What to do if a dog has a bone in its throat, teeth, intestines

Thin tubular bones, especially those that have undergone heat treatment, should be excluded from the dog's diet. In addition to the fact that such a “delicacy” has no nutritional value, during crushing they form sharp fragments that get stuck in the mouth or intestines of the animal. Particularly dangerous are chicken, rabbit and fish bones. Sharp edges can not only injure the mucous membrane, but also lead to perforation of the digestive system. What to do if the dog has a bone stuck?

Symptoms of a pathological condition

Symptoms that accompany the ingestion of bone fragments depend on which part of the digestive tract the object is stuck in. Depending on the location of the bone fragments, the following symptoms are observed:

1. in the mouth

• the function of swallowing is impaired;
• drooling increases;
• urges to vomit are noted;
• no appetite ;
• the dog rubs its face with its paws or rubs its cheeks on the surface.

2. in the larynx area

• lack of appetite;
• the larynx is edematous, the tissues are hyperemic (red);
• breathing problems are noted;
• with severe damage, bleeding may occur;
• body temperature rises.

3. in the esophagus

• frothy vomiting with food particles;
• animal convulsively pulls the neck;
• complete or partial obstruction of the esophagus;
• tissue inflammation and the risk of necrosis;
• esophageal perforation;
• dysfunction of swallowing.

4. in the stomach or small intestine

• refusal of food;
• intense thirst;
• vomiting;
• inability to defecate;
• increasing symptoms and worsening of condition;
• with perforation of the internal organs - bloating.

If you suspect that the pet has eaten bone, and it is stuck in one of the sections of the digestive system, you should observe its behavior. It is necessary to carefully examine the fecal masses. If there are traces of blood in the feces, and the animal suffers during an act of defecation, you must immediately show the dog to a specialist. You also need to do if the dog has become apathetic or irritable. Special attention should be paid to how the dog breathes. If she has signs of asphyxia ( cough , shortness of breath, blue tongue), then the visit to the vet clinic cannot be postponed.

In the case when there are no noticeable deviations in the state of the animal, you can try to extract large fragments of bones on your own.

In order not to give the dog something horrible read what you can not feed the dog .

Assistance at home

Independently try to remove the bone can only be when it is stuck in the teeth or mouth of the dog. To do this, the animal is fixed, with the help of the mouth expander open the mouth. If the bone is in sight, then it is removed with tweezers or medical forceps.

After the bone is removed, it is necessary to irrigate the mouth of the animal with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. In cases of severe chills caused by spastic processes, No-shpa can be injected to relieve smooth muscle spasm and facilitate the movement of a piece of bone in the digestive tract.

To reduce pain and relax the smooth muscles of the gastrointestinal tract, you can give the animal an injection of Papaverine or Apomorphine.

With symptoms of intestinal obstruction, it is strictly prohibited to give an dog an enema, or give antiemetic or laxative drugs.

Small bone fragments can be removed with food. The dog is given rice with bread. Rice envelops the intestines and reduces the risk of injury to the mucous membranes, and bread prevents the traumatic effect of the bone. Passing through the intestines, the food ball will take with it bone fragments. A few days of such nutrition, and the bones come out with feces.

Veterinary specialists propose another method of getting rid of bones stuck in the esophagus - the method of Heimlich , which consists in dislodging and pushing out the stuck bone. The animal stands on four legs, the owner grabs the dog with his hands across the abdomen. The right hand, clenched into a fist, is positioned so that the thumb touches the sternum. The left hand covers the fist of the right, forming a "lock". Sharply press the diaphragm of the animal several times. Movement should go from bottom to top.

As a rule, 4-5 of these movements push the bone higher, which allows it to be removed. In a small dog, a similar method of bone extraction should be carried out with less effort, so the pressure is only the fist of the right hand. The animal must be kept upside down, pressing the spine to its chest.

Thin bone fragments are unlikely to be removed by this method. The Heimlich method should be used with caution, since it is difficult to correctly calculate the applied effort without preparation, and the animals react differently to such assistance. This technique can only be used completely after making sure that the dog is choked on a bone fragment, otherwise the animal can be injured.

When the bones get stuck in the deep sections - the stomach, intestines, you should not experiment with home remedies. Perforation of the intestine threatens with peritonitis, and prolonged irritation of the stomach walls with sharp bone fragments causes necrosis and sepsis. A very dangerous consequence of intestinal perforation is fecal peritonitis. The result of such pathologies is the death of the pet. Therefore, it is better to contact the vet as soon as the owner suspected that a foreign object was stuck in the dog's digestive system.

See also:

• what to do if the dog was bitten by a tick ;
• how to choose a laxative for dogs ;
• treatment of poisoning in dogs .

Veterinary assistance in the treatment of dogs

In the veterinary clinic, the doctor seeks to determine the location of the bone. For this, radiography with or without a contrast agent is used. Sometimes the dog is doing an ultrasound scan, which online shows the opposite movement of the intestines to the natural peristalsis. Once the location of the shard is established, the degree of damage done to them, the veterinarian develops a treatment strategy.

If it is not mechanically possible to get rid of the bone, the veterinarian prescribes surgical or endoscopic removal of the stuck object.

Usually the bones get stuck in the pylorus or small intestine. Then through the incision in the tissues of the body is removed the object. The situation is more difficult if the bone has to be removed with a part of the intestine. Resection harder affects the condition of dogs and requires a long recovery period.

In the event that the bone is removed from the esophagus, during the entire period of healing the animal cannot be eaten so that the regeneration process proceeds faster. Subsequently, the dog will have to undergo a long postoperative recovery and follow a strict diet . With a successful operation, the pet will ask you to drink and get better the next day.

To avoid injury to the animal with bone fragments, you need to carefully monitor what the dog eats. Such simple preventive measures will avoid the risk of severe damage to the digestive system of the animal with sharp bone fragments or the threat of getting stuck.