which then breaks off into little splinters. And sometimes, one or more splinters can make it into the lining of the mouth and migrate from there into the neck or somewhere else in the head or face and cause an infection serious enough to require surgery. “The splinter dissolves,” Dr. Berg says, “but leaves behind an infection with an abscess — literally, a ‘pool’ of infection that becomes trapped in the tissues. We have to open up the abscess, drain it, and then put the dog on antibiotics. Most often the abscesses occur in the neck.”
Granted, Dr. Berg concedes, “many dogs can chew sticks their whole lives and never have a problem, but we see dogs here in New England pretty commonly who get infections from stick chewing. This is not just a puppy thing. Some older dogs never lose the desire to chew sticks.”
Dog owners are often told never to let their pet eat chicken bones. The fear is that a dog can easily crush a chicken bone with his teeth, causing it to splinter and then perforate the intestine. “But it’s largely an urban myth,” Dr. Berg says. “Chicken bone will almost inevitably dissolve in the stomach.
“Still, I would not make a point of letting a dog chew chicken bones,” he says. “I have had maybe two dogs in my career who swallowed pieces of chicken bone that then perforated the lining of their mouth or esophagus. So why take a chance? But don’t get hysterical if your dog gets some chicken bone before you have a chance to take it out of reach. Probably nothing’s going to happen.”
That said, there are bones that can cause dogs serious GI problems. See the box at the top right of this page.
How do I know if my dog has eaten a foreign body?
Most pets that have ingested a foreign body will exhibit some of these clinical signs:
After obtaining a thorough medical history, your veterinarian will perform a careful physical examination. If a foreign body is suspected, abdominal radiographs (X-rays) will be performed. Several views or a series of specialized X-rays using contrast material (barium or other radiographic dye) will often be necessary. In addition, your veterinarian may recommend blood and urine tests to assess whether the patients health has been compromised by the obstruction, or to rule-out other causes of vomiting such as pancreatitis, gastroenteritis, infections, or hormonal diseases such as Addisons disease.
Sometimes, non-food items are at risk of disappearing. Toys, socks, trash — basically anything lying around your house can be a possible snack in your dog’s eyes. Rescue dogs that were starving at some point in their life can also develop ‘the gobbles’, where they will overeat if given the opportunity and swallow things they shouldn’t. Let’s take a look at what to do when your dog swallows a foreign object.
So, your dog ate a large foreign object, like a sock or a stuffed animal. Larger objects can get stuck anywhere in the digestive system from the esophagus to the intestines, to the stomach. Large objects will likely need veterinary assistance, and possibly surgery, to be removed. They may induce vomiting to expel the foreign object your dog ate.
Remember, younger dogs will try to eat almost anything. Be conscientious about what you leave lying around the house. If they get into too much trouble while you aren’t home, consider crate training for their safety. If your dog ate a foreign object and you are unsure of what to do, give your vet a call. They will give you advice on whether to bring them in for an emergency visit or not.
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Finding out exactly what foreign object your dog ate is imperative in deciding whether you need to seek veterinarian help or not. For toxic substances, like antifreeze, large amounts of chocolate for your dog’s size, or foods containing xylitol, you should get professional help as soon as possible. For more advice on what to do when poisons have been ingested, call the ASPCA poison control at 888-426-4435 for guidance.
Dog that has swallowed a foreign object.
Puppies explore their world by mouthing, tasting, and chewing and as a result, they swallow foreign objects that can potentially make them sick. Puppies may gulp some things accidentally when a piece of a toy breaks off or something falls onto the ground without the owners knowledge. Other dangerous objects prove too tempting—used tampons, and even grease-smeared foil proves irresistible to puppies who troll the wastebaskets for scraps. Foreign body obstruction in puppies can be a medical emergency that can cost you money and your puppys life if not immediate attention is received.