Bad Stuffed Toys

[Buddys Pal]

I promise to never, never buy another stuffed toy ever!!! We always feel we try our best to satisfy the needs of our fur babies. Well, after two months with me, Uzie decided to be a swallower not just a chewer of soft toys.
Yesterday he was at the hospital from 830 am to 530pm for a barium study. For those of you not familiar: He has to skip a meal (!) (has missed out on 3) then the white pasty stuff is put down his throat to the stomach. X-rays are taken every two hours or so to see how the digestive tract is pushing along. There was something still in the gut at 4pm. They wanted to do exploratory surgery (!). I urged them to wait another hour, good deal, it was disappearing. Normal peristalsis is 6hours for the food to leave the stomach into the large intestine. On a good note, the Doc said mostly they are not too fond of the snarky Basenji, but Uzie was so well behaved, didn't baroo, no fuss with procedures, just watched all the surgeries and activity..No one got bit….
Well, it started when I noticed how he wanted to retch up something and nothing came up. To make matters worst, he aspirated some gastric juices and possibly has beginning pneumonia in one lung. He is being treated for this, acid stomach, antibiotics etc....
Two days ago, he vomited the biggest hairball any cat ever had! :eek: I washed it off (yuk) and saw what is was: material from raccoon tail, eye and ear from Mr Squeaky...Soooooo, I share this for all of you to be vigilant!!!! Now my other two guys are wondering why I picked up all the fun squeaky toys.:(
I have cooked rice and chicken breast and a little oatmeal to make 'meatballs' to introduce food to his system and to hide all 5 pills that he takes twice a day for the next two weeks!!!! Husband not amused $$$$
PS: won't be seeing MacPac et all in Tampa for awhile!!!

[DebraDownSouth]

Sadly that is why when I had the rotties I had to remove stuffies… Arwen gutted and they tended to EAT them. Cara and Arwen, sigh. Arwen opens and begins ungutting, Cara helps. I grab the moment they tear them open, put up. In fact they had been doing better, I used to have to sew 4 to 8 up a week. I sewed up 5 night before last that I had been holding onto for over a month.
Glad all is okay.
On a funny note, one toy my daughter paid about 10 bucks for they gutted repeatedly and I just took the guts out and left it. They play with that darned ungutted fuzzy floppy material as much as the still stuffed, no way, more. It is, in fact, her fave. So I doubt mine would miss the stuffies, except for the squeak capacity.

[MacPack]

I'm glad Uzie didn't have to have surgery, but so sorry he has had such a problem! Hope his pneumonia clears up quickly, it can take many weeks of antibiotics sometimes to get rid of it. Hugs to him from us.

As for pills, I buy canned food (ground beef, not chunky stuff) then just push the pill down into the dogfood, spoon it up and give the spoonful to dog, if there are several all waiting for "their bite", it insures that the bite of food with pills is gulped promptly. If it is a capsule or pill that is bitter, coat it with oil or butter first, keeps it from dissolving. (Lots of experience with Topper)

Hugs,
Anne

[Buddys Pal]

Thanks Anne! I found out that the canned food the Doc reccommened was so good, that Uzie liked it the second time around!!!!!!!!!!!! He just came back from the Doc's this last hour, and has a fever of 104 and the start of Bronchitis. He was so lethargic this am that I thought the mushroom he grabbed so fast yest was poisonous! He was pitiful with the shakes (fever). His chemistry was clear and norm, but the WBC was sky high! More antibiotics, and I have ground meat for him you bet! Fever of Unknown etiology as with the things our dogs do get into…..Oh boy!!!!

[MacPack]

In humans, aspiration pneumonia is really nasty and takes a long time to recover from. Even regular old bacterial pneumonia in dogs can require antibiotics for 6 weeks or more. Often vets don't treat for long enough and it just keeps coming back. Uzie may have the mystery fever, but with the recent 'possible' aspiration, that is the first thing I would think of. I sure hope that sweet boy feels better soon.

Good boy, 'recycling' that food!

[Buddys Pal]

Anne, since you have experience as such, what do you think of oatmeal in the ground chuck for meatballs and the pills. This would make it sticky to hide the pills. And I need him to gain back the 2lbs he lost, he looks just as bad as when I first adopted him 3months ago…. If he is going to have to take pills for awhile, then I really don't want canned food-that is the stuff that made his fecal matter so appealing for 'recycling'....! I do feed him three times daily now for his weight gain, and the poor dear now has anal gland issues...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope to reflect back on all this and just laugh!

[MacPack]

Oatmeal in the ground beef will be great, did you find 'satin balls' here, if not I have the recipe. Rich, but if a dog tolerates it they will gain weight!