Fish spines, bones, fruit kernels …… When we eat these things, there will always be accidental ingestion of the situation, although always eat a straight cool, but if once has been blocked in the throat, or even slide down the esophagus near the foreign body will make the esophagus infection, erosion of nearby blood vessels, and even death in a short time!
We all know the danger of “foreign bodies” to the human body, so we always pay attention when we eat, and the sensitivity of the fur kids to foreign bodies is the same. We always think that dogs are free to eat bones, but is it really so?
In fact, there are some bones that dogs should not eat more than they can, and eating too many will only bring bad effects! Although the dog in the anime “cat and mouse” is a classic image of the love of bones, always let us feel that “dogs chew bones” is a matter of course.
But this impression is actually not accurate! If you are not familiar with the hidden dangers, feeding your dog bones may cause serious consequences.
International cases
Pet name: Good boy
Gender: Male
Age: 10 years old
Breed: Yorkshire Terrier
Weight：1.7kg
Medical history
The dog is usually very lively and energetic, recently a week of occasional vomiting, lost the usual prestige, before and after the contrast, especially in the evening, the situation is more serious, and vomit white foam, but still want to eat, jaw lymph nodes swollen, will scream when picking it up.
Hospital examination
Clinical examination: The dog always had an arched back, walked carefully and had obvious pain. Nurse sister was normal when feeding, then vomited. Nasal inspiration was labored, heart murmur, teeth loss due to age and other factors was sufficient, no fever, no cough.
Laboratory tests: blood tests were normal.
DR examination: foreign body in the esophagus, similar to bone shape, foreign body through the esophagus
It was at this point that I remembered: I had fed my dog duck bones a week ago!
Diagnosis: foreign body blockage in canine esophagus
Treatment plan.
The first step was to confirm that there was no ulceration in the esophagus: the bone had been blocking the dog’s esophagus for up to a week and a barium meal angiogram was needed to examine the dog’s esophagus. Fortunately, there was no ulceration in the esophagus.
Secondly, the age of good boy surgery is risky: for Dean Cheng, but there is still a need to face the problem that good boy is 10 years old, try not to open the dog, reduce the pain that the dog needs to endure, so the choice of endoscopy, you can use the small clips of the endoscope to clip out the foreign body.
Endoscopy: Endoscopy has been increasingly used in the field of pet medicine, mainly through the natural orifices of the affected pet’s body or through small incisions into the body, through the device external imaging for the examination of the affected pet’s organs or tissues and surgical treatment.
Endoscopic surgery
The application of endoscopy in pet medicine is mainly twofold.
①Diagnosis: it can be used to diagnose esophageal, gastric and intestinal diseases, to perform nasal cavity, ear canal, bladder-urethra examination, biopsy, etc.
② Treatment: foreign body removal, geriatric nutritional metabolic disease inability to eat, for moderate to severe tracheal collapse guided installation of tracheal stents, electrocoagulation and electrodesiccation techniques, etc.
Before surgery, the dog needs to be anesthetized. After anesthesia, a long tube of the endoscope is slowly extended into the dog’s esophagus to look for that “duck bone”, and then a small clamp is used to hold it, and then it is slowly pulled out.
After the foreign body was removed, Dean Cheng then used the endoscope to examine the dog’s esophagus and stomach once again. The dog’s esophagus was found to be inflamed and needed antibiotics and nutritional fluids to reduce inflammation after waking up. The duck bones that were removed from inside Goody’s esophagus for at least a week, the dog could not eat and the inflamed esophagus would cause intense pain from chewing food. Bones stuck in the esophagus can be very painful for the dog: vomiting with blood, heavy salivation, shortness of breath, or in severe cases, suffocation. The weakest ones only need to use a clip to help them clip out the foreign body, but the clip can not be removed will have to be “open belly” surgery. Not only will the dog be overwhelmed by the blockage, but watching the dog suffer will be heartbreaking, but there is nothing to do. A blockage of this magnitude traditionally requires surgery.
Case Discussion: Esophageal foreign body management may seem simple, but in fact it can be complex and dangerous.
The areas of the esophagus that are prone to foreign body obstruction in dogs are: the entrance to the throat, the area near the left atrium, and the diaphragmatic foramen ovale.
Clinical signs of an esophageal blockage include nausea, regurgitation, and excessive salivation, and it is important to go to the hospital for x-rays as soon as such signs are detected. And once a foreign body is diagnosed, early surgery must be performed to prevent the situation from worsening and endangering the dog’s life and health.
Surgery can be used to safe and painless endoscopic clip out, but the larger foreign body sometimes requires surgery, so usually do not give dogs and cats large bones to eat, because dogs are often very anxious to eat, easy to swallow raw.
