Dog Swallowed Object
How a Towel Killed my Dog

by Randy
(USA)

I just lost my 9 year old Belgian after he swallowed a few pieces of a blue bath towel sold by Wal-Mart, imported from Pakistan.

It started late Thursday night with vomiting, took him in for an exam Saturday morning as he continued vomiting and went off food and water Friday.

Vet and I both examined the towel and didn't feel there was any way the small amount missing could cause a blockage, he palpated and said the spleen seemed to be enlarged- indicating maybe hemangeosarcoma.

As the dog needed some dental cleaning I thought maybe there was a bacterial issue there, so we tried a 3 day shot of antibiotics.

Diarrhea started around that time- just total liquid

Monday morning I took him back and he was in worse condition, off food/water, vomiting and continued diarrhea. His temperature was 100.4, heart strong and normal so I said lets do the surgery to open his stomach and also examine the spleen which was said to be enlarged.

We opened the stomach and there was a wad of the towel completely blocking the outlet of the stomach, that was removed and he was closed up. We smiled at the good fortune it wasn't cancer.

They gave him a lactated ringers drip, and polyflex injection and I took him home 3 hours later awake but still out of it and unable to walk.

Diarrhea continued- mostly just leaking out, but vomiting had stopped. I let him rest comfortably and checked on him every few minutes and saw he changed position but didn't touch the water.

I went to bed at 2 AM and he was still resting, awake, alert but lethargic and of course still groggy from the anesthesia and post surgical pain but turned his head and looked when I walked in the room to check on him up till that point.

Only thing that concerned me was he seemed to lack much of a blink response at all, but since he had ointment put in them during the surgery I wasn't concerned about the corneas drying out, they looked moist and normal. He wasn't panting or anything and just kept his jaw shut, so I wasn't seeing anything indicating distress or breathing issues.

I got up at 8:30 and fully expected to see him alert, awake, and probably a huge puddle of urine and worse, instead he was still laying in the same position he was in at 2 AM and his jaw was open and that's when I knew he died sometime after I went to bed.

I believe he died between 4 and 5 AM as he was already cool to the touch and a fair amount of urine that leaked out was mostly dry on the tile floor.

This is so sad of an accident, but my vet and I both feel something in the blue dye in the towel may have reacted with the stomach acid and produced a toxic by-product. I have the towel and plan to send samples somewhere for testing.

My dog never chewed things up, even as a puppy he was gentle with toys, but for some reason he ate part of this towel, goes to show how letting your guard down can cause death when you least expect it.

Editor Comment on Dog Swallowed Object

Thank you for sharing this story. Hopefully it will help other owners who experience an issue similar to yours such as when a dog swallows a sock or other object. We are sorry for the loss of your dog.