My dog ate a bamboo skewer. How long should I watch for problems?

Unfortunately once a foreign object has been ingested there are only 3 things you can do for your pet: 1) Give 1 slice of bread to help bind the foreign object, 2) Feed the pet canned food to hopefully help bind the object for easy passage through the stomach and intestines, 3) Take your pet on a brisk walk for 20 minutes to encourage intestinal motility (only do this if your pet is not lethargic or acting abnormal). Then you just wait and see if this thing will pass without causing any disruptions to your pets gastrointestinal tract. Look for signs of obstruction, which include excessive vomiting, painful abdomen, severe lethargy and listlessness. If Peaches is going to pass this well she will most likely do so within the next 48-72 hrs, so monitor her feces well. However if she should present with any of the symptoms mentioned above, then the best thing to do for her is to get her seen for medical care with your vet.

I would recommend taking your dog to the vet to have an x-ray performed. Wooden skewers are usually not broken down in the GI tract and may need to be removed surgically. I have seen one case where the dog was able to pass the skewer on his own but using this "wait and see" approach carries a high risk for bowel perforation from the skewer and if that happens, you are unfortunately in an emergency situation. An x-ray can help determine if in fact the skewer was swallowed whole or if it was chewed up and broken down.

Hello. It is difficult to say if & when the floss may pass. In general, things transit the gut of dogs in about 18 hours, but floss can potentially get hung up somewhere. If this just happened, you vet may be able to retrieve the floss with an endoscope. If it has been many hours, I would feed your dog 2 pieces of bread slathered with Vaseline. Feed him a piece at a time. This will bulk up & lubricate any ingesta hopefully moving the floss along. In total, just monitor him over the next 3-5 days for any signs of inappetence, bloating, vomiting or belly pain. Hope all is well in the end & thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

In most situations I think wood would probably be digested and you might not even be able to identify it in the stool. It can also take 5 days or more for something to pass through the gastrointestinal tract. As long as Finn is not vomiting and is eating normally I wouldn't be concerned.

Oh that wasn't good Sadie ate that! The problem with it is that could potentially get stuck in her GI tract or cause perforation of the intestines. Given that it's a small piece of wood, hopefully it should pass ok, but I will give you some things that may help. Give her a slice of whole wheat bread now, as it will form a ball of ingesta around the stick. You can give her this slice of bread with every meal, and keep an eye on her and her feces. If you see any blood in her feces, or she has diarrhea, anorexia, vomiting, or lethargy, that means the stick could have perforated her intestines or caused an obstruction, and Sadie will need to see a vet right away. It can take up to 72 hours for this to pass.

It's difficult to know for sure without knowing the size or type of object ingested, but it's definitely a concern for causing an obstruction in the stomach or intestines. If she ate it within the last three hours, then it's possible that it can be retrieved from the stomach if you take her to the vet. This may require anesthesia and special instrumentation though, so it would be expected to be somewhat costly - especially at an emergency clinic. This is the best option though. The other option is waiting to see if it passes OK. Normal GI transit time is 3-5 days. During this time you would just be waiting to see if she has any signs of an obstruction. Signs of an obstructions are vomiting, not defecating, acting very painful/depressed and a decrease in appetite. If you notice these signs, then Olive would need to go to the vet immediately for emergency surgery. I hope that helps and all is well with Olive.

The normal gastric transit cycle is about three days (can be more or less), so I would just monitor him for a couple of more days before worrying about the bones getting stuck or causing a problem. While bones have the potential to get stuck in the stomach or intestines, they usually pass through just fine. While I don't advise feeding bones, the truth is that many dogs eat bones (chicken, lamb, beef, goat, fish) on a daily basis for their whole lives and don't ever have any complications from it. I just mention this to help ease any big concern, because more than likely, Ace will be just fine. If they did get stuck, then it would be apparent. A bowel obstruction or damage, would cause vomiting and pain. Ace would not be active and would likely not want to do anything. If you do happen to notice this, then it's best to take him to the vet as soon as possible. Again, it would be quite rare for it to cause a severe complication, so wait it out and I'm sure all will be OK. I hope that helps and all is well with Ace.