Meet Kona. She decided one Saturday morning to swallow a black sock whole right after breakfast. Luckily the owner called us right away to ask what they should do. Our call center immediately asked Dr. Breuning to assist who directed them to come right over to induce emesis, which means make her vomit.
She was given a tiny amount of a drug IV that causes vomiting within 5 minutes. As you can see in the picture below, the sock came right up. (We blued out the rest of her breakfast to make it a little less graphic.) As soon as we were successful, we gave Kona a wonderful anti-nausea shot (medicine) that made her feel better. She and her owners went right home that morning to enjoy the rest of the weekend without having to worry.
Dogs and cats unfortunately eat things they shouldn’t. Socks, underwear, corn cobs, medicines left on counters, rocks, batteries, pine cones, etc. are all just a few of the common things that dogs get into. When a pet eats something they shouldn’t, do not wait to call the veterinarian. We only have a 4 hour window to induce emesis, and the sooner the better. After a few hours, the foreign body leaves the stomach, and then it’s a scary, painful waiting game. Once in the intestines, pets will get sick from hours to days later. When objects get stuck, not only does the patient feel ill, but sometimes they need surgery to save the patient’s life.
Thankfully Kona did great.
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