SO.......long story.....grab a drink!
My daughter and granddaughter have been in visiting from Kentucky since last Thursday evening. Having a great time until Saturday night.
We were all sitting at our breakfast room table just off the kitchen having Polish sausage on the grill along with corn on the cob and other delicious dishes. Having a great time talking and laughing. My husband got up and cleared the table. He always helps and while we talked he was doing some dishes. When he sat back down we talked for maybe another 15 minutes before I got up and went into the kitchen for something. There on the floor in front of the kitchen sink was a few pieces of paper towel. And the drawer to the garbage was open! I knew Annie had gotten into the garbage!
Annie! Bad girl! What the heck?
I told everybody, Annie got into the garbage! A lot of murmuring went on like, What?! Really!? oh my gosh...until..
I remembered the corn on the cob!
I ran back to the garbage to look and they were nowhere to be found! Four of them! FOUR! I said, Oh my God you guys, this is bad! Really bad! Again, we searched through the garbage hoping to find them. Nope. I went through the whole house thinking she may have carried them somewhere. Nothing. My daughter's like, "Why didn't we hear that? I have good hearing! And we're right here in the next room!"
I mean our kitchen and breakfast room are one huge area with just a row of cabinets separating the rooms. Here's where we were sitting at the table. The kitchen is right there. The sink and garbage drawer is right around the corner to the right. Out of sight, but certainly within hearing distance.
She says, how did not hear her chomping on that? We just couldn't believe that she had scarfed those down right behind our back!
And now that we were pretty certain she ate them, all four of them, I was in a panic. I knew that was the worst thing she could have eaten. I know they don't dissolve. And I always remembered @Two Dobes talking about her dog eating a corn cob and needing surgery. So this came up....
I went through DCF and found the thread and showed it to everyone. Nobody but me knew that this was a serious situation. I was terrified.
I was so flustered that I wasn't thinking straight on what to do. I finally thought of my one horse Vet. I have two horse vets that I use depending on what I need. This one is a small and
large animal vet. He comes out once a year to take care of my horses for check ups. But he's further away then my other horse and dog Vet so I don't always use him for everything. But we have a very good rapport and I like him a lot. He is elderly actually. Like 80 years old but still fit and capable to do his job. He reminds me of Dr Pol on TV. Older and wiser!
Anyway I knew that I could text him and he would answer me. Even on a Saturday night . So I did.
He gave me instructions on the peroxide method to make her throw up. I had forgotten all about that! I've never done that to a dog! I also wondered if it was too late to induce vomiting. But he said no. He eventually called me and we discussed all of his/mine questions to get a grip on everything and I hung up to go induce vomiting.
I took Annie on the back deck and proceeded with the peroxide mixture. I was kind of expecting something immediate but it didn't happen.
I texted the vet and told him. He said wait 5 minutes and then give her some more. We waited. And just as we were going to give her some more she heaved up two huge piles! He asked if she puked up her dinner and I said yes, I think it was in the second pile. The first one was all the corn and stuff. And there were some hard pieces in there. Thank God they were not the whole cob in one piece. That's what my daughter and I kept envisioning. We had the vet on speakerphone before we did this and she said what if she pukes up the whole corn cob? And she chokes on it? He said then you reach down and grab it! Or give her the Heimlich maneuver. He said anything is better than that being in her gut. He said corn cobs do not dissolve. And I knew that. I knew how bad this could be. But thankfully it was all in pieces.
So after she was not throwing up anymore he said don't feed her till the morning. In the morning give her two scrambled eggs, nothing else. If she throws that up she may still have an obstruction. If not, feed her small amounts of soft food throughout the day and she should be fine.
So 5:00 in the morning which is when we get up I was making scrambled eggs. I took her on the back deck and gave it to her and it's a good thing. Cuz she immediately threw it up! Oh dear God. Now I was really worried! I waited until a reasonable hour of 8:00 to text my vet and tell him that she threw it up. He ended up texting me three different emergency 24-hour places to take her. I'm like what? I really was hoping he was going to tell me come on in! Meet me at the office! I didn't want to go to someone else.
While I stressed over that and knowing how bad and long it could be going to a 24-hour vet, I decided to pick the closest one and at least call. I told them my vet wanted a barium X-ray done and she told me they don't do the barium! They will do an x-ray. But they don't do the barium. I don't know why. Doesn't matter. I told her let me check with my vet. She said well, if you decide to come in, go online and sign yourself up because we already have a 5 hour wait!
And she said it'll only get worse. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me! That's insane! We need to have more vets in the world. 
So I get back to my vet and text (whine) to him, "Can't I just come to see you? I don't want to see anybody else that I don't know! Plus they have a 5-hour wait."
