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Gastric Obstruction


Allerzeit
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My eldest Samoyed has been in surgery twice now for obstructions not to mention the number of times he has passed something he has eaten. :mad

The first time it was a knee length sock and the second time it was a various array of sticks, wood, plastic and something no one could identify.

Each time he has bounced back very quickly and has made a full recovery.

He lives his life under alsmost constant supervision now becuase we just don't know what he will get into next and when he's not being watched like a hawk he's locked away. It's all I can do to stop him hurting himself :(

I have seriosuly thought about having him in a basket muzzle for his own safety.

Edited by Bjelkier
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Nova sounds a lot like Louis, Staffyluv! She's always chewing something - she is very, very mouthy. Gets lots of attention and activity, but just always has to have things in her mouth. A bit like a toddler who just can't keep his hands off of things!

Yep and our new pound pup is the same - I picked up a poo this morning that was more plastic bag than poop...

nice of him to try to do one that was ready wrapped!

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Sounds like some good news... I bet your bank balance will still look a little sad for a while ;) ...

Im dying to hear about the poo, to see what it is !!! Interesting about the flying hair. Its not something I would EVER have thought might have been a possible article for a bowel obstruction, ever :eek: ...

Please keep us updated on here oir FB... Give her a cuddle from us :) ...

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There was a LOT of hair! I think I could have gotten a second Radar out of it, so she could have potentially ingested quite a bit :eek:

We're on our way in to pick her up. The last X-ray at 2.30 showed that the barium covered mass is still working it's way through, very slowly. There is still an area of the digestive tract where there is a risk of it getting stuck, so constant observation until it passes. Any sign of deterioration, particularly vomiting, and she has to go straight back.

She's bright, very hungry and has kept the water and little bit of food down. Very small meals of bland food for the next 5-7 days, and watch her like a hawk. All fingers crossed she will pass it on her own!

I'm on strict orders that when she does pass it I have to report in on what it is! :laugh:

So, not out of the woods yet, but fingers are all crossed!

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I'm on strict orders that when she does pass it I have to report in on what it is! :laugh:

Hear hear... I think pics are a must.

Now that you know that there's no obstruction, you could discuss dosing her with paraffin with the vet too. That should grease the wheels. ;)

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No poo from over here yet! :laugh:

She's bright and happy. No vomiting, so that's good. Eating well (although thoroughly unimpressed with her diet and, moreso, the very small volume of food). She did have a sudden bit of diarrhea this morning, which seemed to catch her by surprise (ie, suddenly headed for the back door, but didn't make it).

Waiting for the vet to call me back so that I can update her, and also wanted to ask her how long without the mass passing we should wait before we need to x-ray again, assuming Nova is still bright and acting normal.

From the information I was given yesterday, the blockage should move from the small intestine and into the large intestine sometime within 12 - 24 hours from yesterday afternoon (this is where the highest risk of it getting stuck is), but I don't think we can expect it to be pooped out that soon.

Edited by Allerzeit
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I hope Nova is on her way to getting rid of whatever is causing the problem. My Holly is also a garbage guts. One day last year she didn't want to eat and I immediately rang the vet as I thought of nothing short of a life threatening condition would make her refuse food. The vet suspected pyometria, cancer or a blockage and sent her home with instructions to bring her back first thing in the morning for an exploratory operation if she still wasn't eating or drinking. She wasn't any better next morning so I took her back. It turned out to be a large peach stone (with a horribly sharp point at the end) blocking the intestine. Fortunately it hadn't been there long enough to cause any damage and none of her bowel had to be removed. She had to stay at the vets that night and the next day as she was still on a drip. I had her spayed at the same time. She greeted me with a wagging tail and happy smile as if nothing had happened and was obviously feeling so much better than when I left her. She recovered with no complications and has been fine since. My bank balance didn't recover quite so quickly but it was well worth it to have her back again. I'd like to think she learned her lesson and for a while she was so careful not to swallow anything strange and would roll the chicken mince containing the antibiotic tablet around in her mouth and spit out the tablet but this didn't last long.

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I have had a partial obstruction with Cowan. Took over 2mth of mucking round before they finally decided that was what it was and operated. Being partial there were periods where he was ok and eating normally but he also had periods where he wouldn't eat and had diarrhea. He got a lot worse one weekend and started vomiting and they finally operated.

