BATTERY INGESTION

The chewed up battery was presented to me by the client together with the dog

Batteries will not power-up your dogs as compared to your remote control or other battery-run gadgets and appliances. Instead, they might suffer toxicity, muscosal and gastric burns- to a more severe note, gastric perforation and death.

It is our pet's nature to discover things around them. In contrast to us using our hands and other senses to discover things, dogs do use their mouth (by chewing), olfaction and sight. however, as owners, it is our responsibility to screen out things and even food that may cause problems to our pets, batteries being one of them. (You may also be familiar with my previous posts on rodenticides, needles, foreign objects, firecrackers and the like)

Discussing the components and the different types batteries can become too geeky and nerdy for this site and you may search for it somewhere.

Going back, batteries contain chemicals that may cause mucosal burns when in contact with the skin. Most dogs brought into the clinic that are suspected for battery ingestion may have oral burns and may have a recent history of chewing on a battery powered gadget. The owners may report a missing battery or will bring with them the chewed up battery. Doing a radiograph may reveal the location of the battery if swallowed.

If the incident happened very recently, emesis may be done, however it should only be done if the battery was swallowed whole without chewing especially button batteries. The leakage of the battery components and its contact with the mucosa may further cause chemical burns. In some cases, surgery may be warranted and in others, oral medications may work. However, It all depends on the case presented. If you knew you pet has ingested a battery, do not wait for several days as it may more be difficult to manage by this time and toxicity or poisoning may have occured.

Prevention is still better than cure. So be very careful with your things if you have a pet as you would be if there is a child in the house.

MUGU

What’s with these needles? Do dogs love them because they are shiny? (I thought only mermaids love to collect shiny objects?) Well, Mugu is another exciting needle storage machine… needles with threads actually.

Mugu was presented way back, during the 1st month of my graveyard duty. The owner noticed a string coming out if her anus. She may have ingested those strings the day earlier when the owner’s sister was repairing her uniform. We took a radiograph and tadaaan!!!



Two needles were visible on the radiograph at the colorectal area. We waited for the foreign materials to pass out from the anus with a little assistance. Mugu was lucky enough to pass out the neddles without further damage aside from one needle piercing the anal sphincter. After that Mugu came home a very happy dog.

Peanuts

Be responsible enough for your pets. As owners, you should be responsible enough to know your pets and keep them protected and safe. In some instances though, accidents happen yet, it will still be the owner’s responsibility for their pet to receive veterinary care and treatment.

This case was presented a few weeks ago. This Dachshund, Peanuts was brought in the clinic at about 12 midnight due to hacking. The owners only observed it the same night of presentation. Her appetite was normal and without problems in defecation and in urination. She was active and responsive at presentation. The caretaker told us that she did not succeed in trying to prevent the Peanuts from eating something earlier. She said she was unable to identify the object.

I requested for radiograph to check for the trachea and chest, and here’s what we saw…

Notice the Radio-opaque material at the area of the hyoid apparatus of Peanuts.

We tried to open up Peanut’s mouth to see if we will be able to see the object and retrieve it without the need for sedation, but we were out of luck. Next Stop: Sedation. But I do not sedate a pet without a bloodtest. You can never be too sure if they have a concurrent kidney or liver disease and with such problem may cause further complications such as death.

Peanuts’ blood profile was normal though and we proceeded to sedate her.

With the aid of a laryngoscope and my trusty technician, we performed the examination in the surgery room and tried to locate the foreign object. I hoped that Peanuts did not accidentally swallowed the object while waiting for the blood test results and during induction or else, it will be a major disaster… Luckily after a few minute of probing, I finally saw a silver material embedded at the ventral area of the larynx. It was a sewing needle!

The needle after retrieving it from Peanuts.

Peanuts during the recovery period

Whoah! Was Peanuts trying to stitch something up?

The caretaker was apparently sewing earlier and lost the needle after using it, and here comes Peanuts…

Everything went well until the owners declined to pay the total amount of the check up! Wow! Talk about responsibility…