“Orion’s Delicious Misadventure”
By Tamika McElroy
Orion presented to Dr Tamika at our Goodwood Road clinic, his owners were worried that he was lethargic, vomiting, straining and off his food. Orion is a three-year-old black Labrador, so losing his appetite was certainly a red flag that something was wrong!
Orion’s owner did report that earlier that week Orion and his Labrador brother Helios had managed to break into the house while their owners were out and had spent quite a bit of time playing and having a great time, chewing up a cardboard box! Other than that, there was nothing obviously missing or chewed up that they thought could be contributing to the way he was feeling.
After an initial examination Orion was admitted into hospital for further investigation to find the reason for him feeling so unwell. The team started with a blood test and x-ray and immediately it became obvious that Orion had in fact managed to ingest something that, due to its size, was blocking the intestine that is responsible for digesting food, meaning nothing was able to move through.
You can see in the x-ray picture an obvious foreign object (yellow arrows point to the object) within the abdomen, hiding under the ribs. This was likely the cause of Orion’s presenting symptoms and would need to be removed surgically.
Orion was prepped for theatre and an Exploratory Laparotomy was performed to investigate and remove what we could see in his x-ray. Once anaesthetised an incision was made into Orion’s small intestine, the foreign body was located and removed.
So, what was so tasty that Orion couldn’t help but eat whole? It would seem to be some sort of hollow rubber tubing as seen in the photo! We can’t imagine it was so tasty that it was worth him feeling so unwell and having to have surgery for (not to mention the stress for his poor owners) – but it is definitely an enduring trait that Labradors possess, having to eat almost everything they can get their mouths on!
Orion recovered and improved with flying colours from his surgery and was back to eating in no time. Orion has since been happy and healthy and once again acting like a normal Labrador at home with his loving family.
Pictures attached: Gorgeous Orion, his xray and his foreign body
