PSA: If you’re on the fence of taking your dog to the vet, just do it. Don’t listen to the internet

Over the past year I’ve had several instances where I took my dogs to the vet for things that I initially felt I was overreacting about. Out of the many times, only one I was and it still did the right thing. Today solidified my feelings that if I feel like I need to just to it.

I have a 12 year old boy, Tesla, and a 6 month old boy, Ampere (or Amp). I gave Amp a Himilayan chew (aka yak chew) because he’s teething but I noticed he had significantly chewed it down to the point he was pushing it or his back teeth, where a lot of his pain currently is. I tried to take it out of his mouth but nope. He swallowed it whole. Slipped right down that little butthole’s throat. He stared at me while he did it. This was a 4 inch long, inch wide chew. Never thought he’d be able to swallow that it without choking.

I’m very lucky because I have a close friend who lives in another state and is a vet. She told me to take this seriously and to either watch him closely or, ideally, take him to the vet. Everything I read only be told me Himalayan Yak chews that they are safe and digestible. His belly will dissolve it. I waffled but if I decided it’s better to not mess around with this.

They take an x-ray to make sure it won’t cause any sharp corners when they induce the vomiting. They show me the x-ray and say yeah, that’s an area of concern.

Note that at this point Amp is showing no signs of distress.
He is acting normally. They take him to the back to induce vomiting while I wait. They come back to tell me there a 2nd bone. It turns out Amp swallowed a larger bone that I gave our older boy, Tesla, yesterday whole. I have a lot of experience with dogs, I’ve never had a dog that swallows dog safe bones whole.

So there was already a significant blockage. I fucked up. Nevermind I didn’t watch him, but I questioned the need to that him to the vet.

Take them to the vet even if you think you’re overacting. It’s better to react than under-reacting. Amp is absolutely exhausted but he’s doing ok. He has had a very bad day.

Earlier this year my older boy was acting very slightly strange, including peeing himself while laying down during 4th of July fireworks. I took took him immediately in and the follow ups resulted in finding out he had early onset Cushing’s disease. He’s doing incredibly well and responding well to medication, and I attribute a lot of that to getting him treatment early on.

I don’t mean to go on, but if something feels wrong take them to the vet. I was close to not doing it in both cases because they looked fine. They were not.

@eneojo I’m glad your dog is fine. I’ve spent a good bit of money on vet visits that they told me everything was fine, and I’d do it again.

One story I’ll never live down early in my dog ownership is I took my dog camping and he got loose in the woods. A week later, he was laying on his back and I spotted so many embedded ticks on his belly. I tried to get them out by covering them in soap (I read that could make them back out) and was moments away from using a red hot paper clips. I bailed on that plan and took him to the vet. They called me into the back so they didn’t have to tell me in front of people that those are his nipples, not ticks. I soaped my dogs nips for no reason.

@duktape1121 Haha holy god, that is an adorable story that almost turned horrifying. You have to be careful with that “love too much” line where you just defer to professionals.

@duktape1121

I’ve spent a good bit of money on vet visits that they told me everything was fine, and I’d do it again.

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Although I always grit my teeth at the "Great news! Nothing is wrong!" call we get. Yeah, tell that to my bank account!

(I love my guy and will continue to take him to the vet whenever I think he needs to go.)

@mistigale They even waived the $18 fee for tick removal probably because I’d given them an all time story.

@duktape1121 That is hilarious! Ours joked about getting us a stamp card - 10 visits and your 11th is free! I think we've been there every second or third week since last November. Our guy is just chaos on four legs and always into something (most recently managed to get a foxglove seed lodged in his ear -- $1100 later, we're all good now!).