elsastella Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 11 month old labrador swallowed a fish hook at the beach 3 days ago. This has been confirmed by x-ray. We are currently waiting to see if she will pass the hook before we intervene surgically. Obviously, this is a last resort. If anyone who has had a similar experience has any useful advise on what is the best way to handle this, it would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9katz Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 I'm not sure if its too late for this but you could feed her a few small cotton wool balls soaked in milk or meat broth. The idea is that they will form a mass around the sharp fish hook and thus guide it safely through the intestines. You dont say if it had line attached, if it did be very careful if you see this protruding out of her bottom and DONT pull it. I'd be checking EVERY stool throughly until its passed. Hope that helps a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haven Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 I'm not sure if its too late for this but you could feed her a few small cotton wool balls soaked in milk or meat broth. The idea is that they will form a mass around the sharp fish hook and thus guide it safely through the intestines. You dont say if it had line attached, if it did be very careful if you see this protruding out of her bottom and DONT pull it. I'd be checking EVERY stool throughly until its passed. Hope that helps a little. I've heard this method recommended when animals have ingested things like glass and other sharp objects. I wouldn't be doing it before I asked my Vet for advice though. I'm very surprised that they are waiting for it to pass naturally rather than going for surgery right away, I would have thought the potential for damage as it was passed would be quite large I hope everything turns out well for you and your pup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Anne~ Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 You said she had been xrayed and so I assume she is under the care and advice of your Vet. In my opinion, they are the only ones you should be taking advice from. As for swallowing cotton balls............ I am not sure whether to laugh or cry at that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shellbyville Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 When I was young we had a German Shepherd and while out fishing with my father she swallowed the hook, line & sinker. Rushed her to the vet and they performed surgery and removed it. Apparently if it was just the hook it may have passed naturally, but because there was fishing line involved they operated as it could get caught! She was fine, and dad never took her fishing again. Sadly though she died from tick poisoning not long later. We had only recently moved from the city to the country and mum and dad had no idea about ticks. She was a lovely dog and we all really missed her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mona Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 I think the only one able to give you the correct advice is your vet ....... If you have any questions , just ask ...... your vet should be able to talk these through with you They will know the correct course of action , depending on the positioning etc of the sinker Good luck and let us know how you get on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormie Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 As for swallowing cotton balls............ I am not sure whether to laugh or cry at that one. it's done by vets! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Anne~ Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 As for swallowing cotton balls............ I am not sure whether to laugh or cry at that one. it's done by vets! I'll have to ask my Vet about that one then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Anne~ Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 I have done a reasonably (although not exhaustive) comprehensive search in relation to this advice and can't find anything anywhere apart from one persons text that is repeated several times on a few personal web pages relating to dogs. I'd be interested if anyone has any primary and factual info on this? I will also speak with my Vet as mentioned above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlyking Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 (edited) I have done a reasonably (although not exhaustive) comprehensive search in relation to this advice and can't find anything anywhere apart from one persons text that is repeated several times on a few personal web pages relating to dogs.I'd be interested if anyone has any primary and factual info on this? I will also speak with my Vet as mentioned above. Puggles this method is one Ithat has been used by many of my American doggy friends. It seems to be quite common in the US. I believe the theory is that he cotton wool basically encases the object and allows it to be passed safely. Metamucil is another thing that works well. The following is an email from a breeder in US detailing her experience with metamucil for assisting in getting rid of a foreign object "In praise of Metamucil I want to sing the praises of ? Metamucil remedy. Thursday evening, our puppy Neisha and her sidekick Dilys found a small plastic bag that had four 1 1/2 inch, heavy, furniture screws in it. We found three of the screws: one was missing, and we feared the worst: that it was inside one of the dogs. We called ?, and she said that (1) we should start both of them on a mixture of 1 tablespoon of Metamucil mixed with a half can of dog food mixed with water to make a slurry, 3 or 4 times a day, (2) we should be sure to keep them hydrated so the system would keep things moving, and (3) we should take both of them into the vet in the morning for an x-ray to determine who had the screw (if either of them did). So we gave them both the Metamucil mixture and in the morning, we gave them both a large bowl of chicken broth to ensure that they had plenty of fluids to keep their system moving. We went to our back-up vet for the x-rays because the regular practice could not see us as early as we wanted to be seen. When the x-rays were taken, the screw turned out to be in Neisha, the seven month old puppy. It looked huge on the x-ray: it was in her stomach, and the vet who took the x-rays (not our regular vet) said that there was no way that this screw could pass through her intestines. . He recommended immediate surgery to save her life. The pressure was horrendous: who were we to refuse the vet's advice? But something told us not to rush into the decision. We called ? and she told us great stories about the Metamucil cure, including one story about a rock that was two inches long and at least one inch wide. So we decided not to do the surgery and to give the Metamucil until Monday to effect a cure. We then checked with our regular vet's practice and the head vet told us that he thought the Metamucil would work to bulk it up and protect the intestines as it passed through, and he also said that there were no downsides to this equation: if it did not pass, he would prefer to remove it from the intestines than from the stomach. Made sense to us. So we proceeded to give Neisha three meals a day of Metamucil, Wysong canned dog food, and chicken broth mixed into a slurry with in-between bowls of chicken broth to keep her well hydrated. Poops were frequent and rubbery: you could use a pooper scooper to pick them up and they left nothing on the floor or ground -- everything came up like one big rubbery mass and plopped on the pooper scooper. 