Deja is a beautiful little Weimaraner puppy who belongs to a sister of one of the Corio Vet Clinic’s lovely nurses. She is very playful and a bundle of energy at the best of times. This is why it was so uncommon for her to be dull, lethargic and not wanting to play or run with the other dogs at home, which is exactly how she was feeling when she came into the clinic with her nurse auntie one day. After a little questioning, it turned out that Deja had actually vomited up three anklet socks the previous morning and had not wanted to eat her breakfast – not like her at all. Alarm bells began to ring – an energetic and mischievous puppy who suddenly becomes dull and vomits up things she shouldn’t? A blockage or foreign body comes immediately to mind and this was the big concern with Deja when we started out our investigations.
Clinical exam for Deja was relatively normal except that she was quiet and reserved in her actions and not her wiggly and happy usual self – she had no temperature, was not dehydrated, and didn’t appear to be painful or uncomfortable anywhere. However, her cranial abdomen (front of her tummy) was soft and felt dough-like and it was noted that she had only gained 1.3kg weight in the last month since her puppy vaccine which is very concerning for a large breed puppy like her who we would generally expect to gain 1-2kg weekly. This was pointing even more to there being a possible blockage or issue with her intestines and digestive tract.
We decided to take some x-rays to see if we could figure out what was happening with Deja – these were very suspicious looking for a foreign body or blockage in her stomach and the proximal/first part of her small intestine – there was what is known as a “soft tissue” opacity in the stomach (often noted with material/cloths etc.) and pockets of gas accumulated in the lower part of the intestine which can be caused by gas not released properly from the intestine and causing dilated and enlarged air pockets within the guts. We repeated these x-rays a short while later to see if anything had changed clinically with how they looked – they were still highly suggestive of something in the stomach or intestines causing a blockage.
Based on the clinical picture of vomiting, lethargy, inappetence and the x-rays suggesting a blockage we had to decide whether to treat Deja medically with anti-nausea medication and intravenous fluid therapy or to explore the option of surgery. Thankfully, Deja has pet insurance, and her owner’s sister, being a vet nurse, made the decision very easy and we went into surgery with Deja almost straight away and without too much delay.
And what a good decision that was! Deja had what is called an exploratory laparotomy – we opened into her abdominal cavity to explore the entire abdomen, felt and visualized her stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas and all other organs to see if there was any abnormality present – generally if there is we deal with it, if no abnormality is noted then we may take some samples and do some tests for future reference or testing. Thankfully in the case of Deja we were able to spot a problem immediately – there was an unusual bulky feeling in her stomach, and this extended into her small intestine. It felt like material, and we knew we needed to remove it to unblock the passage of her food and allow her to eat again. A surgical technique called a gastrotomy was performed – a full-depth incision into the wall of the stomach to see what is inside. Once the stomach was open a piece of material was noted in the main body of the stomach and travelling into the intestine – we placed gentle traction on this material and it started to come out . . . . .and out . . . .and out . . . . . .Deja had ingested an entire “chux” blue roll and it was all bunched up in her stomach and intestines! Luckily for her the entire mass of material come out fully intact through the one stomach incision and almost as soon as it was removed the gas began to pass through her intestines properly and she became very flatulent – the one time we are pleased to smell stinky gas from a dog’s bottom! The stomach incision was closed, and the entire length of the intestines were fully checked for any other blockages or abnormalities and none were found. The abdomen was flushed, closed with dissolvable sutures and tissue glue and Deja then had an uneventful recovery with some pain relief on board, instructions to eat little and often so as not to over-expand her stomach and she was on strict rest until her abdominal wound fully healed – which then became difficult as her bounciness came back within 24 hours, and she was itching to get back playing with her doggy siblings. We think the material may have been in her stomach for a little while but because liquid was still able to soak through the material, she didn’t show signs until she was quite unwell and was very blocked.
Little Deja was on a strict “food only” diet after her surgery – she was closely monitored to ensure she didn’t eat any more socks, rocks or rolls and her owner became very good at cleaning up after herself and never left another sock or piece of underwear lying around to ensure it didn’t end up inside her naughty puppy! A cleaner house and a happy and healthy puppy – what a good end to the story!
