What to do if a dog swallowed an inedible thing
Has your dog eaten a sock or other inedible item? Determine the danger of the situation and provide first aid.
Has your dog eaten a sock or other inedible item? Determine the danger of the situation and provide first aid.
Four-legged pets are the most restless explorers, and they prefer to get to know the world by taste. For this reason every responsible owner should know what to do if the dog swallowed a bone or ate a sock.
In both cases, a foreign object in the body can lead to quite serious consequences, including death from internal bleeding, gut wrenching or suffocation.
What can be considered a foreign object
In medicine and veterinary medicine, foreign objects are defined as any foreign object that has entered the body. It can be small toys, dust, or even parasites.
The top 10 foreign bodies often found in dogs in the esophagus, stomach and intestines include:
hair bands;
Interestingly, four-legged pets are most likely to pull things that smell like their owner into their mouths.
The swallowed thing may come out on its own after a while, but sometimes it gets stuck inside and causes serious discomfort to the animal. In this case, the incident is indicated by a number of characteristic symptoms.
Symptoms of a dog swallowing a foreign body
Symptomatology develops either with a slight delay or immediately after the incident. Its vividness depends on the type of object swallowed and the complications received. Possible symptoms include:
Frequent swallowing of saliva, a protective reflex to help push the foreign body further
Diarrhea or constipation;
Lethargy and refusal to play or eat;
uncontrolled salivation, followed by wetting of the fur on the chest and deterioration of its appearance;
Swallowing reflex during feeding (coughing when trying to eat even a small piece of food storage container)
Whimpering due to pain (occurs mostly when eating food)
Coughing and wheezing;
bloating of the abdomen and its pronounced painfulness on palpation;
Blood flecks in the feces – the main sign of internal organ damage.
If you notice any of the above – give your pet first aid. In case of severe malaise you will have to go to the veterinarian.
Battery ingestion is accompanied by seizures, hyperactivity, vomiting and gnashing of teeth. These symptoms are caused by the lead they contain.
First aid at home
If the dog ate a sock or something else right in front of your eyes, it is very likely that you can help yourself. The main thing is to adhere to strictly authorized actions and avoid those that can cause harm.
Intermittent attacks of vomiting with a lull for a couple of days or even weeks are characteristic of incomplete obstruction of the stomach or intestines, in which food is able to bypass the thing swallowed.
What you can do
First, do an examination. Grab a flashlight or turn it on on your phone – and carefully examine your pet's throat. Be sure to make sure he can breathe normally and try the following steps, depending on the situation:
what to do if a dog eats glass or inedible thing?
Pull out the jammed item directly with your fingers or tweezers, but only if it is somewhere nearby. Otherwise you risk pushing the thing even deeper.
Take a wax candle, cut it into small pill-sized plates and feed it to the dog, remembering to remove the wick. For small dogs, only 2-3 cm of the candle will be enough, and for larger dogs about half of it. The wax heated inside the body will create a protective capsule around the sharp bone. After an hour, the pet can be fed.
Induce vomiting. Prepare a saline solution of a glass of water and a tablespoon of salt. Inject this into his mouth with a syringe and gently press on the root of his tongue until he vomits.
Purge the intestines with a 50-100 ml water enema without additional products. Wait for the pet to go to the toilet and repeat the procedure several times until clear defecation water appears.
If the animal's condition is stable, but the swallowed thing never came out – put him on a diet. Do not give solid food for 3 days and feed wet food container with the addition of vegetable oil. Be sure to watch the amount you drink. Low fluid intake could cause dehydration.
Observe the result by the state of the feces. If the stool frequency is stable and there are no dangerous foreign matter in the feces, then you just have to wait for the previously swallowed object to show up in it.
What not to do
Prohibited activities include the following:
Mixing vomiting saline solution for with medications, herbal decoctions and manganese. These ingredients can trigger allergies or burn mucous membranes.
Inducing vomiting for unknown cause of intoxication, swallowing sharp bones, loss of consciousness, gastrointestinal bleeding, ingestion of alkalis, acids and petroleum products.
Administering an enema when there is blood in the feces.
Use of laxatives and other drugs without prescription.
Pulling the visible end of a string, fishing line or long product through the mouth or rectum. If sharp objects are attached to their end, they can cut through the walls of internal organs and aggravate the animal's condition up to and including death when pulled out. They can also easily cut through the walls of the stomach or intestines.