In the meantime, my daughter and I are going over all the events up till then. We both said she threw up a lot. And she threw up her dinner which was way before the corn. So we're thinking maybe it's all out of her. Maybe she's just still has an upset stomach from all the peroxide treatment? The one thing he didn't tell us that we found out later is that you should give them something to help the stomach afterwards. Like this.
So anyway he gets back to me and says that there is a two to three day waiting period on corn cob and he said Monday would be 2 days. So you should be good. Be at my office at 8:00 Monday morning. I said I'll be there with bells on! He said you can give her a tiny bit of soft food and see how she handles that. So I was giving her like a inch or two piece of the raw food that I usually feed her. She got that possibly three times on Sunday and she did fine! She has also pooped before we made her throw up. And she pooped again Sunday night. And she was acting normal. So we were really thinking she was fine. But we were going to the vet on Monday anyway.
I never went through something like this so I didn't know what to expect when we got to the vets. Finally a tech came out and said, "Okay we'll take her now. It will be a while. We'll call you." I was totally not expecting that and I sat there with my eyes wide open and slowly raised my arm to give her the leash as I said, "I didn't know I had to leave her." I looked at my daughter with tears in my eyes and said, I wasn't expecting that. She handed me a tissue and we sat there for a while waiting for someone to talk to us. I peaked around the corner to see where they went and she was already up on the table. I didn't want her to see me so I sat back down.
Finally another doctor came out along with a tech who had Annie. I thought, oh wow are we going home? Why did you bring her back out? I felt bad that she would see us again and yet still have to go back but she went so willingly with the first tech! LOL I mean she loves everybody so she was not acting scared or pulling back to me or anything! The doctor said everything went well; they gave her the barium. I said, oh, through an IV? She was no, it goes down the throat.
And she said she took it well. She said they took the first x-ray of the stomach with the barium and they can see just a little bit of food that was normal. She said we will keep her for a few hours and every hour they will take another x-ray as it moves along the track and they will let us know.
So we left. That was hard. So we went next door to the Dollar General and picked up the pills that they said we should give her to settle her stomach and went home.
An hour and a half later my vet called and said Annie was doing very well! So far everything looks good.
They still had to take another one as it makes it's final trek down the intestines. He said if the next one looks good you should be able to pick her up around noon. That was awesome news!
So after the next x-ray he called me and said all is good! You can come pick up your dog! He said, "She's such a sweetheart! And I have to tell you it was so funny. When they first got her and gave her the barium they picked her up and put her on the table. The second time they had to take an x-ray she jumped up on the table all by herself! And by the third time, he said she jumped up there and laid down like, I got this now! I know the routine!" LOL He thought it was so funny! I said, Dobermans are smart. They learn fast! They just don't know what's good and bad to eat!
So that was a few days of Horror and I don't want to go through that again. I said I'm never going to eat corn on the cob again.
And the funny thing is we haven't had it in years. We rarely eat corn because I feel like it's not really that good for you. And those ears of corn cost me $500!
Yeah, I don't want to go through that again. In fact, at my weakest moment before I called the vet, when I knew how serious it was, I told my daughter, if she dies I'm never getting a dog again. ever. No more animals! I was pretty distraught. She kept telling me, Mom she's not going to die.
So now that that's all done and over and good news....My vet and I had another discussion that I found very interesting. I know this is something that everybody has an opinion on and you may or not agree. When I dropped her off I told them that she was at the end of her second heat cycle and not bleeding anymore. But just so they knew. So when my vet called me to pick her up I asked him his opinion on getting spayed and doing the stomach tack. He said he doesn't like to do the tack. He thinks that's just another problem that could result in another emergency. I doubt I can explain it the way he did but something about something can get wrapped between the stomach and where are they tack it and get strangled. He said if they bloat we can handle that. But this is like a whole other emergency thing. He said when you feed your dog, the food stays in the stomach until it is moistened enough. If it's not moistened when you feed them it could take over an hour or more to leave the stomach. But if you moisten it when you feed them it could leave the stomach in a half hour. He said the major issue is getting it out of the stomach. I said well, the breeder told me in the very beginning to moisten her food so I've been doing that from the get-go and he said that's great! I would say continue doing that and you should not have a problem. So now I'm considering not doing the tack.
He also said that letting them go through a couple of heat cycles is helpful to get those hormones and tightening of muscles before they spay to ward off incontinence. I thought all of this was very interesting information and he's been a vet for a very long time. I trust his opinion. I know there's going to be a lot of other opinions out there but, to each his own. You have to make a choice that's comfortable for you.
