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Gastric Foreign Body In A Dog

Dogs eat all sorts of foreign objects... from rocks to nails, grass, paper, bones, feces and dead fish.  Sometimes this is called PICA if the dog makes a habit of consuming non-food material.  On occasion, objects that the dog would only chew on or hold in its mouth are inadvertently swallowed.  Fortunately, most objects that make it to the stomach are either digested or simply passed with the stool or regurgitated out.  

This case presents a very unusual patient, a 14 year old, 13 pound Lhasa Apso.  This patient was somewhat thin and  was examined because of persistent vomiting of three days duration.  The dog was active, alert, had no fever and no signs of pain.  There was no diarrhea or straining to urinate.  It seemed like a common case of  stomach irritation or possibly a transient stomach virus.  Abdominal palpation was normal  and no discomfort was noted.  A review of the dog's history, dating back over thirteen years, indicated she had been presented in 1998 with similar signs.  X-rays taken at that time seemed to indicate nothing suspicious, according the the attending veterinarian. Click here to see that x-ray yourself.  What do you think? She was treated symptomatically at home.  There had been subsequent office calls with the dog showing episodes of vomiting but the patient never seemed to really act sick or to be in discomfort.   Symptomatic treatment seemed to allow the dog to return to normal.

It was noted that back in 1990 the patient had its first serious episode of vomiting; x-rays were taken then, too, with nothing abnormal noted.  (Unfortunately those films were not available for examination.)  At the time of the present exam (September 2001) the attending doctor suggested that the patient be x-rayed again... this time with the determination that a Barium Series of radiographs be done to obtain a definitive diagnosis.

The present episode's x-rays are below.  A plain film is taken first, before any Barium contrast material is swallowed.  Sometimes an abnormality will show up before any Barium is even needed.  In this case a suspicious outline was noted so Barium was provided and the next set of radiographs were taken at 15 minutes and 60 minutes after the Barium was swallowed.

Click on an image to see a full size photo in a new window.

Plain films... prior to administering Barium.
15  minutes after Barium swallow.
Two hours after Barium swallow.

If you still aren't sure if you see anything abnormal, 
go to this page to see the same radiographs with arrows pointing to the object.

You should have a diagnosis after viewing these radiographs.  This patient went to surgery to have a space occupying object removed from the stomach.  It turned out to be a rubber ball.  When this ball, cut in half, was shown to the dog's owner, she said  "Well, I haven't seen this ball in about ten years!"  The evidence is good that this patient swallowed this ball back in 1990 and that it was in the stomach at the time of the first x-rays taken eleven years ago!  Unfortunately, those films were not found. 

Actual diameter of the ball was 1 1/4 inches.

Take a look at the surgery that was done to remove the ball.
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