# Possible Obstruction?



## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Emma broke out of the crate on Friday and destroyed the house - including yard and thread. And a week's worth of food.  This morning she puked twice and just now refused food. That is entirely out of date. 

Thank God I live with a vet, so we're watching her and recording everything for now. I hope it isn't an obstruction. It would be her second one.

At what point is it not worth saving a dog with no self-presernvation instinct? :roll:


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## georgia estes (Nov 3, 2009)

My dog was acting funny a few months ago and refused food so I took her to the vet. They told me it was an obstruction but they couldn't tell what it was. I was so mad at her I wanted to put her down. I thought, stupid dog probably ate her toy or something. The surgery was going to be over $2000. I went ahead with the surgery and found out it was a corn on the cob husk that I had given to my other dog a while back. I would have felt really bad if I had put her down for eating food I had given out, but if she does it again she's a dead dog. I can't afford it again, food or not. Is your dog's stomach wincing and flexing? That's how I knew mine was an obstruction. All in all it's up to you. It's a hard decision to make! 8)


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

Anne Vaini said:


> Emma broke out of the crate on Friday and destroyed the house - including yard and thread. And a week's worth of food.  This morning she puked twice and just now refused food. That is entirely out of date.
> 
> Thank God I live with a vet, so we're watching her and recording everything for now. I hope it isn't an obstruction. It would be her second one.
> 
> At what point is it not worth saving a dog with no self-presernvation instinct? :roll:


Yarn and thread right? This brings back memories of a friend's Beauceron a few years back. She got into the garbage outdoors and ate baling twine (hay bales). At the time, no one knew this is what happened. She stopped eating. She was puking and she was urinating but not pooping. X-rays showed nothing. Finally vet did exploratory surgery and found the twine all twisted in the intestines. It was too late as the intestines were already dieing so she was put down. We won't know what made her eat the twine..maybe there was food scraps on top of the twine in the garbage. She was about 2 years old.


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

My boyfriend (and vet) were talking about vet budgets a while back. I told him Emma had maxed hers out after the first obstruction. He told me that he'd take care of her if she did it again, on the condition that I do all the stitching up. We'll find out if he is serious.

She has puked 3 more times now - LOTS each time - so she probably is obstructed.


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## Nicole Stark (Jul 22, 2009)

Definitely sounds serious. I hope she's ok.


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## Diana Abel (Aug 31, 2009)

Anne Vaini said:


> Emma broke out of the crate on Friday and destroyed the house - including yard and thread. And a week's worth of food.  This morning she puked twice and just now refused food. That is entirely out of date.
> 
> Thank God I live with a vet, so we're watching her and recording everything for now. I hope it isn't an obstruction. It would be her second one.
> 
> At what point is it not worth saving a dog with no self-presernvation instinct? :roll:


Boy does this sound familiar! I have a Boston Terror who had had 2 obstructions and an AB who had had 3 obstruction surgeries! Now granted, our Vet only charges me a few hundred each time BUT, it all adds up! I have decided that if either ever get another obstruction, that's it. Enough is enough. Anyone else would have had them put down after the first time but they're good girls, just STUPID! lol 

My Dutchie eats alot of things but at least he chews them up. lol Just for the record, I am very careful not to leave stuff laying around for them to get their mouths on. The AB would swallow Hickory nuts that the squirrels would drop out of thier nests! The Boston's were always cheap toys. No more cheap toys. [-X I'm hoping the Dutchie has more sense than these 2. lol 

I hope your dog doesnt need surg but it sounds like it. Is her puke green?


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

Can you muzzle her around the house to prevent this sort of thing? How about training to stay crated quietly, and a heavy-duty aluminum crate? What a PITA!


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

I've muzzled her in a crate before, but she always gets it off. I think we have emma-proofed her crate now. It's a PITA to get her out though.

Her attitude is improved now and acting hungry. Not sure whether to find out if she has an appetite and offer her food?


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## Nicole Stark (Jul 22, 2009)

Anne Vaini said:


> I've muzzled her in a crate before, but she always gets it off. I think we have emma-proofed her crate now. It's a PITA to get her out though.
> 
> Her attitude is improved now and acting hungry. Not sure whether to find out if she has an appetite and offer her food?


How was she managing to get out before? Has she had a bowel movement that you know of? 

When I contemplate the severity of what I perceive to be a health problem with one of my dogs, I factor in, amongst other things that I may observe or note that are right in right of me, their history. In this case, for example, my dogue bitch has vomited twice in three years. Once after eating a pile of dog shit and another time this past summer after consuming a few lbs of food (I didn't realize that until afterwards) and then being exercised extensively shortly after. 

So, if she were to vomit for unknown reasons and if it were to persist with a potential underlying reason of it being caused by an obstruction I'd be inclined to take her in for a closer look. Seeing how you've been through this before you probably have some indication either way of what might be going on with her.


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

have you seen any stool? and anything in it? if your live-in is a vet, i'm sure he'll give you much better info than here (as he's on-the-scene as well).

as far as your original question (when is too much, too much?). no one can answer that except you. unless you happen to be independently wealthy, it comes down to what you can afford vs quality of life for Emma. 

tough call, i know. 

is she drinking at all? and keeping it down? peeing? if she is, i would go with the old stand-by of rice+cooked hamb/chicken and see what happens. and not alot of it either; she's what, 45#?? half a cup of the rice/meat,see what happens, go on from there.

i do hope she's ok--i've assisted at obstruction sx, they're never pretty, and the outcomes aren't usually good. and i've loved miss Emma since you brought her home (at a distance).


