A sick dog...

Ranger Rick

Ranger Rick

Member
Fellas: Max, the 9 month old Setter, and the next great bird dog, is recovering today from surgery to remove blockage in his digestive tract caused by eating carpet fibers. I've used carpet remnants for years to line the bottom of the portable crate. My other dogs would go at it once in a while, but it's something I never worried about. Max, however, went at that stuff with a vengeance and I wasn't intelligent enough to think of the consequences. Now 24 hours since the surgery, he's still not eating and therefore we're concerned. Hopefully he'll be coming home tomorrow morning.

The Vet tells me of removing a racket ball from one labs gut and another case of carpet string like in Max's case. Last night I was reading of a Doberman that had 5 golf balls in his gut and they figured some of them could have been there up to 2 years. I guess sometimes there's no telling what a dog will eat.
 
Glad your dog survived the ordeal. I bought a cheap little throw rug for my old Brit. It had woven plastic strand backing. A three inch piece of that plastic strand got in him and really hurt him. Vet couldn't figure it out because nothing showed on x-ray. Next day he's squating, really working, nothing coming out, so I bend over and see that thing sticking out of him. End of problem.
 
Sorry for your dog. The dam things will eat anything they can when they are young or crated and stressed. BC I've been down the pull it out of the Rear end Road more than once. Not fun. Good luck got to watch them like Kids.
 
Those surgerys take alot out of a dog. I watched a surgery were a dog ate the bottom cuff of a pair of jeans. Dr.'s ended up removing a large portion of the dogs intestine.

It might take awhile before he feels up to eating. Good luck and wishing you both a speedy recovery.
 
one opening weekend my lab got lacerated on some russian olives. While she was recovering the vet showed me a x-ray of a lab a customer had brought in with problems. The xray showed 8-9 golf balls that lab had eaten.

After surgery to remove them all, he went and ate some more, and had to go thru that again!
 
dustin mudd said:
one opening weekend my lab got lacerated on some russian olives. While she was recovering the vet showed me a x-ray of a lab a customer had brought in with problems. The xray showed 8-9 golf balls that lab had eaten.

After surgery to remove them all, he went and ate some more, and had to go thru that again!
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Memo to customer, Look up theory of natural selection, next surgery should be spay or nueter, along with a frontal lobotomy, and find a new dog!
 
old and new, my thinking is spay neuter the owner for letting his dog have access to the golf balls a second time!
 
Labs are like those pictures of huge sharks they catch and cut open, out comes a license plate, a bouy and a korean fisherman.....no telling what a lab will ingest. My favorite is a lab I operated on to remove a blockage (tennis ball I think) but the dog had $1.52 in coins in his stomach. I removed them, washed them off, put them in a plastic bag and applied it to his bill.
 
Good luck with the dog. I have a friend that has a dog that has eaten rocks a couple times and had to be opened up both times.:rolleyes: Puppies and young dogs especialy are goofy that way. Thats why they say there is no such thing as a free puppy.
 
The pull from behind is always the worst, for us one year was the Easter grass pull. Good luck with the dog.
 
Update on Max

Brought Max home on Friday. Saturday morning he was perky, ate and drank. But throughout the day he had problems with nausea, really bad drooling and we had a rough time getting pills in him. Sunday morning woke up perky,eating and drinking. I decided not to give him the pain meds and it's what was causing the nausea. Sunday eve on a short walk he pooped for the first time, which is something I was worried about - getting his digestive tract working again. This morning he pooped again, is active and happy. I believe we're on the road to recovery.

I've been looking for a better kennel pad [than the carpeting] for years, but haven't been able to find something I thought would last and not get shredded by the dog. Saturday at Gander Mountain I found one, an inch foam pad with a really durable looking nylon cover. Get it dirty and rinse it off. He's been sleeping on it the last two nights, doesn't seem to be interested in tearing at it and it looks like a winner. Finally!
 
Ranger Rick said:
Brought Max home on Friday. Saturday morning he was perky, ate and drank. But throughout the day he had problems with nausea, really bad drooling and we had a rough time getting pills in him. Sunday morning woke up perky,eating and drinking. I decided not to give him the pain meds and it's what was causing the nausea. Sunday eve on a short walk he pooped for the first time, which is something I was worried about - getting his digestive tract working again. This morning he pooped again, is active and happy. I believe we're on the road to recovery.

I've been looking for a better kennel pad [than the carpeting] for years, but haven't been able to find something I thought would last and not get shredded by the dog. Saturday at Gander Mountain I found one, an inch foam pad with a really durable looking nylon cover. Get it dirty and rinse it off. He's been sleeping on it the last two nights, doesn't seem to be interested in tearing at it and it looks like a winner. Finally!
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Try to get some gut flora going, try sweet acidopholis milk, or start back paste,they sell for large animals. Old vet I had for race horses also doctored my dogs used a pail of buttermilk, let it out in the sun till there were dead flies in in, so you can judge how long to leave it, tubed or fed the dogs or horses to repopulate the gut, worked great but we have ready made treatments now.
 
flora

The Vet sent home a food containing probiotics. Things seem to be working. His stool was reasonably firm and I had expected it to be loose, even like diarrhea. As sick as the poor guy was, and considering he just went through major surgery, we're really happy with where he's at.
 
RR,

Great to hear some positive progress. Good Luck!
 
Glad to hear of the return to health, you might look at Orvis they have the dog nests , etc that are padded for warmth, and comfort. In addition some of them will are virtually chew proof.
 
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