Peppa

Introducing Peppa, an interesting case who came to our Hawera Clinic recently. Peppa is a very lovely one year old Blue Heeler who had an unfortunate incident with a pair of stockings.  She decided that she would like to eat them!  Peppa presented to us with vomiting and a painful abdomen (stomach).  We took some xrays of her abdomen to see what was happening and could see that her intestines were not normal and appeared to be gathered up in one area. Peppa had a linear foreign body and required surgery.  Linear foreign bodies occur when animals eat something long and thin which works its way through the intestines and causes the guts to bunch up and creates a blockage. Another classic example of this is when a kitten swallows some string.  We gave Peppa a general anaesthetic and opened up her abdomen and found the offending stocking. Three incisions were required to remove the whole length of it, two in her small intestine and one into her stomach.  Peppa improved in leaps and bounds after her major surgery and is now back to her happy self.  We hope Peppa has learnt her lesson and doesn’t decide to eat any more items of hosiery ever again!