January 2008 - Ki-va Smith
Ki-va screws up Christmas!
Ki-Va is a large Irish Wolfhound who had the ability to reach onto any surface and hoover up anything she found. On Christmas day she had started to vomit continuously, unable to keep water down and looking very depressed. We also noticed her vomit contained pieces of fabric. Ki-Va had also recently chewed up a set of screwdrivers!!
Fortunately despite it being Christmas day Ki-Va’s owners contacted us for advice and we agreed that Ki-Va should be seen. On seeing Ki-Va and with history given we decided the best course of action would be to give her a general anaesthetic and take some X-rays.
Unsurprisingly we found what appeared to be the remains of the screwdriver set in her stomach and intestines. The decision was made to operate and remove the offending articles from Ki-Va.
Inside we found that fabric had caught around the chewed up handle of a screwdriver in the stomach, creating a plug that passed from the stomach into the small intestines.
To remove the foreign body we had to go into the stomach and the small intestine to ensure we had removed the whole of the foreign body. We also went through rest of the intestines to ensure there were no further blockages. Amazingly some of the screwdriver remains had passed into the large intestines, as they had made this far they were left to be passed naturally.
Following surgery Ki-Va vomited no more and very quickly was back to her usual bright and active self. Now everyone is very careful to not leave things lying around for Ki-Va to eat.
