Do You See the Thongs?

Aha! I got you with that one. I know, you came thinking you'd see a picture that was either "hot"  or disgusting. I don't post stuff like that on MY blog! (Well, ok some of the medical and surgical cases I post could be disgusting to some of you but you know what you got into when you started reading MY blog.)


What was I talking about though? Check this out:

This was an abdominal radiograph taken on a 2yr old German Shorthair Pointer that had been vomiting for several days. The dogs runs around on a lot of property but didn't eat "anything" according to the owners. This case is exactly why a foreign body is never off the list. Frankly many times people just don't know what the dog ate.


You can't "see" them on this film. What we see that is abnormal, though, is that the intestines are bunched up and the cranial (or left side to you viewing this - ie, toward the head of the dog) part of the abdomen has a loss of detail (raising a concern about a potential perforation and subsequent peritonitis). Basically, it doesn't "look right." 


Yes, there is a small metal object in this view too. Unfortunately, because of how busy the day was when this case came in, I don't have any intra-op pictures. I know - I too, was disappointed! 


The intestines were bunched up as they get with what we call a "linear foreign body" - ie, string like objects. A small amount of material was removed from an incision into the small intestine (enterotomy) but the major stuff was in the stomach - 2 thongs apparently.  The metal thing was something unrelated. 


I wonder who they belonged to....


(no, I don't have an answer because I admitted the dog and my boss was the one in surgery that day so she is the one who spoke to the owners post op - but tomorrow I WILL ask)