I fear I'm about to lose my puppy.

[Mardalo]

It sounds like you might have to "dobify" the house (i.e. keep foreign "edible" objects out of the reach of all the pets). Having seen shows like "The Vet Life" and watching what animals will eat, it's the same thing as kid-proofing it (keeping chemical cleaners, etc. on high shelves, putting covers on the electrical outlets), etc. etc....

I actually did go through the house and removed all small toys and stored away the kids socks. I really am surprised he ate something he wasn't supposed to. We usually picks stuff up and brings it straight to me. Comes in handy when I'm looking for all the baby bottles......... just got off the phone with the vet. It was a corn cob. He must have snatched it from my little boy.

 

[Max Hawk]

Best news. After the second veterinary appointment with Rico the vet looked my husband in the eye and said you need to come up with the money for the surgery or you're going to have to put him down. Cold and heartless. Not our regular vet. He's the the emergency vet. My husband couldn't bring himself to sign the paperwork to put Rico down. He said he would figure something out. I sent an email to the breeder. I sent a message to our dog trainer. We left a message with our mortgage holder. We were grasping at straws's for anything. I decided to make a call to care credit to see if I can get a credit increase. My husband pulled up in the driveway back from the vet for the second time. He rolled down the window giving me this look like why are you so happy our dogs about to die. I blurted out in excitement that care credit gave us the increase. Enough to pay for the surgery twice. He looked at me and said I'm leaving now, LOL. He went back to the vet. Rico will now be getting the treatment that he needed. So now all he's got to do is make it through the surgery and he'll be OK, again. Thank goodness. He was to good a dog and to young to die. Everything's gonna be ok.

I am so glad! Praying that he comes out alright..hang in there! Always expect the worst and hope for the best..Praying hard for your baby. I have lately myself dealt with a heartless vet..never going back to her of course...someone had to graduate last in their class..but there are some great caring vets too..it pays to shop around for a good one. I know in an emergency it can be tough. Find out if you can lodge a complaint down the road so that others won't have such a bad experience. Anyway fingers crossed that it will be a good ending and that your pup will go on to live a good long healthy life.

 

[Max Hawk]

I actually did go through the house and removed all small toys and stored away the kids socks. I really am surprised he ate something he wasn't supposed to. We usually picks stuff up and brings it straight to me. Comes in handy when I'm looking for all the baby bottles......... just got off the phone with the vet. It was a corn cob. He must have snatched it from my little boy.

They can get hold of the darnedest things! I know a breeder friend of mine who is pretty meticulous with her pups and he ate a rock! 1500 dollars later after surgery he was fine..very expensive rock that was! It is so hard but you have to watch them like a hawk..The older I get the more I get paranoid about letting them out of my sight for a second! Good to put them in a crate or a X-pen when you can't watch them.

 

[Mardalo]

Good to put them in a crate or a X-pen when you can't watch them.

Yeah, he's crated at night and when I can't watch him he's in this big pen in the living room. Come to think of it my little boy gets a kick out of sticking food between the bars for Rico. There will be close surveillance next corn cob dinner lol. I'm just happy he's going to okay and I can get back to spoiling him soon. Little scared of bringing him home. Do they give him something for pain? It was the small intestine. Will it be a big incision?

 

[DD4MSpock]

I actually did go through the house and removed all small toys and stored away the kids socks. I really am surprised he ate something he wasn't supposed to. We usually picks stuff up and brings it straight to me. Comes in handy when I'm looking for all the baby bottles......... just got off the phone with the vet. It was a corn cob. He must have snatched it from my little boy.

So he didn't get it from the trash or some place like that? Do you recall the last time your son ate corn on the cob? Lesson learned for your son, then. I hope your dobie recovers quickly and didn't have any internal damage.

 

[Mardalo]

So he didn't get it from the trash or some place like that? Do you recall the last time your son ate corn on the cob? Lesson learned for your son, then. I hope your dobie recovers quickly and didn't have any internal damage.

Doc says he's good. I have a covered garbage can. So, he's not able to open it. My son is only 1 and we ate corn one week ago.

 

[MyBuddy]

I'm glad I'm coming into this thread with a happy ending! lol! I'm very surprised that your Vet said it was a blockage...and then sends you home! My God! I think your dog is very lucky. Having children with a puppy means you are doing double duty! It's so easy for kids to drop something harmful for a dog or slip him something that they think will be 'ok'. Like their lunch that they don't want! lol! My children are all grown but now I have 5 grandchildren to teach what NOT to give my dogs!

 

[Mardalo]

We brought him home for a few moments and now he's staying at our regular vet's office for the day. They said he is showing good signs and are comfortable saying he will be fine. Thanks everyone for the support while my family and I went through this ordeal. It really helped to talk to people I have something in common with.