But I'll tell you one thing. Keep your garbage closed and put the corn cobs in the outside garbage! LOL
My daughter and granddaughter have been in visiting from Kentucky since last Thursday evening. Having a great time until Saturday night.
We were all sitting at our breakfast room table just off the kitchen having Polish sausage on the grill along with corn on the cob and other delicious dishes. Having a great time talking and laughing. My husband got up and cleared the table. He always helps and while we talked he was doing some dishes. When he sat back down we talked for maybe another 15 minutes before I got up and went into the kitchen for something. There on the floor in front of the kitchen sink was a few pieces of paper towel. And the drawer to the garbage was open! I knew Annie had gotten into the garbage!
Annie! Bad girl! What the heck?
I told everybody, Annie got into the garbage! A lot of murmuring went on like, What?! Really!? oh my gosh...until..
I remembered the corn on the cob!
I ran back to the garbage to look and they were nowhere to be found!
Four of them! FOUR! I said, Oh my God you guys, this is bad! Really bad! Again, we searched through the garbage hoping to find them. Nope. I went through the whole house thinking she may have carried them somewhere. Nothing. My daughter's like, "Why didn't we hear that? I have good hearing! And we're right here in the next room!"I mean our kitchen and breakfast room are one huge area with just a row of cabinets separating the rooms. Here's where we were sitting at the table. The kitchen is right there. The sink and garbage drawer is right around the corner to the right. Out of sight, but certainly within hearing distance.
She says, how did not hear her chomping on that? We just couldn't believe that she had scarfed those down right behind our back!
And now that we were pretty certain she ate them, all four of them, I was in a panic. I knew that was the worst thing she could have eaten. I know they don't dissolve. And I always remembered @Two Dobes talking about her dog eating a corn cob and needing surgery. So this came up....
I went through DCF and found the thread and showed it to everyone. Nobody but me knew that this was a serious situation. I was terrified.
I was so flustered that I wasn't thinking straight on what to do. I finally thought of my one horse Vet. I have two horse vets that I use depending on what I need. This one is a small and
large animal vet. He comes out once a year to take care of my horses for check ups. But he's further away then my other horse and dog Vet so I don't always use him for everything. But we have a very good rapport and I like him a lot. He is elderly actually. Like 80 years old but still fit and capable to do his job. He reminds me of Dr Pol on TV. Older and wiser!
Anyway I knew that I could text him and he would answer me. Even on a Saturday night . So I did.He gave me instructions on the peroxide method to make her throw up. I had forgotten all about that! I've never done that to a dog! I also wondered if it was too late to induce vomiting. But he said no. He eventually called me and we discussed all of his/mine questions to get a grip on everything and I hung up to go induce vomiting.
I took Annie on the back deck and proceeded with the peroxide mixture. I was kind of expecting something immediate but it didn't happen.
I texted the vet and told him. He said wait 5 minutes and then give her some more. We waited. And just as we were going to give her some more she heaved up two huge piles! He asked if she puked up her dinner and I said yes, I think it was in the second pile. The first one was all the corn and stuff. And there were some hard pieces in there. Thank God they were not the whole cob in one piece. That's what my daughter and I kept envisioning. We had the vet on speakerphone before we did this and she said what if she pukes up the whole corn cob? And she chokes on it? He said then you reach down and grab it! Or give her the Heimlich maneuver. He said anything is better than that being in her gut. He said corn cobs do not dissolve. And I knew that. I knew how bad this could be. But thankfully it was all in pieces.So after she was not throwing up anymore he said don't feed her till the morning. In the morning give her two scrambled eggs, nothing else. If she throws that up she may still have an obstruction. If not, feed her small amounts of soft food throughout the day and she should be fine.
So 5:00 in the morning which is when we get up I was making scrambled eggs. I took her on the back deck and gave it to her and it's a good thing. Cuz she immediately threw it up! Oh dear God. Now I was really worried! I waited until a reasonable hour of 8:00 to text my vet and tell him that she threw it up. He ended up texting me three different emergency 24-hour places to take her. I'm like what? I really was hoping he was going to tell me come on in! Meet me at the office! I didn't want to go to someone else.
While I stressed over that and knowing how bad and long it could be going to a 24-hour vet, I decided to pick the closest one and at least call. I told them my vet wanted a barium X-ray done and she told me they don't do the barium! They will do an x-ray. But they don't do the barium. I don't know why. Doesn't matter. I told her let me check with my vet. She said well, if you decide to come in, go online and sign yourself up because we already have a 5 hour wait!
And she said it'll only get worse. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me! That's insane! We need to have more vets in the world. So I get back to my vet and text (whine) to him, "Can't I just come to see you? I don't want to see anybody else that I don't know! Plus they have a 5-hour wait."
