Crosby vs the squeaker

Crosby is a 5 month old yellow lab pup and like any young dog he loves to chew and play. One morning he was playing with a terrifically fun fuzzy squeaky toy. Crosby managed to get the squeaker from inside the toy and promptly swallowed it whole.  Fortunately for Crosby his owners saw that he had swallowed something and went to investigate. It was then that they noticed one of the three squeakers was missing. They brought Crosby to our office along with the remainder of the toy. The squeaker that he had swallowed was quite large and the doctors were concerned that the toy would become lodged in his intestines . Because of the alertness of the owners and their promptness in getting him to the clinic the toy was likely still in the stomach and Crosby  was given some medication to make him vomit to see if the squeaker would come up the way it went down. Crosby was very cooperative and vomited several times. Unfortunately, only bits of orange cloth were found. Crosby was then taken into our x-ray room and was a very good boy while we took some x-rays of his tummy. 

 

The chew toy was not obvious on the plain x-rays, so Crosby was given some barium. Barium is a chalky white liquid that is given by mouth and show up as white on x-rays. A series of x-rays are then taken at different times which allows us to see if there is something blocking the stomach or intestines.

 

This x-ray was taken 15 minutes after the barium was given. The barium is moving from the stomach into the intestines but there is a barium coated object remaining in the stomach. Several more x-rays were taken to observe the passage of the barium.

 

 

This x-ray was taken 2 hours after the barium was given. We can see that the barium has moved along through the loops of intestine but the round barium coated object remains in the stomach.

 

This x-ray was taken 3 hours later and the barium has passed through the small intestines and is now in the large bowel but that round object remains in the stomach. It looks like that squeaker is not going to be passed. We recommended that Crosby have surgery to remove it. We put an intravenous catheter in his front leg and started him on intravenous fluids. This would prevent him from becoming dehydrated. Crosby was cozied up for the night in preparation for surgery in the morning. In the morning Crosby was given a general anaesthetic and Dr. Dolinsek removed the squeaker from his stomach. He recovered very well from the anesthesia and surgery. Following surgery Crosby received antibiotics and pain medications. The following morning Crosby ate voraciously and his intravenous catheter was removed and he was sent home on a special diet, antibiotics, pain medication and strict rest (no easy feat in a bouncy lab puppy). Crosby seem unaffected by his experience and came bounding into the clinic 1 week later to have his stitches removed. Since his surgery Crosby’s owners have carefully inspected all new toys and have been diligent in keeping all objects not nailed down out of his reach.