Hey gang,

I just wanted to throw this out there as it is a serious danger I wasn't aware of. Our yellow Lab, Max, has always had a thing for dirty socks. He has eaten and either thrown them up or passed them in the yard since I can remember. This past weekend, he ate a sock that actually had another sock inside of it, which lodged in his small intestine. It happened probably Thursday night and he quit eating by Friday night. I wasn't sure what it was and just kept an eye on him. By Saturday afternoon he looked pretty bad so I carried him in to a Petsmart/Banfield since they were open. They X-rayed him and confirmed the "foreign body" and sent me to the Emergency Animal Hospital of Collin County where they immediately performed a surgery that afternoon.

They removed over 6 inches of small intestine because it had begun to "die off" due to the presence of the sock for an extended period of time. Dr. Christian Hoyt performed the surgery and he informed me after the surgery that he wouldn't have made it to Sunday morning had I not brought him in, as he was in bad shape. Dr. Hoyt works some weekends at the Emergency clinic, but also practices daily at the Stacy Road Pet Hospital located at HWY 5 and Stacy Road in Fairview. God truly answered my prayer in not only putting Max in the care of a great Dr., but a great Dr. that has already become a good friend. Dr. Hoyt is an outdoorsman and took a special liking to Max. Max is doing great today and has really gained strength and is improving by the minute. He still has some healing to do and we are being very careful with his care, but the direction that was given to me by Dr. Hoyt is helping him greatly.

The moral of the story is watch what your dog is eating, it really can kill him....and if you are looking for a Vet in the DFW market, call Dr. Hoyt!

Brad Waters

My first pointer was Cocoa. We raised her in an apartment in the galleria area in Houston. I was running her just outside of loop 610 where there were several coveys of quail. She stopped to take a dump, and it looked as her intestines were coming out. They hung out about 6 inches. I pulled a woman's hose out. I learned my lesson early in my bird dog years.

I would wager a bet that most of us have had something similar to this happen to us where our dogs have eaten or done something to make us realize that owning a dog is a big responsibility. I would also wager another bet that most of us learned from the experience and did things to make sure it never happened again. Prayers for your dog and hopefully he will have a complete recovery...

I guess I didn't realize that it could cause this much of a problem, thus the reason for my OP. I wanted others to realize how serious this can and will be if they don't keep an eye on what is laying around. Puts a whole new meaning to sock and "panty" patrol.....

I once had a patient, also a yellow lab, that we successfully performed 3 different surgeries to remove foreign bodies in her lifetime. First was a calf-high gym sock carelessly less on the floor by a teenager. Second was the white cotton belt from a terry cloth bath robe. Lastly was a queen size set of panty hose; one toe was still in the stomach, the other toe was in the colon, and the rest in the small intestine.

The dog lived to a ripe old age and was estimated to have cost the owners around eight thousand dollars. This was several years ago, and today, the cost would be double that.

Great Post Brad, very true!!

We all have our "my dog ate this" story. Mine is, my second black lab gave me a funny look when I came home and saw she ate my wifes pin cushion !!! Took Millie to the vet and sure enough x-rays showed a sewing needle in her stomach....jeez.....At the advice of the surgeon, I gave her a week to pass it or dissolve it. Next X-ray showed it to be gone.....where I'll never know.....freeeeeky !

It's hard to dog proof everything but we should always be careful what our pups can get to.

I truly hope your dog recovers from a tough surgery like that! What did the vet think about his chances of being fully usable again? I'm just wondering because I always have to weigh the cost of an operation like that on one of my dogs compared to starting over from scratch on a new pup. My wife always thinks of dogs as family members and never considers cost vs reward. I wouldn't criticise someone else's choices but a freind of mine spent $2k on a mediocre dog last year and regrets it.

Yep, I watch as close as possible what my dogs eat now...we used to feed them table scraps, did so for years. I never really thought much about it. Then my male German Shephard stopped eating and wasn't looking good. I took him in to the same places as the OP. He had developed pancreatitis and I came very close to losing him. He spent a week at both Banfield and the Emergency Hospital while they treated him. Got him home and open the back door to let him go out and do his business, and before I could yell at him to stop he tore off after a bunny, caught it, bit the head off and swallowed it in one gulp....

After another short trip to the vet he's been fine but no more table scraps and as few bunnies as possible for him

My Brit eats small rocks, and passes them. I live in the hill country, so the only way to stop it is leve her in the concrete floored kennel 24 hours a day. I'm not doing that.

now that's funny

bit the head off and swallowed it in one gulp.... confused2

That is astounding. I heard similar stories from the staff at both clinics I had him at this weekend. What is also numbing is that the cost of Max's care was probably double because it was at the Emergency clinic. His total care came to $6500! I am not a rich man, but thankful that I was able to cover that. I also am thankful that I have a PetPlan policy on him that covers 80% of eligible care. I will be filing that claim this week.

Max will be 7 next month and at this point the Dr. expects a full recovery. As a matter of fact, we realized that we live a couple of blocks away from each other and are already discussing duck hunting trips for the coming year. What we do expect is that Max will have some GI issues, possibly diarrhea and issues with nutrient uptake we will have to monitor. However, he is expected to be fully functional assuming he makes it past the next week or so when infection and issues with sutures will be behind us.

Have you had good luck with PetPlan? I've been thinking about getting it for my lab.

I've got a female pointer who has literally eaten her plywood dog house, and then, I put an old plastic dog crate in for her to sleep in...she ate that too. How on earth all this has passed thru without ever making her sick enough that I would notice is beyond me. Dogs are tough!

I'll let you know after I file my claim. They seemed to be very eager to pay when I talked to them, but until the check hits my hand.....

Had a Basset hound several years ago to get sick. Took him to the vet and vet called us and said that were about perform surgery on him to remove a pecan that got lodged in his intestine. when we went to pick him up they gave us the pecan and x-ray. They removed it and he made full recovery to hunt down many more rabbits.

Also any part of the SAGO Palm especially the seeds will kill your dog in less than 2 days. There is less than a 50% chance of recovery. I know I lost my best friend Cody to Sago poisoning last summer he was 70# and only 5 years old.

SAGO PALMS KILL KEEP THEM AWAY FROM YOUR HUNTING PARTNERS

Also make sure if you give them a Nylabone type of bone to chew on that its a digestable one. My Lab swallowed dang near a whole one of the non-digestible kind about 15 months ago. Due to her age we knew surgery wasn't going to be an option so we just let nature run its course. I never saw it come out so we figured it would be in there until the day she died or until it plugged her up. Two days ago she got really sick so we took her to the vet. They did xrays and found nothing inside of her which shocked the heck out of me because I thought for sure it was still in there somewhere.

Make sure Rover doesn't get into the trash and eat a corn cob or peach pit. Both are guaranteed to cost you a big veterinary fee. Ditto for dirty socks and panties from the clothes hamper.

Had the same thing happen to a buddies pit, ate a corn cob after a crawfish boil, it lodged in the small intestine, had to have it surgically removed

Mine grabbed a bag of green grapes off the counter 2months ago and got real sick. I googled it and found out raiens and grapes are highley poisonous to dogs. Took him to the vet and thy sauid since it had been over a day there was nothing we could do except make him vomit. Nothing bfad happened after a few days and started acting normal again. They said since he so big they may have been what saved him, although it could cause kidney issues long term.