GI foreign bodies

Re: GI foreign bodies

Mark Holmes — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 19:19:35 GMT

[quote user="CatherineThomas"]

I once saw a retriever who had been seen to eat a lollypop stick. The dog was fine so we advised monitoring - we thought that it would surely be able to pass through. A couple of days later the dog presented suddenly unwell. At ex-lap the lollypop stick was found to have penetrated the intestinal wall (It was still intact without any sharp edges). Fortunately the dog recovered well.

A couple of months later he was brought back because he had chewed up and swallowed pieces of a margarine tub. He passed several large pieces of the plastic tub with quite sharp edges without any problems.

[/quote] That still doesn't justify opening every dog with a swallowed lollipop stick. Infact I would say it justifies leaving them. In the very rare circumstance that it penetrates - not all is list if treated promptly should it become unwell.

Re: GI foreign bodies

CatherineThomas — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 18:13:14 GMT

Re: GI foreign bodies

Tom Ward — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:08:57 GMT

Not very big, but remember xraying a vomiting dog that the owner thought had eaten a sock. Nothing to see on the xray, so opted to monitor initially. Didn't hear any more until 2 weeks later when the, now angry, client informed me her dog had passed a sock. It had been perfectly healthy in the interim... Groan.

Re: GI foreign bodies

Dagmar Steele — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 08:18:57 GMT

[quote user="Birte Toft"][quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]

[quote user="Birte Toft"]a diet of asparagus and mineral oil[/quote]

any reason for feeding these?????

[/quote] It was the first time I'd heard of it. Vets here apparently recommend it for shifting foreign bodies. I suppose one could argue that it worked...

[/quote]

Well you never stop learning but I think I'll give this one a miss!

Re: GI foreign bodies

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 23:46:46 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"] She'd had her boyfriend up at the weekend.[/quote]

Oh Michael.

Re: GI foreign bodies

Birte Toft — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 23:39:02 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]

[quote user="Birte Toft"]a diet of asparagus and mineral oil[/quote]

any reason for feeding these?????

[/quote] It was the first time I'd heard of it. Vets here apparently recommend it for shifting foreign bodies. I suppose one could argue that it worked...

Re: GI foreign bodies

Gillian Mostyn — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 23:18:21 GMT

[quote user="Birte Toft"]a diet of asparagus and mineral oil[/quote]

any reason for feeding these?????

Re: GI foreign bodies

Linda Filshie — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 23:11:14 GMT

[quote user="Birte Toft"]My lolly stick dog was vomiting profusely today after a diet of asparagus and mineral oil[/quote] How surprising [quote]At least we managed to persuade the owner to let us remove its two undescended testicles instead.

[/quote] Silver linings and all that

Re: GI foreign bodies

Birte Toft — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 23:03:38 GMT

My lolly stick dog was vomiting profusely today after a diet of asparagus and mineral oil, so the owner (a doctor) pushed for surgery. Midway through the ex lap the lolly stick was discovered in a puddle of vomit at home. At least we managed to persuade the owner to let us remove its two undescended testicles instead.

Re: GI foreign bodies

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 22:40:10 GMT

During our Beaumont rotation in final year we had a first or second year lass bring her sickly cat in. She'd had her boyfriend up at the weekend. We removed a used, knotted, condom from its intestines. The condom was intact.

Not the biggest, but still the funniest one I've been involved in.

The cat was called Star IIRC

Re: GI foreign bodies

Wren — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 22:17:28 GMT

[quote user="David Mills"]

There was a tale on here, I think, about removal of a thong from a dog - when presented to the owners afterwards, wife promptly announced that it wasn't hers, so what exactly had hubby been up to? Who was it?

[/quote]

I think that one's apocryphal, ditto the used condom removed from the stomach of the dog belonging to a couple where the wife is on the pill/had a hysterectomy/they're trying for a baby etc.

Re: GI foreign bodies

David Mills — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 20:32:25 GMT

Re: GI foreign bodies

Julian Earl — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 20:06:05 GMT

The largest were two hard plastic ball toys that were found in a Boxer hving an abdominal Sertoli Cell Testicleremoved and they were just incidental findings. They were approximately 10cm diameter but one squashed into a rugby-ball shape. The owners commented that they had wondered where those two toys had gone. They gave them to the dog when he went into kennels and they thought they'd just forgotten them and left them behind. For the previous six months they noticed that the dog was being sick frequentlt but intermittently and hadn't bothered to take any action about it; he was "just a sickly dog" they thought.

I've also had the dog with cassette tape trapped under the tongue and extending into the intestines; the first FB I saw after qualifying and am disappointed that it is not unique but relatively well known.

I've also remove loads of whiskey bottle tops from a dog's stomach; and the dog was indeed owned by a local vicar. That's Burnley for you!

