That’s not a bone, that’s a… bra?
Hira resident Shevourn Malone’s Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Bruce, regularly chewed foreign objects during puppyhood.
Now one and a half, that naughty habit left his owners footing the bill, after ingesting an ill-fitting meal, a woman’s undergarment, which required surgical removal of its remnants.
Oblivious to a missing bra in her household, Shevourn says Bruce stopped eating and had vomited up to 12 times over a matter of hours, eliciting an appointment at Nelson Vets.
Practice owner Brendan Hickman says the unorthodox discovery via x-rays had “a slight entertainment factor”.
“Once the x-ray was taken, I’m not an expert, but I had assumed there was something of an underwire; you can see some obviously metallic bits there,” he says.
“You get the odd thing, which [a dog] has eaten that’s a little more funny. Over the years, we've pulled out corn cobs, knickers, balls… a pair of socks is another classic. A lot of dogs are quite happy to scavenge and eat things that smell good or they think might be good to eat, not so much because they're hungry, they're actually just chewing on it.”
Shevourn says learning it was a bra causing Bruce’s excessive vomiting was “more relief”.
Brendan says a successful surgery meant Bruce lived to bark about his tale.
“The longer [linear foreign objects like a bra are left], this is causing blockage and then the circulation to the intestinal tract is affected, then it can start to die off,” he says.
“The foreign body [chewed up bra] was anchored in the gastric pylorus, extended to the jejunum, causing severe placation of proximal jejunum, but no perforation. Gastronomy and gentle traction allowed complete removal of the foreign body.”
Brendan says that with the impending summer period, it’s a good time for dog owners to be vigilant, as the period has spikes in cases of dogs swallowing fish hooks and chocolate (a toxic ingredient to dogs).
“Keep your house tidy, probably more realistically if you have a dog that is a bit of a scavenger and likes to pick things up, then you literally just have to be conscious of it and watch it,” he says.
“If we can see [the dogs that have swallowed foreign objects] soon, it makes it so much easier to treat them appropriately and get them right quickly. The longer things are left, the harder it gets.
“When it comes down to any dog with a foreign body… that bill can easily get up towards four or five thousand dollars, so pet insurance is an absolute must nowadays for avoiding that unexpected issue.”
Brendan hopes that teaching dog owners these new tricks won’t cause a much higher cost of dog lives.
