Leo the puppy, weighing in at a solid 120lbs now, has been able to slip down an entire sock for a while now. We first noticed the phenomenon late last summer. Sometimes it's a small wash cloth or a hair scrunchee, but usually it's a sock. Yesterday he apparently found a buffet of smelly foot coverings and really went to town. He yaked up two of them by the evening and then kept trying to cough something else up. This was worse than cousin Eddie's dog yaking on a bone under the table during Christmas dinner: it produced puddles of vile, oozy stomach liquids. After consulting with a vet and giving him a dose of peroxide, he finally calmed down a bit.
My wife weathered the night on the couch so she could tend to the silly beast and mop up whatever he produced. (Thank God for her! I suck at dealing with noxious fluids! Oh and compassion, I suck at that too. If it's even a thing *eye roll*). At about 4AM his heaving even woke me up-all the way in the bedroom with an air purifier on for white noise, for crying out loud! So I did the dutiful thing and went to see what the hubbub was all about.
He had finally coughed up a big chunk of bone. Not his own bone, mind you. How would that even work! No no, part of a cow bone. Like a two-golf-ball-sized chunk of bone with some kinda sharp ridges. It seems he had gnawed this off of the cow femur we had gifted him in celebration of the Day of Christ's Mass some days prior.
One barium cocktail and two x-rays later, the vet had discovered a mass (this is vet speak for "sock") in his stomach which, so far, is moving it's way through Leo's GI tract. Hopefully it finds it's way out on it's own, bringing an end to this wretched saga. But mostly avoiding a costly surgical procedure. Ah, but I repeat myself!
Update The vet called this morning to tell us that the mass had passed and Leo's plumbingis back to operational! Also his bleeding has calmed down and he hasn't thrown up any more. Phew! He'll get to come home later this afternoon, in exchange for a small pile of cash. At least we don't have to muck around with Obamacare for this. This time!
