We were out on Sunday with one of the girls friends.  They were all happily playing ball.  Their friend got the ball & to cut a long story short swallowed it.

I saw the dog yesterday and asked the owner how it was and they told me fine.

I however am just a bit curious to whether the dog will be fine.  The ball was a squashy rubber one.  Will the dog continue to be fine?

Unless the dog passes the ball from one end or the other he's unlikely to be fine indefinitely.

Is everyone absolutely sure the dog swallowed the ball and it didn't just end up in the grass or somewhere else?  This must have been a small ball or a very large dog! 

If the dog did swallow the ball the owners need to get him to the vet as it could cause a blockage at a later date!

Lindsay
x

The owner was trying to get the ball of him when next minute it wasn't there, so therefore they and us can only conclude it was swallowed. 

The ball was probably a tadge smaller than a tennis ball.  I may not have described the type correctly. It was a squidgy kind of squeaky ball.

Will the ball definately cause a blockage, if yes, we will hopefully see them tonight and so can mention that people reckon it may be worth popping along to the vet.

Walnuts are big enough to cause blockages, so a ball larger than that certainly could. Vet advice most definitely required to avoid emergency surgery.

Yes, agree with JG, I'd say a vet visit is in order straight away - this kind of thing can have a nasty habit of causing a blockage up to quite a long time later!

Hope the dog is OK, :)

Lindsay
x

My dog had a blockage from a sock (well 2 trainer socks child size!) he is a realatively big dog and socks to me are quite flexible! He didn't show any signs of a blockage till a week later (once my daughter had told me when she lost her socks!) Had I have realised would have taken to the vet sooner than him vomiting violently and me not knowing why!! my advice would be get to a vet asap as blockages aren't always simple as we found out the hard way! Luckily blade has made a full recovery from his op and thankfully no longer retreives things that don't belong to him!!
Hope your friends dog is ok!

I have heard of a dog that swallowed a stone, not too large, and later died. Sorry, but I would have the dog to the Vets even if only to make me feel better and know that nothing was wrong!

Reading the replies. I'm hoping they are out tonight, so I can let them know that although he may be fine at the moment they may be best taking him to the vets.

Unless a somewhat dirty ball has appeared in the garden I would go the vet right away. The dog I had as a child swallowed a round ham bone and she required surgery to remove it.

Just to let you all know, I saw friends the other day and the ball has now come out.

Thank heavens for that! :)

It is good practice to only play with balls ;) that are too large to be swallowed/block the airways and preferably have a rope attached.

Lots of dogs die every year either from blocked airways, blocked guts, or problems with bits of rubber etc rotting away for months.

Please be careful!

My friends GSD had a fairly large ball with a rope attached to it and used it for training purposes.  One day whilst retrieving he was chomping on it, she was trying to stop him when he just swallowed it right in front of her.  The rope and everything had disappeared.  Straight off to the Vets and operated on immediately. She swears that he did it on purpose.  She had bought a ball that she thought would be too difficult to swallow. How wrong she was!