 

[LifeofRubie]

Glad to hear he's doing better. I KNEW my boy had blockage and the vets kept insisting he was fine. By the time they did the surgery, it was too late for him. He cost me about $5000 out of pocket in a year and half so on to my next thing:

I'm curious to find out what it was but he ate. I'm thinking a baby sock or a baby wipe. We've got a couple babies running around here LOL. I can't wait to have them back home. They said to come pick him up at 7 AM. I've never been so happy to spend that much money in my life Haha. I've also decided to look into pet insurance. My breeder did tell me that Doberman's are like Billy goats with pointy ears. Who knew she was so serious.

We use Nationwide Pet Insurance (Formerly VPI). We have the plan that covers everything so it's still expensive, but it's easier to budget for a monthly payment and a $250 deductible than thousands of dollars out of pocket at a moments notice. I'm not sure how they'll treat a previous foreign material blockage but might be worth checking out. We've taken Rubie to the vet 3 times for them to make her vomit because we noticed socks missing and they didn't consider that pre-existing that I know of.

 

[Doberman Gang]

Glad he is ok. I feel lucky to live where I do, vet prices here are much cheaper, sorry it cost you so much but we do what we can for our loved ones.

 

[My2Girls]

I know sometimes the emergency vet places charge a higher rate/premium than regular vets.
When we lost our cocker it happened over the weekend and we had to take her to the emergency vet - they required you bring cash. It was that crazy. Yep wiped out our emergency fund and more.

 

[JanS]

I'm so glad the surgery went well and that he's on the road to recovery! I can see where a corn cob could be a big problem since it could be tough to pass it either way.

 

[Gelcoater]

Doc says he's good. I have a covered garbage can. So, he's not able to open it. My son is only 1 and we ate corn one week ago.

Covered garbage can, check.
Daisy got a new necklace

 

[Max Hawk]

We brought him home for a few moments and now he's staying at our regular vet's office for the day. They said he is showing good signs and are comfortable saying he will be fine. Thanks everyone for the support while my family and I went through this ordeal. It really helped to talk to people I have something in common with.

Thanks goodness! I am so very glad that you could do the surgery. I missed how old is he again? Hope from this point forward he grows up healthy and has a long happy life..

 

[Max Hawk]

I know sometimes the emergency vet places charge a higher rate/premium than regular vets.
When we lost our cocker it happened over the weekend and we had to take her to the emergency vet - they required you bring cash. It was that crazy. Yep wiped out our emergency fund and more.

It's nuts now days none of our vets here don't even do emergency services..at least not after hours! Here we have a 45 minute drive to the emergency clinic! That is just crazy! I was told by my local vet that the surgeon at the emergency clinic is not even board certified!

 

[Max Hawk]

We brought him home for a few moments and now he's staying at our regular vet's office for the day. They said he is showing good signs and are comfortable saying he will be fine. Thanks everyone for the support while my family and I went through this ordeal. It really helped to talk to people I have something in common with.

The cone of shame.. but I like the look of those sweet bright eyes! This is where grey hairs come from and you earned some here for sure! So glad that he is going to be okay.

 

[Mardalo]

Thanks goodness! I am so very glad that you could do the surgery. I missed how old is he again? Hope from this point forward he grows up healthy and has a long happy life..

Thanks, he's old 5 months old.

 

[LifeofRubie]

Another thing that I didn't find out until after Tobie's 3rd surgery (he didn't even eat things he wasn't supposed to!), was that once they go in there and mess with their intestines, they get abdominal adhesions. Normally your intestines are all slippery-slidey over each other to help things pass through. When you go in there and poke around, they start adhering to each other and don't pass things as easily. This is why the tiny pieces of tennis ball that would've passed normally got stuck and ruined part of his intestine. Not sure if other folks have heard this but I do think it means that anything he eats in the future has a higher likelihood of getting stuck.

 

[Kaiser2016]

Kaiser used to ignore the garage bin until he got into the neighbors trash. He ate some old chicken and got major diarrhea from it. You'd think he'd develop an aversion to trash bins but no, it only served to increase his interest more. With our trash bin, those round metal bins with a detached lid, he will nudge it with his nose to get the lid off. Usually he does it to get our attention, but I have no doubt that he would dive into it if he were bored enough. (Once the bin is halfway full or has any risky food in it, we dump it out into the bigger city bins which are safer around city wildlife.)

 

[JanS]

I keep all food related items in a special place in the fridge and take it all out on trash day. I don't think our dogs could reach to get in the dumpster (it's pretty big) but the bears can smell that stuff from a mile away and would have no problem getting in there and making a mess in the yard.