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## Dana McMahan (Apr 5, 2006)

Definitely an interesting question on when is it too much with the vet bills. Malachai currently owns his own wing at our vet. Parvo, a bone chip in the shoulder, 2 weeks treating pancreatitis before finding out he had half a tennis ball causing a blockage in his intestines, a day spent at the vet when he found 3 tennis balls to eat the week before we were to fly out to Nationals (induced vomiting), and 1x for bloat after he broke out of a crate and ate half a bag of food.

Luckily you have a vet in the home...I've been lucky to have good enough credit that I've been able to pay off his bills using Care Credit which is a no-interest loan for medical emergencies. This is something EVERYONE should be aware of in case these kinds of things happen. I also was lucky that we found our vet through his shoulder issue, and she has done his obstruction surgery for half of what I hear other people are paying and she uses anesthesia that is better for Malinois as far as not storing in fat tissue. 

For me, I understand wondering when its not worth treating a dog who seem's to want to commit suicide, but inevitably I get the butthead into the vet and we find way to pay for it. I guess when they start declining my credit cards he will be on his own. But after you spend so long putting training into a dog and knowing what the dog's aptitude is, it just seemed easier to keep treating him then trying to start over with a new dog.

After our recent tennis ball incident ($300) I'm going to get him some good pet insurance. I think people who don't have this "type" of dog who will literally eat anything don't realize how hard it is to protect them from themselves. The original tennis ball was tossed over the fence, the other set he had gotten into by popping open a storage tote, he ate a carpet tracking article straight off the track, etc. He will eat anything, anytime, and not stop until he is bloated. I definitely feel for your situation. My best advice is go for pet insurance and hope you can pay off the bills without going into debt (which I am currently in because of this dog).


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Poop is getting softer and she is starting to poop out string that she ate.

Peeing fine - in the house.  (and outside)

She has perked up since her big pukes, and her attitude is better. We'll offer some food tomorrow if she maintains overnight.

Chris - you're totally right about "knowing" your dog. As soon as she refused food, I knew something was wrong.

Whenever I think something is "iffy" with a creature, I keep a log of everything for the impending vet visit. It's really nice because I get all flustered and can't expain what has happened on an accurate timeline.

It COULD all pass at this point. I keep remembering the last time she did this and I couldn't tel anything was wrong for FIVE days. I thought she had passed it all. She almost died from toxic shock on the table. $2000 later... yikes.

I was laid off in October, so definitely limited in the finances area. :-\" It'll be OK. Somehow?


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

No surgery today.

Her attitude is much improved. She just chowed down a cup of food. Let's see if it stays down... :-&


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

Fingers crossed, hoping things work out for you and Emma! Good news so far...


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Fingers crossed for the dog.

I had a gsd which managed to gobble down an audio tape years back, I hadn't been certain if he swallowed any of the actual tape and waited to see what would happen the next day.

The next day he vomitted a couple of times and was restless, and then when he made a bowel movement and tape could be seen which he couldn't eject, it was panic stations.

The time interval between him swallowing the tape and my getting him to the practice was 23 hrs.... I was informed at that time that 24 hrs is usually the max for a dog to survive when the bowel telescopes like what had happened in this case.

The practice knocked off all their other clients and the three vets were in attendance at his surgery, 3 hours of it.

I took him home next morning.... he was back in training (agility) within the month.

Anyway good luck, improvement in attitude in the dog is usually a good sign.


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## Lynda Myers (Jul 16, 2008)

My AB female has a fetish for socks and has had two blockages to date...one as a 12 week old baby (sock)s and another about year ago. Would I put her down for it uh...no!!! As I don't feel like a few on here that the dog is on a sucide mission. I just make damn sure she can't get to them or anything similiar like her blankety which she has taken to eating](*,). I'm lucky though to have a vet whos not trying to make me his sole source of income.:grin: The last surgery cost me which included OFA x-rays(what the hey she was under anyway), something like $550-$575.00 maybe alittle more. If Kandy ever gets to a point where I can't safely keep her in the house then she will become an outside dog. Definitely a better choice for all concerned then death in my opinion. 

Terrasita, I found the gloves and not in Kandy's poop either,:mrgreen: they were in the dog toy tote bag...whew!


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## eric squires (Oct 16, 2008)

Watch out for the top ring of kongs even the extra tough ones can be chewed off and swallowed by the crazy ball drive dogs, my dutch Rip did this and got a bowel obstruction that required surgery, so be careful even with kongs and save yourself a $2500 vet bill, these high drive dogs should come with vet insurance, they are disasters waiting to happen between worn off broken canines, obstructions and broken toes/nails from running into things while chasing a ball...Rip even broke the door on an aluminum crate after many destroyed doors on vari crates,


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Speaking of Kongs, I like the blue radiopaque ones they sell at vet offices so that they can be see on radiographs. Haven't seen one yet, but that would be nice to know! :smile: Those moments when you're looking at rads and trying to decide to open the dog up or send it home are pretty nerve racking when it's hard to tell. Not something I'm looking forward to in practice... =;


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

I hope all turns out well.

What type of crate? has the dog broken out of the crate before? I would not try to emma proof this same crate, (I would get a dog box).

You can run some baling wire to hold together wire crates and try bungees for a plastic one, but these will not hold a crate buster or a determined escape artist.

again hope all turns out well.


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