Gastroscopy and foreign body removal – Oesophagus – dog Sparky

🐶Sparky arrived at the clinic as an emergency case – the owners were extremely worried about his tremors, vomiting and restless behavior. Grandpa Ivan mentioned that he had eaten something in the morning, but he couldn’t see what. He was worried that Sparky might have been poisoned. He had vomited  several times, including in our clinic.

🩺Examination: The examination revealed that Sparky was clinically healthy and adequate, with abdominal pain.

🩸The blood tests we performed ruled out acute poisoning, so the patient was taken for an X-ray.

🩻X-ray: A plain chest and abdominal scan showed that Sparky had a foreign body in his esophagus – resembling bone. In such cases, urgent and rapid intervention is crucial to prevent esophageal rupture.

X-ray showing a foreign body with bone density in the esophagus:

Sparky was hospitalized and put on intravenous fluids for stabilisation.

Later, the puppy was put under general anesthesia, and his esophagus was examined via gastroscopy – a procedure in which we use a camera to look inside the esophagus and stomach for a variety of problems. The bone was found lodged in his esophagus, just before the cardia (the opening to the stomach). With care and a lot of patience, we were able to successfully remove the vertebra, which saved Sparky from having to undergo surgery.

🏡Discharge: Sparky woke up successfully from anesthesia and was ready to be discharged 1 hour later, but the owners preferred to have him stay in the clinic that evening and be discharged the next morning.