Obstruction

[Gretel]

Tatum was a bit off early in the week and I was worried about her by Tuesday night so off to the vet Wednesday morning. The vet diagnosed an obstruction and put her on a drip for a couple of hours hoping it might help move it along. She operated Wednesday afternoon and removed quite a large mass of hair. Tatum is healing nicely but I am rather concerned about the chance of it happening again. I've just been studying the mass and pulling it apart in the hope of discovering what it is and why it got there! There are a few tiny bits of cartilage from chicken necks, a few bits of dry bed. I had noticed her 'grooming' the dry bed a couple of times so thinking she may have ingested quite a bit of hair doing that? Her mother does that fairly often - she seems a bit obsessed with it. The dry bed is now banished! I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on the subject. I'd never have thought of a dog getting a hairball. She doesn't groom the other dogs, doesn't chew coats and we don't have a cat. The vet suggested she might be grooming a cat. I am at a loss. She's only 9 months old.

[Nekhbet]

Brush her every day with a stripping brush and give her non edible bedding if she's grooming the bed as well all the time. The problem with the bed is that it's a synthetic fiber which cannot be broken down at all in the intestines hence the hairball. Good that it came out with minimal fuss though!

[dragonwoman]

Tatum was a bit off early in the week and I was worried about her by Tuesday night so off to the vet Wednesday morning. The vet diagnosed an obstruction and put her on a drip for a couple of hours hoping it might help move it along. She operated Wednesday afternoon and removed quite a large mass of hair. Tatum is healing nicely but I am rather concerned about the chance of it happening again. I've just been studying the mass and pulling it apart in the hope of discovering what it is and why it got there! There are a few tiny bits of cartilage from chicken necks, a few bits of dry bed. I had noticed her 'grooming' the dry bed a couple of times so thinking she may have ingested quite a bit of hair doing that? Her mother does that fairly often - she seems a bit obsessed with it. The dry bed is now banished! I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on the subject. I'd never have thought of a dog getting a hairball. She doesn't groom the other dogs, doesn't chew coats and we don't have a cat. The vet suggested she might be grooming a cat. I am at a loss. She's only 9 months old.

Sucking can be a hangover from baby puppy stage. One of my bitches still occasionally kneads and sucks soft toys, she will go and find a toy sometimes at night and seems to get great comfort from it. Rarely does it now but was a quite a habit when she was young Her daughter does not do it Understand it is a hangover from kneading and suckling to bring mum's milk down Friends with Dobes tell me bed sucking is big with them.........

[OSoSwift]

My SIL dog had something very similar. He was 11 and a Border Collie with heaps of coat.

He licked his legs and feet cleaning quite often but he never seemed to be a bubbler or chewer of much at all so nobody really knows why he got it, but yep the hair ball consisted of hair and couple of tiny bits of cartledge, and a few little bits of stuff?

[Gretel]

I've only seen her at the drybed twice and I've never seen her grooming any of the other dogs.