My dog ate fiberglass insulation. Are there surgery alternatives?

Poor Gracie! If she's otherwise in good health, there's no reason at all that she would have any difficulties with surgery if she needs it. It does sound like something is wrong, so I would recommend having her examined by a vet as soon as you can - he/she can do a rectal exam and may also take x-rays if needed to help determine the problem. If she does end up needing surgery to remove a blockage, your vet can do blood work beforehand to help make sure that she doesn't have any underlying health issues that would cause problems.

This can be serious and need surgical removal if it causes an obstruction. Usually if it's becoming a problem Stella would vomit or not eat well, she could have stomach pain, or not be able to poop. With surgery if it's not gone on too long there should be minimal problems and she should recover fine, and be back to her normal self in a few days. If you wait too long if she has symptoms then she could get sick before the surgery which would make it more of a risk. Another option is to wait another day or so then take her to your regular veterinary for an X-ray to see if it's still in the intestinal tract and then if it is still inside you could repeat the X-ray in another day or two to see if it has moved. If it's still whole and not moving I would have the corn cob surgically removed before it causes a medical problem. If Stella is perfectly normal with eating, drinking and pooping then hopefully it was chewed up enough and will pass out without an issue. As long as you are monitoring her and take action soon if a problem develops she should be fine. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Stella.

The fiber glass golf club Nova ate could be causing trauma to her GI tract, leading to the blood in her feces. It's important that she sees a vet right away for this. She may need gut protectants to prevent further damage to her GI tract, and any other treatment the vet deems necessary. Please take her into a vet now.

If it is still in the stomach an endoscopy procedure would be the treatment of choice, it can be used to remove the cotton bedding without a minimally invading procedure. otherwise an ultrasound should be performed to determine where the cotton bedding is in the gastrointestinal tract, once the location is found a laparotomy surgery can be performed to have it removed.

I recommend doing a GI contrast series of X-rays first. That will show if there is a blockage from her eating something that is stuck in the intestines. The ultrasound for this is not as helpful in my opinion and shouldn’t be necessary unless there is no blockage and they want to check her abdomen and other organs. This is a serious problem so please get the contrast study done soon. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for your dog.

Hello. If she is eating, drinking & still passing stools, then she may not need surgery. You definitely want to increase her intake of fluids. Supply low sodium broths or stocks for her to drink in addition to her fresh water. Switch to a wet diet & add a moderate amount of additional liquid to this, but not too much. You do not want to dilute the nutritional density of her food too much. Take 2 slices of bread & slather each piece with a layer of Vaseline & try to get her to eat this a piece at a time. If you can get one slice in her now, you can do the second piece later on or this evening. Hopefully this will lubricate her gut & push the rest of the material out of her. But if she stops eating & vomits everything, becomes bloated or shows abdominal pain, you will need to make a decision about her care. Hopefully, she will continue to pass things over the next 24 hours. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I can see a few areas in the x-ray that would concern me although I don’t think there’s an obvious foreign body or obstruction. It might be more obvious in person - it’s difficult to look at x-rays on a phone. Any time a dog is continuing to vomit despite appropriate treatment with anti nausea medication I get concerned, and it sounds like exploratory surgery might be the next step.