February Pet of the Month

Buddy Mutnick, a 4 year old Terrier mix, presented to us here at Rock Bridge Animal

Hospital on November 29th, 2016 because he had been vomiting for the past two days and his owner was very concerned. Little did they know that he would need to stay here at the hospital to have emergency exploratory surgery.
 
The day of Buddy’s appointment, his owner explained to Dr. Forbes that he had been vomiting for the past three days and that he had noticed some blood in the vomit. He had also thrown up about seven times that same day (including once during the exam) but he was still going to the bathroom and his stools seemed normal. His owner explained to us that he does occasionally get into things that he shouldn’t and he was concerned that he might have eaten a toy of some sort. Hearing this information, Dr. Forbes immediately suggested that we take abdominal radiographs on Buddy, since he does have this

potentially dangerous habit. The x-rays revealed the intestines just didn’t look right. There was a large length of plicated intestinal loops consistent with string. This means that the intestines in the picture looked similar to a bundled up scrunchie. All of this information led Dr. Forbes to diagnose a blockage in Buddy’s intestinal tract and informed the owner that surgery would be needed immediately.
 
Dr. Forbes, as well as the technicians, prepared for surgery that evening. During the procedure, we discovered the object that Buddy ingested was some kind of large bundle of fabric, possibly from a T-shirt. Thankfully the object was removed and Buddy’s intestines were able to be saved because we had addressed the problem in a timely manner. When we notified the owner of the strange object, he confirmed that it was indeed a sheet that Buddy had destroyed and ate.
 
Buddy was kept here at the hospital with us for a few days until he was able to eat on his own and so he could be monitored closely. Buddy hadn’t eaten much of anything until we finally figured out that he was a huge fan of plain chicken breast! However, he seemed to prefer it being hand fed to him by the technicians. Once Buddy recovered he was reunited with his owners and sent home with antibiotics and pain medication. He had a few episodes of vomiting at home, but we are happy to report that Buddy is now back to his happy, loving self once again. Buddy is such a sweet dog and adored by all of the staff here at Rock Bridge Animal Hospital. We couldn’t be happier with the recovery that he has made.
 
 
Written by Kelsie