Читать книгу The Dog's Medical Dictionary - Alfred Joseph Sewell - Страница 61

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Symptoms: The dog has a big swallow, and it is astonishing what can pass down his throat into the stomach. I have known small dogs as fox terriers to swallow coins the size of a penny, and smaller dogs still to swallow brooches, ear-rings, and finger-rings, and also keys, without even seeing any bad results to the dog, though the owner has been much alarmed as to what was going to happen; but corks are dangerous, as they block up the intestines, and so are big round stones, but small stones dogs swallow with impunity. Dogs, even small ones like pups, swallow occasionally meat skewers, but even such things as these do not always prove fatal. I recently had under my care a small puppy who swallowed a hat-pin ten and a half inches long, the head passed into the stomach all right, but the puppy was too small to take the whole length of pin, and the point, piercing some of the vital parts of the throat, killed him.

As a rule, a dog does not show much discomfort after swallowing things like coins, bones, small stones, etc., when they once have reached the stomach, though with young puppies the latter often cause severe colic; but large round stones and corks often cause serious mischief by blocking up the bowels, inducing inflammation, which, if not relieved by operation, soon causes death. Skewers and long hat-pins when swallowed seldom pass beyond the stomach, where they often remain for some considerable time, but sooner or later the point generally pierces the stomach, and peritonitis follows, which quickly terminates fatally; but sometimes the sharp point passes direct from the stomach through the walls of the abdomen and skin, and it may be seen sticking out and can be removed. The dog seems none the worse after a few days, as the wound soon heals.

It is often difficult by manipulation to detect things that have been swallowed, for as a rule, as before mentioned, they remain in the stomach for a considerable time before passing into the intestines. I have known coins to remain there for five or six months before being passed; however, with the Röntgen rays coins, keys, jewellery, stones, etc., can always be detected.

Treatment: Unless the foreign body swallowed is doing the dog visible harm, it is best left alone. Feed on solid food as suet puddings, rice, bread, meat and such like foods, so as to distend the bowels as much as possible and to cause big motions, and the foreign body, in all probability, will pass out safely; do not give purgative medicines, which only cause contraction of the bowels and do harm, but if there is pain give from two[1] to ten drops of laudanum in a little water, three or four times a day, or oftener.

When the substance swallowed causes real obstruction in the bowel, the laudanum may be given a trial for two or three days, but as a rule an operation becomes necessary, which consists in opening the abdomen, finding where obstruction is, and opening the bowel and removing the offending matter. It is an operation requiring aseptic precaution and some care, and the sewing up the incision made into the bowel wants carefully doing or a stricture may result.