Bruce: Pet of the Moment

The pet sitter had reported that on the Saturday Bruce had helped himself to a chicken kebab including the skewer! The pet sitter reported that after the incident he seemed fine however once he was home on the Monday evening he began vomiting. His owners reported that Bruce was vomiting 30 minutes after eating anything. He had been passing normal faeces. Bruce was also lethargic and not himself. His owners reported that at home he seemed unsettled and would sometimes whimper or cry when sitting or changing position. Bruce was triaged by a Veterinary Nurse who admitted him for observation and to be assessed by a Vet. Bruce was given pain relief and began intravenous fluid therapy to try and counter any dehydration caused by the frequent vomiting. Bruce was x-rayed that afternoon and also had an abdominal ultrasound.

Bruce was sedated for his diagnostic imaging. The x-rays and ultrasound showed large amount of faeces in his colon which made it very difficult to assess the x-rays and see the abdominal organs. Bruce was given an enema to clear the faeces and the imaging repeated. There were no obvious signs of a foreign body.

Bruce was kept in hospital overnight on fluids and offered small amounts of food. The following morning he was very bright and had not vomited after eating any of his small meals. He was sent home with omeprazole to help settle his stomach and tins of bland gastro-intestinal food. Bruce did well at home on Thursday however Friday morning he began vomiting again. He came back to see the Vet. He was possibly suffering from a severe gastritis due to the kebab he had eaten or he could still possibly have had a foreign body stuck in the stomach wall which was not visible on x-rays or ultrasound. It was decided to hospitalise him again for observation and further imaging. If nothing was visible on the x-rays the next step would be booking him in for endoscopy where a camera would be passed down his oesophagus to allow us to visualise the stomach.

Again nothing showed on the imaging. It was decided to send Bruce home over the weekend to see if he showed any signs of improvement. Whilst he was bright, on Monday morning he was till vomiting so was admitted for a general anaesthetic and endoscopy. Using the camera we could clearly see a kebab skewer in Bruce’s stomach which was the cause of all his problems! Once removed we were able to measure it at 12cm long! Luckily for Bruce there was no damage to his stomach mucosa. The use of the endoscope in this case meant that Bruce did not have to undergo surgery to remove the skewer. He was sent home that evening with more bland food and medication to protect his stomach. Bruce came back four days later to see the Vet for his vaccinations and his owner reported he was completely back to normal as soon as the skewer was removed. He had had no more episodes of vomiting and was back to his bright, bouncy self.