Our current Featured Pet is Charlie, a German Shorthaired Pointer.
Charlie was brought into the clinic by his owners after spending the morning vomiting/retching and acting out of sorts. On examination Charlie was slightly subdued and tender in his abdomen. As dogs can have a habit of eating things they shouldn’t, and Charlie is no exception, we were quite concerned he may have a foreign body blockage of his intestines. We took some X-rays to look for any foreign bodies and while none were visible there were some changes in his stomach that suggested a blockage.
Since he had been vomiting, we placed Charlie on a drip to rehydrate him. We then anaesthetised him and passed an endoscopic camera down his throat and into his stomach to look for the suspected blockage. What we found surprised us all! The endoscope revealed a sewing needle that had lodged in his upper oesophagus and had a long length of string attached that had gone down into his stomach. With great difficulty and care we were able to remove it.
Charlie recovered from his anaesthetic well and over the following few days was treated with medication to settle his stomach and minimise any permanent damage from the sewing needle.
