Within two hours of arriving at the rental cottage on Friday afternoon, our working cocker puppy got hold of a washing-up sponge/scourer and swallowed it in one gulp.  We drove straight back home so that we could take him to our own vets and he was given laxatives yesterday but passed nothing.  He has been absolutely fine in himself, passing stools, no vomiting, etc. The vet has just done an x-ray and can see that the stomach is full of food, despite the fact that some of it is clearly going through.  So now he has to be cut open to try to remove the sponge, which the vet is hoping is in the stomach rather than the intestine.  I'm so upset and feel this is all my fault - I opened the cupboard in the kitchen that he grabbed the sponge from.  I tried to get it to give it to me by offering him a treat (which has always worked before), but he just gulped it down.  It's his first birthday on Saturday and now he's going to spend that recovering from an operation, or worse.  The breeder we got him from had one of her pups die from complications from this exact same surgery.  I'm terrified we're going to lose him and I couldn't bear to be without him.  He's been a real handful as a pup but has just started turning into the most wonderful, loving and obedient dog.

Here's hoping your pup recovers - ((hugs))

dont be too hard on yourself.  at least you were there. if you hadnt seen you pup eat  the scourer this could have been a lot worse.  thinking of you.

Sending you {hugs} - try not to worry too much - your pup should be ok - he is under observation at the vets and will have his operation.

My daughter's springer has had no less than THREE operations for obstuctions (swallowed socks!) - and now is muzzled when Sarah is dealing with laundry - and the children's bedroom doors are always firmly closed.   Vet did suggest putting a zip in her stomach rather than sewing her up .....but we think she was joking !

She is such a good girl with everything else - but if she sees a sock .........

Thanks for the messages.  Barney has had the op now.  The vet has just phoned to say that he found the sponge in the stomach, but there were also two other obstructions in the bowel, one he managed to break down by massaging, the other he had to make an incision to remove.  He can't understand how anything was getting past the sponge at all. He also cleared out Barney's gullet and found various bits of grit and fabric.  The dog is like a hoover - we've been examining his poo for the last 24 hours and found a bit of red plastic (think he picked this up off the floor of the holiday cottage), twigs and the foot of a soft toy (pheasant).  Anyway, Barney is under sedation now - apparently the danger period is 4-5 days after the surgery, so we have a bit of a way to go yet.  The house is very quiet without him, and I'm killing time by doing a belated spring clean and trying to Barney-proof the house further.  Sadly I think the collection of soft toys will have to go, which will be very upsetting for my older dog, but Barney does destroy them and it's just not worth the risk.

Oh no Barney............
My boy was a terrible eater of everything in his path too.
The worst was a peg, it all passed through luckily with no mishaps, but he did have a tough time passing some through his rectum. The vet warned me he would probably continue this behaviour for a while...he did, so you will need to be extra vigilant.
I hope it all comes good for you, they certainly keep us on our toes one way or another.

Karen

hope he's ok soon, poor boy.
some dogs just eat everything don't they.

Your poor boy-fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.Don't blame yourself though,some dogs will just grab and swallow anything.My papillon is like this,she picks things up then shows me as she knows she gets titbits in return,the problem is sometimes she just swallows,her favourite things are mats and nail clippings in the salon,biros and bank notes-she's swallowed £20 notes several times.The worst time was when I dropped a tube of superglue on the floor and quick as a flash she grabbed it.I think the neighbours must have wondered what the screaming was about,but she wasn't going to drop it,she even took some titbits out of my hand without dropping it.Eventually I got it back by dropping some tripe mince on the floor but it was a scary few minutes.
Dogs like this are a nightmare,you need eyes in the back of your head.Hope your boy gets well soon!

Thanks for the messages, it's reassuring to know it's not just Barney that swallows everything.  Though the vet did say that his cocker had bolted down an entire rabbit in one go last week (and was, amazingly, fine).  Barney is now sedated, on two types of antibiotics and receiving IV fluids.  He's wearing a lampshade collar as he'd tried to nibble his stiches - no surprise there.  I'm just wondering how they manage to stop dogs chewing the drip line?  I can't imagine Barney not wanting to have a go at that.
The vet said we could go round and see him this evening but we want him to stay calm and as he's the world's most excitable dog we thought it best to leave it for today.

The vet phoned this morning and said Barney had a good night and was "raring to go" this morning.  They're going to try feeding him some special food later today.  I'm dying to see him, but won't be going to the surgery as I don't want him to get excited and rupture his wound.  If anything, I feel even worse today - I can't eat or sleep and won't be able to until I know the danger of abdominal leakage has passed.  The fact that he is "raring to go" doesn't make me feel positive that he's going to avoid rupturing his internal stiches.

I hope Barney is OK, our setter jumped about like a mad thing after she was spayed, even to the point of wanting to jump into and out of the car on the way back from the vet. Like you I was worried to death about her rupturing stitches but she was absolutely fine.
Our first bernese ate my daughters chunky crayons when he ws young and the first we knew about it was when they started appearing, still whole in various poos

I hope Barney is back on his paws soon!  I have a working cocker and and that age he would eat anything as well. 

Just read this, and wanted to offer healing thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery for Barney. 

Poor Barney and poor you, I've often been amazed my American cocker has never had a blockage as he steals and eats the most ridiculous things sometimes!

