Sunday, July 17, 2011

Redefining "Pooping Your Pants"

Vinson's X-ray showing "something" in his stomach. "Has anyone seen my underwear?"
Vinson gave us another exciting day on Saturday. He began to vomit very early in the morning and was obviously not feeling well. I called our area coordinator first thing in the morning to inform her of the situation and get permission to head to the vet.

Vinson continued to get sick at the vet's office and they ordered an immediate X-ray to see if he had ingested a foreign body of some type. The X-rays revealed a small unknown item in his stomach; and while it didn't warrant immediate action or surgery, it was considered to be the cause of his sickness.

The vet gave Vinson a shot to stop the vomiting, which worked immediately, and placed him on a diet of rice, ground beef and other bland foods to be fed in small amounts more frequently. She asked us to call immediately if he vomited again.

The vet staff commented that Vinson could've been named "Hoover", as even at their office, he tried to eat their cotton balls, paper towels, etc. Dr. Carol loaned me her copy of "Marley and Me" so I could see how much Vinson looks like Marley, and so I could have a laugh about other Lab's who have found themselves in strange situations.

As the day went on, Vinson seemed to be feeling more like himself; and very late last night, he pooped out a pair of underwear when we were out to park!

Mystery solved! Vinson now seems completely back to normal, is super hungry, is parking normally and is back to high energy level. We don't know how or when he ate the underwear but have done another full sweep of the house to ensure all gates are tight and all "targets" (basically anything smaller than a chair) are out of reach. We'll keep monitoring him as we reintroduce kibble. Another wild day with Vinson!

3 comments:

  1. We are currently raising Armor a golden retriever. When he was Vinson's age he would poop socks! WHOLE SOCKS!! We never did figure out where he was getting them, but we suspect he was pulling them off of our 2 year olds feet while he napped. I was puzzled a few times why he went to sleep with two socks and woke with one. We took extra caution to put him to nap with no socks, problem solved! Next my dish rags started to disappear!? We would find them in shreds in the back of his crate :)

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  2. Yep - some might think this type of thing happens due to lack of supervision. But those of us who have experienced it know that a crafty dog that is motivated to devour will find a way to get a hold of items - ways you can't even conceive ahead of time. We've got five gates in our house, laundry, papers, magazines, tissues and all attractive items are behind gates, up high out of reach, stowed away in closets, etc. - and this still happens!

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  3. Yep, this happened to us with our first puppy raising experience. We had a golden and once we figured out he was eating socks we were diligent about not leaving them around - it didn't matter, he found them anyway. He actually had to have surgery to remove a sock and the day he got the staples out he go ahold of another one... our little guy had to be moved and now he is very happy and apparently no longer eating socks! Fact is (and the vet told us this) if they are going to eat stuff, it doesn't matter how hard you try, they will find it anyway.

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