I’ve been working as a vet and in vet clinics for over twenty years so I’ve seen a lot cases of what we euphemistically call an “intestinal indiscretion”. Last week did seem to be a rather busy one with one dog having a sock removed from its small intestine, another having a corn cob extracted, a piece of cork in another dog and two more socks ingested one Saturday morning that fortunately we were able to retrieve by inducing a vomit rather than risking them getting wedged on their way through.

Over the years I’ve seen all manner of items cause blockages – there is of course the occasional bone, stick or stone. Kids’ toys make an appearance from time to time and smallish balls are easy to swallow. I had a Labrador once with half a dozen golf balls in its stomach – the owner brought it in because he could hear a clinking noise and thought its joints were arthritic! An engagement ring, chewed up bits of rubber dog toys, food skewers and underwear are just a few more examples!

Pets aren’t the only animals susceptible to eating foreign material
One of the most dangerous blockages comes from string-like obstructions, and cats are more prone to these as they like playing with string, cotton or tinsel. The ‘linear foreign-body’ stretches out through the intestine but as the gut contracts and tries to push the object through, the string-like object can cut through the side of the gut causing perforations.

Sometimes the foreign body causes an ‘intussusception’. This is where one piece of bowel gets stuck inside a neighbouring piece. The foreign item stops the bowel contracting in one particular spot so that as the section of bowel immediately before it contracts, it ends up on top of the next bit and often the only solution is to cut out the affected area of bowel completely. But pets aren’t the only animals susceptible to eating foreign material. “Hardware disease” is a term used for cattle that munch down wire or similar metal objects that then get stuck and often perforate one of their stomachs. Captive animals aren’t immune either – tragically a hippo in a zoo in America in 1996 died after a racket ball thrown into its enclosure became lodged in its intestine and in 1993 a giraffe in a Shanghai Zoo died when plastic bags blocked up its digestive tract.

Retrieve the item if you can
Young pets are more inquisitive so as pet owners we can reduce the risk of a gut tragedy by being mindful of a puppy’s desire to explore the world with its mouth. Don’t leave socks lying around, make sure rubbish bins are dog proof, only give dogs toys that are designed for them and if they start tearing chunks off them it’s time to bin them and get a less destructible version. Corn cobs and corks are particularly notorious so if you see your dog chewing on something they shouldn’t be, it’s best to retrieve the item if you can. In an ideal world your dog should be trained to leave objects on command... I’m still working on that one!