Thanks for all the messages.  We went to see Barney today and it was quite upsetting.  He went completely crazy when he saw us and nearly pulled the drip line out, but within 5 minutes was feeling very sorry for himself and wimpering with pain.  But the vet is pleased with his progress at the moment - he has managed to eat without vomiting, and has passed a motion today.  We're hoping the latter is a good sign as things would be less likely to pass through if there was a leakage, but the next three days are going to be when any problems would appear.  Please keep your fingers crossed for him - he really is a very special little boy.

Fingers x'd this end.  {{{{  HUGS  }}}}  And sending positive vibes.  We all know what it's like to be worried over our dogs.

Absolute pain aren't they you get rid of the kids and you are back to bringing up the dogs! Fingers and toes crossed.

Rosemarie,

Most vets would be out of business if it weren't for dogs swallowing things!  Take heart, most dogs grow out of trying to swallow everything that fits in their mouths. 

I have also tried "drop it" with Abby when she has something in her mouth I don't want her to swallow.  Now that she is an adult it works with anything, except food or cat poo!  Yuch.   As a puppy I frequently found her passing things that I had no idea she had even consumed - rubber from  broken balloons was a favourite.  Abby is a Cairn and as her head is low to the ground she is on something before I can even get a word out of my mouth.

One thing I did learn is that offering a treat in exchange for dropping something does not work.  Like your dog, the only thing that does is guarantee that whatever Abby has in her mouth she will swallow in a hurry before she gets the treat.

I hope Barney has a speedy, uneventful recovery.   You I know will need patience to keep him still -- and cage rest may be the only way to achieve it, so I hope you have one at home.

Vet has phoned to say that Barney's temperature is up.  Maybe something innocuous, but he said he is going to monitor his temp closely and asked our permission to open Barney up again if he thinks it's necessary.  He thinks the bowel wound is more likely to present a danger of peritonitis than the stomach one, so would go in and look at that first.  

> Barney's temperature is up

Hope it turns out to be nothing serious. Poor you.

Good news - is temp is back down and he's coming home this morning!  There's still a couple of days to go in the risk period for peritonitis developping, but we're so pleased that things are looking normal at the moment.  We have a pen and a crate that we can use to keep him quiet - that will be a job in itself.

Great news, get well soon Barney!

What a worring time for you,so much for the laid back restful holiuday with plenty of quality doggy time.Glad he is much better,as already posted there aren't many of us who have had dogs with an appetite for non food items.

Barney home again good news, now trying to keep him peaceful, lots of tlc and telling off for making you worry.

Thanks for all your thoughts.  Barney's back home and looking really bright, but can't understand why he's back in his puppy pen, poor boy!  Molly is not too impressed to see him home, and is scared of his lampshade collar so we're keeping them apart.  It's soooo good to have him home (can't believe how much I missed him) - just tomorrow to go and then the risk of a relapse should be past.  My vet is worth his weight in gold and has been so good to Barney, and also to us, ringing us with frequent updates - I wish I got such treatment from my doctor!

Hi Rosemarie,

Hope your pup is ok :-)  My working cocker ate my daughters knickers when he was 7 months old, he had to have them removed from his intestines as yours did, it was an awful time! :-(  After that I had two stair gates, one at the top and one at the bottom of the stairs just incase he managed to dash past the first one!  He loved to eat knickers and socks!!  He grew out of it though and hes now 18 months :-) 

The wound took a while to heal and I found salt water was what cleared it up in the end.

Thanks Angelz.  Barney also likes grabbing knickers and socks!  I hope he'll grow out of it like your cocker has, though apparently some dogs are just like this all their lives.

He's been back home six days now and is full of beans, though the vet is concerned that he's still running a temperature.  She said something about looking at using steroids if it's not back to normal next week.  He's wolfing his food down (and it's coming out the other end), so it looks as though everything is working well with his digestive system and there shouldn't be much of a possibilty of leakage at this stage.  But we don't know for sure why his temperature is high - the vet thinks it may be the immune system working extra hard.  He should be able to have his stiches out on Friday, then we can take the buster collar off on Saturday and he can start going for short walks on the lead. 

Stupidly, we had him sleeping in a crate in our bedroom up till the sponge incident.  Now that he's confined to a pen in the kitchen, I couldn't bear to leave him downstairs on his own at night so am sleeping on the kitchen floor to keep an eye on him and keep him company.  OH thinks I am being ridiculous - but it's better than sleeping upstairs with him at the moment since he's coughing and sneezing away with hayfever!

As long as your not in the crate with him!!  It was a fright and you need to reassure yourself that he's ok.
Nothing wrong with that.

That made me laugh!  No, I'm not in the pen with him, but right next to it! It's surprisingly comfortable, though, and means I get to avoid OH's hayfever and the older cocker's duvet hogging.  She's not impressed that Barney is back from hospital - in fact she was very cheerful when he was away.  She keeps running away from his lampshade collar, growling over her shoulder as she runs!

I had Whister my cocker in one I had to keep emptying his lampshade he seemed to trawl with it through the gravel and bushes and I was forever cleaning it up. He could place it over his water bowl and lap away.
We spent one evening with me holding him and then OH holding him when I had a pee break.
Its just like having kids again! We both checked him over night we live in a bungalow and with all doors open we could hear if he squeaked!!