Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Yesterday morning we noticed Buzz, our Golden Retriever with a neurological condition, had thrown up overnight.  We monitored him during the day, and although he was more subdued than his usual self, he  seemed like he was getting over an upset stomach.  But we found he threw up again last night, and again this morning when we let him out.  He also seemed weak and wobbly (well, more wobbly than normal!).  Buzz had really deteriorated overnight, and something was clearly wrong.

I was headed to Missoula to take a dog in for a chemotherapy appointment at 11 a.m. today with Dr. Dave Bostwick, so I called Dave to let him know we had a very sick dog on our hands and were bringing him in.

An ‘upset stomach’ doesn’t begin to describe the problem.  An X-ray (shown in the photo above, with Buzz on the exam table) revealed that Buzz’s stomach was full of debris, and some was visible in his intestines, too.  Oh, no.  Somewhere in the past 48 hours, Buzz had devoured all sorts of things.  We couldn’t tell exactly what from the X-ray, but it looked nasty.

Buzz needed surgery to open up his stomach and intestives to remove all this stuff, but first Dave had to get some IV fluids and antibiotics in him.  That’s what you see Dave doing in this photo.  Dave scheduled the surgery for 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, and said he thought it would take about 45 minutes to an hour.

I finished running errands in Missoula and got back to the ranch by 3:30 p.m.  No call from Dave.  I called the clinic, got no answer, and realized it meant Dave was still in surgery.  Uh oh.  I headed out at 4:00 to help Mariah and Alayne take care of the horses.  By 4:30 p.m. still no word from Dave. 

Finally, at 5:20 p.m., the phone rang.  At the other end was Dave.  His first words were, "Holy beeswax!"  He had been in surgery for three hours with Buzz, and said it had been a long time since he’d seen a gut that full of debris.  In fact, Dave said, "It was a stinking disaster!"  (I told him I’d quote him on that.)

But Buzz is alive and came through the surgery okay.  Dave said Buzz had pieces of dog toys so big that he couldn’t understand how they could have gone down Buzz’s esophagus in the first place … and not just one piece, mind you, but multiple pieces so big it defied imagination.  As Dave noted, "The first one must have been unpleasant, so why would he go back and eat a few more?!?"

And Buzz had some fabric that extended the entire length of his small intestine; it had finally balled up and pulled the intestine with it, so the small intestine was bunched up.  Dave ended up cutting out 6 inches of small intestine altogether.

Now that Buzz is through surgery, the main risk is from the intestinal sutures pulling apart.  Dave also saw some spots on the intestinal wall that were thin and "worn" from the debris working its way through, so Buzz is at risk for any of those rupturing later.  Dave thought Buzz had a 75% chance of pulling through.  He will remain in the hospital through the weekend.

Dave estimated the cost for the surgery and follow-up care this weekend would be about $1,500.  Ouch.

The oddest thing about this entire episode is that Buzz has been here for nearly a year, and we’ve never seen him eating his toys!  He’s always running around with toys in his mouth — in fact, it’s rare to see him without a ball or toy in his mouth, because he always wants someone to play fetch with him.  And while he’s shredded some bedding in the past, we’ve never known him to be a bed-eater.  So why would he suddenly start eating these things in the past couple of days?  Who knows?

Unfortunately, Dave said, once you see dogs do this kind of thing, they typically become ‘repeat offenders.’  Beginning tomorrow we will be scouring Widget’s House and the dog paddocks to remove anything that Buzz could ingest in the future, and replace them with ‘Buzz-safe’ items!  (How about a bowling ball?)

(Click on photo for larger images.)