In the meantime, my daughter and I are going over all the events up till then. We both said she threw up a lot. And she threw up her dinner which was way before the corn. So we're thinking maybe it's all out of her. Maybe she's just still has an upset stomach from all the peroxide treatment? The one thing he didn't tell us that we found out later is that you should give them something to help the stomach afterwards. Like this.
So anyway he gets back to me and says that there is a two to three day waiting period on corn cob and he said Monday would be 2 days. So you should be good. Be at my office at 8:00 Monday morning. I said I'll be there with bells on! He said you can give her a tiny bit of soft food and see how she handles that. So I was giving her like a inch or two piece of the raw food that I usually feed her. She got that possibly three times on Sunday and she did fine! She has also pooped before we made her throw up. And she pooped again Sunday night. And she was acting normal. So we were really thinking she was fine. But we were going to the vet on Monday anyway.
I never went through something like this so I didn't know what to expect when we got to the vets. Finally a tech came out and said, "Okay we'll take her now. It will be a while. We'll call you." I was totally not expecting that and I sat there with my eyes wide open and slowly raised my arm to give her the leash as I said, "I didn't know I had to leave her." I looked at my daughter with tears in my eyes and said, I wasn't expecting that.
She handed me a tissue and we sat there for a while waiting for someone to talk to us. I peaked around the corner to see where they went and she was already up on the table. I didn't want her to see me so I sat back down.Finally another doctor came out along with a tech who had Annie. I thought, oh wow are we going home? Why did you bring her back out? I felt bad that she would see us again and yet still have to go back but she went so willingly with the first tech! LOL I mean she loves everybody so she was not acting scared or pulling back to me or anything! The doctor said everything went well; they gave her the barium. I said, oh, through an IV? She was no, it goes down the throat.
And she said she took it well. She said they took the first x-ray of the stomach with the barium and they can see just a little bit of food that was normal. She said we will keep her for a few hours and every hour they will take another x-ray as it moves along the track and they will let us know.So we left. That was hard. So we went next door to the Dollar General and picked up the pills that they said we should give her to settle her stomach and went home.
An hour and a half later my vet called and said Annie was doing very well! So far everything looks good.
They still had to take another one as it makes it's final trek down the intestines. He said if the next one looks good you should be able to pick her up around noon. That was awesome news!So after the next x-ray he called me and said all is good! You can come pick up your dog! He said, "She's such a sweetheart! And I have to tell you it was so funny. When they first got her and gave her the barium they picked her up and put her on the table. The second time they had to take an x-ray she jumped up on the table all by herself! And by the third time, he said she jumped up there and laid down like, I got this now! I know the routine!" LOL He thought it was so funny! I said, Dobermans are smart. They learn fast! They just don't know what's good and bad to eat!
So that was a few days of Horror and I don't want to go through that again. I said I'm never going to eat corn on the cob again.
And the funny thing is we haven't had it in years. We rarely eat corn because I feel like it's not really that good for you. And those ears of corn cost me $500!Yeah, I don't want to go through that again. In fact, at my weakest moment before I called the vet, when I knew how serious it was, I told my daughter, if she dies I'm never getting a dog again. ever. No more animals! I was pretty distraught. She kept telling me, Mom she's not going to die.
So now that that's all done and over and good news....My vet and I had another discussion that I found very interesting. I know this is something that everybody has an opinion on and you may or not agree. When I dropped her off I told them that she was at the end of her second heat cycle and not bleeding anymore. But just so they knew. So when my vet called me to pick her up I asked him his opinion on getting spayed and doing the stomach tack. He said he doesn't like to do the tack. He thinks that's just another problem that could result in another emergency. I doubt I can explain it the way he did but something about something can get wrapped between the stomach and where are they tack it and get strangled. He said if they bloat we can handle that. But this is like a whole other emergency thing. He said when you feed your dog, the food stays in the stomach until it is moistened enough. If it's not moistened when you feed them it could take over an hour or more to leave the stomach. But if you moisten it when you feed them it could leave the stomach in a half hour. He said the major issue is getting it out of the stomach. I said well, the breeder told me in the very beginning to moisten her food so I've been doing that from the get-go and he said that's great! I would say continue doing that and you should not have a problem. So now I'm considering not doing the tack.
He also said that letting them go through a couple of heat cycles is helpful to get those hormones and tightening of muscles before they spay to ward off incontinence. I thought all of this was very interesting information and he's been a vet for a very long time. I trust his opinion. I know there's going to be a lot of other opinions out there but, to each his own. You have to make a choice that's comfortable for you.
But I'll tell you one thing. Keep your garbage closed and put the corn cobs in the outside garbage! LOL
