My puppy ate crab legs. What signs of obstruction should I watch for?

Oh, that was naughty of Rocky to get into the trash and eat the snow crab leg! Hopefully, his stomach acid will bread down the leg, and there won't be any problems with him eating it. There is always a chance it could become obstructed. To prevent that and try to bulk them up so they pass, take Rocky's daily allotment of food, and instead of feeding him twice a day, divide it into three to four smaller meals to give every six to eight hours. That should help keep things moving in his GI tract. Monitor him for signs of obstruction, which include vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, anorexia, and constipation. Should you see any of those signs, I would take Rocky into a vet immediately.

This is one of those situations where I would say you have a couple of options. Depending on how confident you are about your dog's digestive abilities, you have the option of inducing vomiting. It typically takes at least a few hours for food to move from the stomach into the intestines, so we still have time to prevent most digestion from occurring. If you decide to just take the wait and see approach, it's possible you might not see anything. The most common thing to look out for here would be diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy. Monitor feces for any distinct blackness or redness. Inducing vomit would likely prevent these from occurring if done soon. Because this is seafood and, by your question, I am assuming was spoiled, we cannot completely rule out the possibility of some pretty nasty viral and bacterial infections residing on the crab. If this were the case, it can cause pretty serious illness that would likely require hospitalization. This is not likely but worth mentioning. Hope this all makes sense.

Sorry that it's taken this long for a response. This is unusual, so there must have been a technical error. It's difficult to know for sure, but it's definitely a concern for causing an obstruction in the stomach, or intestines. Unfortunately, the only option at this time is to wait and see if it passes OK. Normal GI transit time is 3-5 days for such things. During this time you would just be waiting to see if he 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 Wookie would need to go to the vet immediately for emergency surgery.  I hope that helps and all is well with Wookie.

I would recommend just monitoring Coco at home. Crab is not toxic to dogs however it can cause them to have mild gastric upset. I would continue to feed Coco the same and provide water. However if at anytime she is vomiting or having diarrhea I would recommend taking Coco to the vet for an exam and medication for basic gastric upset. Hope that helps

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Harley. The risk of eating a foreign object is that it can become lodged in the stomach or intestines. This becomes an emergency and requires surgery. The main sign you would see if this occurs is vomiting. Harley would become j able to keep food or water down. He would become lethargic as well. He will need to be seen right away if any of these signs result. I hope this information helps!

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.

Given that Snowball has eaten twice since and isn't vomiting, I would monitor her for signs an obstruction to be safe. It can take a couple of days for signs to be seen which include vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, not pooping, and severe lethargy. If you see any of those signs, take her into a vet right away. Otherwise if you don't see any of those signs, she will be just fine. Best of luck!