We had a cow with an umbrella stuck in its mouthby the molars, does that count as an odd large FB?

And another dog that has eaten the owners knickers after rading the laundry basket. She was so embarrassed that I threatened blackmail to the owner for fun but she wasn't that self-conscious!

Re: GI foreign bodies

bob lehner — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:38:11 GMT

[quote user="Utlendigur"]Funniest was the tinsel. Dog was presented with several inches of it hanging out of its anus,[/quote]

I once saw a dog with a piece of lettuce hanging out of its bottom.

Owner said 'Is this going to be serious ?'

'Well, possibly ' I said, 'Could be just the tip of the iceberg.'

(OK - I know it's an old joke).

Re: GI foreign bodies

Suzanne Kelly — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 00:28:58 GMT

Doberman came in with gastric dilatation after eating a load of cling film wrapped cupcakes plus the styrofoam cake stand. Os declined an ex lap and gastropexy so decompressed him with a stomach tube and kept him in for iv fluids. He perked up so sent him home. Os ( quite posh) came back 2 days later saying the dog had passed a "rope" of tablecloth, stones and clingfilm. I just about managed to keep it together when Mr O said that he measured said rope as it emerged from the dog's bum and that it measured 7 ft 2 ". However I collapsed on the table in fits of giggles when Mrs O announced that at the end of the rope was a pair of her knickers!

Re: GI foreign bodies

Ashley Rubens — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:46:29 GMT

12" x 4" piece of carpet. Owner had to 'help' it out the last few inches. Most unusual FB removed from a stomach was a net of baby bell cheeses, completely undamaged, and wasn't even the reason I opened the dog in the first place...

Re: GI foreign bodies

Birte Toft — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:46:22 GMT

Fair point. Also, the stomach wall will be protected by the natural retriever gut flora of socks and bits of plastic!

Re: GI foreign bodies

Mark Holmes — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:40:37 GMT

I really wouldn't worry, just tell them to get in touch should it stop eating. Lolly sticks go all soggy and soft. It will come through in a few days. How difficult is it to puncture the stomach, or bowel with a number 10 blade. A soggy bit of wood won't do it. Edit - is highly unlikely to do it.

Re: GI foreign bodies

Birte Toft — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:31:17 GMT

[quote user="Mark Holmes"] Look up FB's in children. The NHS left a friend daughter weeks to pass a key. If you are removing it endoscopically try it but the risks if ga, laparotomy and post op are much greater than a lollipop stick

[/quote]

I hope they had a spare key.

Our scope isn't that fancy, unfortunately.

I spent many years in a practice with no x-ray facilities, and we diagnosed a LOT of foreign bodies after the fact. But now (somewhat selfishly) I have a long weekend coming up, and I either get to worry about a dog with a lolly stick in its gut or a dog recovering from a laparotomy.

Re: GI foreign bodies

Mark Holmes — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:07:06 GMT

[quote user="Birte Toft"]

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]Towels, gloves, a squashy football. I wouldn't be rushing to remove a lollipop stick unless it were causing problems - you want to see what the NHS let children pass.

[/quote]

You think it might make its own way out? The last one ice lolly stick I removed was still in the stomach after two days, not particularly bothering the dog but worrying the owner. That was a small dog though, this one's a retriever.

[/quote] Look up FB's in children. The NHS left a friend daughter weeks to pass a key. If you are removing it endoscopically try it but the risks if ga, laparotomy and post op are much greater than a lollipop stick

Re: GI foreign bodies

Utlendigur — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 21:45:34 GMT

We had a bamboo/wood meat skewer pass through one dog

Funniest was the tinsel. Dog was presented with several inches of it hanging out of its anus, and slowly but surely over a couple of days it just kept coming

Re: GI foreign bodies

Neil Wheadon — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 21:24:35 GMT

[quote user="Julie Innes"]....a snooker ball[/quote]

A medic friend went to a show once where someone swallowed a rack of them and then brought them back up in order!

Lolly sticks dissolve, I wouldn't chase after it

Neil

Re: GI foreign bodies

Glenn Hodgson — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 21:23:39 GMT

I'm personall happier to see these out unless >GA risk

Slightly on a tangent... once found a medium sized rubber duck In a labs stomach incidentally during the dogs splenectomy. It had been there for ages! just floats on the top, no problem!

Re: GI foreign bodies

Birte Toft — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 21:17:19 GMT

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]Towels, gloves, a squashy football. I wouldn't be rushing to remove a lollipop stick unless it were causing problems - you want to see what the NHS let children pass.

[/quote]

Re: GI foreign bodies

Julie Innes — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 21:17:05 GMT

I felt a hard, round FB in a dog once- didn't seem to be causing the dog any problems, so I repeated palpation over the next couple days and found it moving through. On day 3 the owner triumphantly presented me with....a snooker ball!! Ouch!!