Unfortunately mine isn't the one operation and he was fine story. The next 6mths were not great with multiple operations, peritonitis and throat ulcerations requiring a feeding tube but the good news is that while he will never eat a normal meal again he is sitting at my feet as I type.

Good luck, hope Nova manages to pass it.

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I had a partial obstruction with one of mine too - caused by orange cocas palm berries. She went down hill fairly rapidly, vomiting, pacing wouldn't settle, so took her in, they did barium x-ray and decided it was best to operate. She came home that night and when I picked her up they handed me a plastic bag and in it was all the grass she had eaten + 6 orange berries. $1800 for that little experience

Good luck - I hope she is jumping out of her skin soon

Edited by Ptolomy
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Fingerscrossed it passes naturally and no op. is needed. They aren't much fun at all.

My older boy had an obstruction last year and needed an operation to remove it from his lower intestines, then after another week at the vet still not managing to keep anything down and staying on a drip with them doing every test imaginable trying to work out why, he got even worse. They had no choice but to operate again and by this time he was in such a bad way and had no reserves left with so much weight loss we even all had to say our goodbyes because they didn't think he would make it. Somehow he made it through after having peritontis, pancreatits, no weight on him whatsoever and being so weak, low grade heart murmour and old age. They found ulcers in his pancreas and scarring from the first op. had caused another blockage. Suffice to say I never want to go through that ever again.

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Wow - some of you have really been through the wringer with obstructions! Bloody dogs! :hug:

Things are looking good here, everything crossed. She is still her normal, excessive, self. Absolutely famished and very un-impressed with the small food offerings. Another small, normally formed, poo this morning - definitely has lots of hair through it. I've increased her servings of boiled chicken and rice from a miniscule amount to a tiny amount, so we will see how she goes on that for the next 24 hours.

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Hope she poos out the furry ball soon ;)

Earl would have to be one of the experts on eating things he shouldn't :eek: - he has had several surgeries to remove river stones - one they pushed all the way out his butt - the others they removed the normal way - through the ever increasing scar on his stomach.

The last time he showed all the classic signs we were absolutely gobsmacked as the riverstones had actually been fenced off! :mad Turned out that he had twisted his bowel and trapped a blood vessel - he had to have 80cm of bowel removed as it had died - they operated on the Monday - the big doofus was home with us on the wednesday - the only issue being that he couldn't get in his crate with the cone of shame on.

Our yard is pretty bare as he has a tendency to eat what he shouldn't - touch wood - all has been good for a while but we had some pretty scary monents there with him.

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Suffice to say I never want to go through that ever again.

You wouldn't be alone. Sounds like we had a similar experience, my boy was 9years old. I had to give permission for him to be pts on the table 3 times and then just as he was recovering he went on to have throat issues from the stomach acid that had burnt his throat during the long operations.

Glad to hear Nova is on the mend, fingers crossed

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Suffice to say I never want to go through that ever again.

You wouldn't be alone. Sounds like we had a similar experience, my boy was 9years old. I had to give permission for him to be pts on the table 3 times and then just as he was recovering he went on to have throat issues from the stomach acid that had burnt his throat during the long operations.

Glad to hear Nova is on the mend, fingers crossed

How awful for you cowanbree, it does sound similar. It's such a roller coaster ride isn't it. That was the decision made the 2nd time they went in with Toby, if they couldn't find what was wrong then they were going to give him his wings on the table. That was what we thought the phone call was going to be half way through the surgery so the happy tears we had when we got the phone call to say they found the problem and he was waking up was such a relief. The next few days were still worrisome but he recovered much quicker the last time. We now just have to be careful diet wise due to the pancreatitis.

How are things looking thhis morning Allerzeit?

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Looking good, fingers crossed!

She just did her morning poo, and what did we find in there but a 5cm x 5cm square of blanket. You know the fibrous blankets that removalists use for padding furniture? Well, Radar and Feonix have one of those as their night bedding, and Nova did pull it down from its day storage spot early last week - I thought we had caught her before she chewed any of it off, but I guess not!

Better find a new day storage spot for the blankets!

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Glad all is OK allerzeit!

Blockages are not much fun and can be really scary (and expensive). My girl had a perforation from a bone foreign body! Luckily we caught it early and she didn't need an intestinal resection and only had localised peritonitis but it was still really scary and she was really sick for about 5 days.

Needless to say, she doesn't get bones any more!

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