Putting the dog on a starvation diet. Passing a sharp object over empty digestive organs will cause even more trauma.
If you have any doubts about first aid, contact your veterinarian. He will tell you what you can do and if you should go to the vet right away.
When to go to the vet
If there is no improvement from the steps taken or if your pet is steadily deteriorating, you should take your pet to the vet. An earlier visit may be necessary if the following symptoms are present:
Severe abdominal pain and bloating;
Blood streaked or blackened feces and vomit;
Severe lethargy and complete refusal of food;
Also, do not be heroic if any sharp (tubular and rib bones, needles, hooks, glass, strings, nails) or metal (coins, batteries) objects are swallowed. In such cases, the dog should have an X-ray and endoscopy to check the condition of the soft tissues, as well as detoxification therapy. If the detected bodies are unable to come out naturally, they are removed surgically.
If your dog has eaten gum – make sure it does not contain xylitol. This substance is poisonous to dogs.
If the animal is choking and suffocating
The first action is the Heimlich method. It can be given to a dog of any size.
Indirect cardiac massage poses a certain danger. Because of the pressure applied there is a great risk of damaging the integrity of the thorax. It is only resorted to in the most extreme case when the animal cannot breathe and its pulse is not palpable.
To perform the rescue, it is necessary to:
Turn the dog over on his right side and bend the left limb so as to reach the elbow to the rib cage.
Place both palms on the widest part of the chest near the heart, placing them on top of each other. If the animal is small, you will have to wrap your arms around the entire chest and cross your fingers only.
Press on the chest with a firm and fast motion. In 10 seconds, you need to make 17 presses for dwarf dogs and 15 for large dogs.
Gently blow air into the nostrils after 10 seconds with your hand around the animal's muzzle. In a minute you should manage to make 20-30 breaths, i.e. you should breathe in every 2-3 seconds.
After a minute, place one of your hands under the pet's belly and the other over it, and squeeze the designated area. This will help the blood get to the heart.
If there is no result from the first time, repeat the above steps several more times in a row. If breathing has stopped completely, you have 20 minutes to rescue.
Danger of a foreign object
If foreign bodies are swallowed and the animal is not helped in a timely manner, the following complications may develop:
Damage to the oral cavity and internal organs with sharp edges, which provokes internal bleeding;
Infection with bacteria, viruses or helminths contained on the surface
blockage of the intestines or respiratory organs, fraught with death from peritonitis or asphyxiation;
intoxication by harmful substances contained in the swallowed item.
The greatest danger to internal organs is posed by things with sharp edges, Christmas tree tinsel, ribbons and threads.
A favorable prognosis is given only in those situations where the items do not cause blockages and easily come out naturally, without damaging the organs of the gastrointestinal tract. In all other cases the prognosis ranges from cautious to unfavorable.
Most often, to extract it, you have to resort to surgery, which involves the mandatory use of general anesthesia and a subsequent period of rehabilitation.
Prevention: order in the house and education of the pet
It is impossible to completely protect a four-legged pet from ingestion of foreign bodies, but the number of such cases can be minimized. To do this, it is necessary to adhere to the following recommendations:
If you want to pamper your dog and clean his plaque, choose only raw, spongy bones-or safer artificial bones and chew toys from the pet store.
Keep the house tidy. Keep hosiery items off the floor and out of reach of potentially dangerous items such as batteries, needles and tinsel.
Avoid too small parts in dog toys. Keep your pet away from children's toys and choose from those sold in pet stores.
Consider your dog's size when choosing balls and other toys. Too small a size can cause accidental swallowing while catching them in their mouths.
Discard old toys promptly when strings or filler begin to come out. If your dog's favorite toy is damaged, try to find a replacement or repair it yourself.
Teach your pet restraining commands and use a muzzle to prevent picking up from the ground while walking. Practice this skill not only outside but also at home, so your dog understands that picking is only allowed after your permission, no matter what the environment.
Don't forget to explain basic safety rules to your children. Toddlers often make a mess after playing, so try to instill in them a love of cleanliness and awareness.
What to Do If Your Dog Swallowed Broken Glass Shards
If you manage to get a bone or something else out of your pet's mouth, don't exult. It's far from certain that somewhere in the depths there are no broken off particles. To be on the safe side, the injured person should still have an X-ray taken. This will keep him from complications and protect him from sudden death due to choking or peritonitis.
This article is for information purposes only. Contact your veterinarian!
No Comments