Asher Ate a Plush Cat Toy

[SamsonsMom]

Well, Asher ate a plush cat toy. About the size of a golf ball with leather tassels hanging off the end. Happened at 3pm on Thursday. Pet sitter didn't inform me until 9pm that night. I am not pleased about the gap in time because I lost any chance of getting it out of his belly. As soon as she told me, I got in touch with the emergency vet. The toy is in his intestine. Vet is cautiously optimistic he will pass the toy. I have to report back this afternoon. So far...he has not pooped it out. :-( He's acting normal and very active. We have him on canned food from the vet to help with moisture. He's never been huge on drinking lots of water so I'm struggling to get additional water in him. I'll call the vet in a few since he just had his afternoon poo and no toy! :-( If he has to have surgery, what am I looking at in recovery? Any experience? When Samson had his TTA, I took a week off. I have no option of taking any extra days this week. Asher is 6 1/2 months old. He had never shown any interest in cat toys before. I feel guilty for having it around but never been a problem before. I'm thinking it was laying there and he was happy to go outside so he grabbed it as they headed out the door. My pet sitter made the error in offering him a treat in exchange for the toy. I think he got so excited for the treat he just swallowed the toy. What's done is done and my boys health is top priority! Any tips or advice would be appreciate.

[Annette47]

It might take a few days to pass - as long as he is eating and drinking and eliminating normally w/o any puking, I would just keep an eye on him and not panic yet.

As for surgery, I haven’t been through it but know several people who have. From what they’ve said, the recovery is very similar to a spay or neuter - complete rest for few days, restricted activity for 7-14 days after that.

[SamsonsMom]

It might take a few days to pass - as long as he is eating and drinking and eliminating normally w/o any puking, I would just keep an eye on him and not panic yet.

As for surgery, I haven’t been through it but know several people who have. From what they’ve said, the recovery is very similar to a spay or neuter - complete rest for few days, restricted activity for 7-14 days after that.

Just got off the phone with the vet. She says to keep doing what we are doing and for me to bring him in immediately if he vomits or shows struggling in going. Fingers crossed! He is wiped out right now from our obedience class today. :-)

I'm very nervous. I've never looked so forward to picking up poo!

[SunDance]

Did the vet recommend giving him some cat laxative?

When our Brutus got impacted on what turned out to be a small piece of corn cob, the vet spotted it in his intestines, "prescribed" cat laxative (take two tubes and call me in the morning...OK, I kid, I can't remember how much we were supposed to give him) and told us to wait 24 hours or bring him back in. He pooped it out before the 24 hour mark.

[smartrock]

Chase ate 2 ankle height woman's socks, the kind you wear with running shoes, when he was 5 1/2 months old. He snatched them off the counter. I didn't realize they were missing until he threw up his dinner that night and I started looking around for a possible reason. He ended up throwing up one of the socks when I took him to the vet but needed surgery to remove the second one, which was done the day after he swallowed it. Our vet kept him overnight after the surgery, which is his standard practice. They have someone who watches them overnight and they could make sure everything was going well post-op, eating, peeing, pooping and no bleeding. He had big old stitches in his belly. As Annette surmised, his recovery was similar to a spay or neuter. Keep him from getting at the stitches, so cone until the stitches were removed, and leash walks only for 2 weeks. I think the stitches came out at about day 10. He had a very uneventful recovery.

Even though we thought we were being so, so careful, he swallowed 2-3 more socks after that. Socks were the only things he hunted down to swallow. They don't learn any lessons from having to have surgery. We realized it right away and were able to get him to vomit them up using peroxide. I remember one Thanksgiving Day at the beach having to ask neighbors if they had any peroxide. Fortunately, I was able to find a small convenience store that conveniently had peroxide and I had to use the turkey baster on the dog rather than on the turkey. Sigh... Now I know I can get him to drink the peroxide if I mix it in some milk. That's easier than freaking out trying to get the peroxide to stay in the turkey baster long enough to get it positioned properly in the dog's mouth rather than shooting it all over yourself and the floor.

Good luck, I hope the cat toy "will come to pass" and you can avoid surgery. Swallowing stuff they shouldn't is a trait labs are well known for, at least according to our vet.

And I just saw Sundance's post- we had to give Lark a tube of cat laxative once to get some mulch and sticks to pass through.

[Snowshoe]

Now I've read you should NOT give laxative. It works to soften stuff up or to make the muscles work to pass and if something is blocking that cannot be softened or moved then the critter (human too) will be in agony. Or if there isn't a blockage the laxative can actually make one by moving the object to a point where it can go no further. Check with the Vet.

This is human but dogs are about the same, cats, kids. Horses are really bad because they can't vomit.

How to Know If You Have a Bowel Obstruction | HealDove

[smartrock]

Yeah, we gave the cat lax after the vet had cut Larky open, based upon "something" forming an apparent blockage and found that things had backed up at the junction of the small and large intestine. He was able to get it to go ahead and pass through into the large intestine, then he told us to give the cat lax to get it to finish coming out. We wouldn't have just given it without the vet's recommendation. None of our 5 previous non-lab dogs had ever eaten anything that caused an obstruction!

[SamsonsMom]

Thanks all. No laxative at this time. Just the Science Diet food. Sorry about your luck with socks Smartrock! Samson has a thing for scrunchies. Well, he used to. I finally rid the house of all of them and no longer use them. For him, he would puke them up in matter of hours. Then there was a few times when I was picking up in the back yard I'd find a random scrunchie! That's the reason I got insurance on him -- he ate everything in sight. That insurance came in handy with his TTA. I got Asher insurance as well. I sure hope I don't have to use it for this. I will submit for the x-rays.

After another 24 hours, the vet wants me to come back for x-rays to see the progress of movement!

[POPTOP]

Labragator! Since he is eating, drinking and still pooping with no vomiting, it's a waiting game.

Sending good cat toy poop mojo.

[Nancy0]

Ugh so sorry. Very stressful. We've been through obstruction surgery. Charlie swallowed a squeaker about 3 weeks prior. I was 95% sure he'd swallowed it, but never saw him actually do it. I took him to the vet right away. The vet could not get Charlie to vomit and with that the vet thought it would pass. Um no - 3 weeks later he had a very small poop and then became lethargic. He wouldn't eat and projectile vomited. We went to pet emergency and within 45 minutes Charlie was in surgery. One half hour after that the surgeon called to tell me he pulled out a squeaker. That was 8 years ago and Charlie has been fine. I hope Asher passes that darn thing soon.

Nancy