36 hours after the x-rays and the vet who said it would not pass, the screw appeared in her poop, a little changed in coloration, but firmly ensconced in the rubbery mess! So instead of a dog recovering from serious stomach surgery, we have a dog who does not realize what she has been through, has not missed a beat in her training program, is ready to find something else to grab and take to her crate, and will be able to participate in her Monday morning obedience class. She has not had a moment of discomfort (at least, not that we are aware of but then, we did not see the poop with the screw pass), and she is as spirited as ever. No anaesthesia; no recovery time; no mess. I have heard of a lot of remedies for things ingested (canned asparagus, cotton balls and heavy cream, hydrogen peroxide to bring them back up, etc.), but nothing comes close to what the Metamucil did. We had it on hand because of ? earlier posting. We will always have it on hand because of the dramatic results we got. And we recommend that everyone keep Metamucil on hand for this reason! Obviously this works for some anyway! Edited February 14, 2008 by curlyking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisovar Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 You will also find references to cotton wool, in relation to humans swallowing foreign objects. It is not unknown. For radiolucent objects, ingestion of cotton wool pellets mixed with small amounts of barium sulphate suspension has been reported to form a radio-opaque bolus around the object, which allows it to be tracked through the gut radiographically (Jacobi and Shillingburg, 1981Go). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9katz Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 I have done a reasonably (although not exhaustive) comprehensive search in relation to this advice and can't find anything anywhere apart from one persons text that is repeated several times on a few personal web pages relating to dogs.I'd be interested if anyone has any primary and factual info on this? I will also speak with my Vet as mentioned above. Actually I knew this from an old book I have here called First Aid For Pets. Just a minimalistic search on the internet returned these, apparently from different people http://rat-terrier.com/Home/tabid/37/forum...ic/Default.aspx http://www.oes.org/page2/10648~WHAT_TO_DO_...ll_objects.html http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...30132528AAgyn3s http://www.mothering.com/discussions/archi...p/t-563779.html http://www.marlischis.com/firstaid.htm http://www.bassingaround.com/cgi-bin/yabb2...um=1178328942/0 I am sure that elsastella, as she is already under the guidance of her vet, will continue to work closely with the vet to remedy the situation, I was mearly suggesting this as a possible help for the poor dog to pass the object, something maybe she could discuss with the vet? Elsastella, we havent heard from you again, I am only concerned for your pup, not how other people react to my advice, how is she? Give her a hug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Anne~ Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 You just illustrated my point above k9katz. I wil repeat. I said "...and can't find anything anywhere apart from one persons text that is repeated several times on a few personal web pages relating to dogs" I am looking for FACTUAL info, not a personal website. Every single website you have quoted states the exact same personal opinion. It is a case of 'repeated internet myth' I think you will find. If you have factual info from a qualified site then I would love to see it. Who knows, there could be some weird truth in this myth.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9katz Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 You just illustrated my point above k9katz. I wil repeat. I said "...and can't find anything anywhere apart from one persons text that is repeated several times on a few personal web pages relating to dogs" I am looking for FACTUAL info, not a personal website. Every single website you have quoted states the exact same personal opinion. It is a case of 'repeated internet myth' I think you will find. If you have factual info from a qualified site then I would love to see it. Who knows, there could be some weird truth in this myth.... Well like I said, it was only a minimalistic look at the websites and to me they appear to be from different people even if they are suggesting similar possible help in the situation. Like I said, I suggested this from info from a book I have not from searching the Internet. You keep looking for your FACTUAL info, good luck, I'll just hope the poor lab passes the hook without problems before it needs an OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rose of tralee Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 A cottonwool sandwich was a remedy of one vet I knew well in the 70s for sharp foreign body ingestion. Have also come across suggestions that the gut tends to recoil from pointy ends; whereas it tightens nicely around golf balls and corn cobs. Long linear objects, attached or not, are known to concertina, saw through gut. Here's hoping the lab stays well, and passes the pesky hook in a reasonable time frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttaburra Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 We always had fresh squishy white bread with our fish and were told the reason was that if you ever swallowed fish bone then eating plenty of doughy bread would wrap around the fish bone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharna Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Wouldn't it be hard to find a site with factual info from a vet as no matter how altruistic they may seem, the bottom line is $$? Why would they advocate a cotton ball when thousands of $ worth of surgery is at stake? Personally, my brother swallowed something sharp and metal as a kid (think it mighta been a bottle cap? Can't recall) and yes, fibre to bulk it up and pass it through was recommended and worked. This was outback Aus in the 70s. Poor Mum spent her time disecting poop with chopsticks! How is the lab? Has he recovered or passed the hook? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavNrott Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 I've known about the cotton wool balls soaked in milk for years....dunno where I heard it though but it does make sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gomez the Norfolk Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 I'm with you Puggles, cottonballs, we're talking about a fish hook here! Not a screw and not a piece of wood that is all one piece... fish hook is pointy in several places and very sharp... I'm trying to figure out how the cotton wool would know to attach itself to the hook instead of getting lodged in the intestines or something - If Gomez swallowed cotton cool I'd be going to the vet to see how to get rid of it, let alone feed it to him on purpose... How is the doggie doing? has it passed or has it been taken out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shellbyville Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Just a bump to see how the lab is doing? Has the hook passed???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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