Dogs and Foreign Objects
Dogs and puppies explore the world with their mouths. They love to taste things, chew on items that have an interesting texture, and more. It can happen that once in a while a dog or puppy will swallow something that’s not a food item. The non-food item has a term—it’s called a foreign object.
The item gets this name because it is a non-food item that dogs normally don’t eat for nutrition. Foreign objects can include anything from parts of shoes, entire socks, acrylic nails, and yes, even rings. Foreign objects of any kind can be dangerous for dogs, with some even causing a life-threatening emergency such as a blocked intestine.
All is not lost, hopefully. If this happened in the last few minutes, then ring your veterinary practice, explain the situation and head straight over there so that your dog can be given a drug to make him sick. It should then be possible to retrieve your wedding ring from the vomit (yuk!).
In what I thought was a sensible move, I took off my wedding ring to bathe my dog. To my horror, when I turned around to pick up the sponge, my dog licked up my ring and swallowed it! What should I do?
It is always worth X-raying before any interventions, as it may be that the wedding ring is still somewhere at home – your dog having spat it out on realising it was not very tasty!
If, however, it was a few hours ago, then I would still take your dog to the practice for an X-ray. If your ring is still in the stomach, causing vomiting is still a viable option as before. If the ring has moved into the intestines, then one can only hope that it will have a smooth passage through and it will be a matter of checking through your dog’s faeces to retrieve your ring (double yuk!). Any signs of obstruction, such as vomiting, anorexia or abdominal pain will be an indication that the ring has become stuck and surgery will be needed to remove it.
See a list of abnormal objects that are commonly ingested by dogs. Go to: Gastrointestinal Foreign Body in Dogs
The first was a Labrador retriever named “Jake” that gobbled the ring down (the night before the would-be proposal!). His owner, Vince, was just devastated.
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Dogs will eat just about anything. Check out this X-ray of a dog that ate something he shouldn’t have … see if you can recognize what it is.
Take our Poll – Has your dog ever eaten something he shouldn’t have? Please feel free to include your comments and stories – it is fun to read them! Go to: petplace.com/polls.
What do you do when your dog eats something it shouldn’t?
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This is the type of phone call every veterinarian gets. I know I have certainly had a few.
This might seem outrageous, but it really is not an uncommon scenario. And for some reason, some dogs just seem to like engagement rings. I’ve had this happen to me a couple of times.
The first was a Labrador retriever named “Jake” that gobbled the ring down (the night before the would-be proposal!). His owner, Vince, was just devastated.
Then there was a Golden Retriever named “Bella” who swallowed the ring on the morning after the engagement. Bella’s owner Jessie called me in a total panic because she and her brand new fiancé planned to show the ring to both sets of parents that day. She took off her ring to take a shower and BOOM – Bella had a snack! She was convinced her fiancé would want to break it off.
Dogs will eat just about anything. Check out this X-ray of a dog that ate something he shouldn’t have … see if you can recognize what it is.
Bottom line, it can be dangerous when dogs eat anything other than their normal diet. The biggest concern is that the ingested object can cause a gastrointestinal obstruction, which can be a surgical emergency.
See a list of abnormal objects that are commonly ingested by dogs. Go to: Gastrointestinal Foreign Body in Dogs
Take our Poll – Has your dog ever eaten something he shouldn’t have? Please feel free to include your comments and stories – it is fun to read them! Go to: petplace.com/polls.