Well, this past week, they came by two again. This is a little story about a dog that I shall call Zipper. Over the years he has made a habit of eating things that aren't exactly what you would describe as edible. Last year I had to do an emergency exploratory to remove material that had become stuck. One incision was made into his stomach and two into his intestines.
His owners knew something was up when he started to vomit and wouldn't eat. He is a really great dog to work with but there are times when you just shake your head when you see his name on the appointment book. We were pretty busy with multiple surgeries so the girls had him dropped off with automatic radiographs.
When I got out of surgery the radiograph was ready for me. There it was, the classic pattern for a foreign body. All the gas built up in the intestines as well as an incredible amount of gas in the stomach. You can see the arrow where the foreign body was stuck. It was in the large colon so we proceeded with a few enemas. When that didn't produce the foreign body, we sedated him and were able to pull out a small grey sock with pink trim.
We were elated until we did a follow up radiograph just to make sure there wasn't anything else left lurking in his intestines. Now that the gas was moving, it showed up. Another one!!!! He got to stay the night for more enemas. We were so happy when the other one was produced. The daughter did not want the pair back.
Oh yeah, why I call him Zipper. It would be nice to just be able to open his stomach with a zipper to see what he's eaten this time.
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