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

[eneojo]

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.

 

[duktape1121]

@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.

 

[eneojo]

@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.

 

[mistigale]

@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.

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.)

 

[duktape1121]

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

 

[mistigale]

@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!).

 

[jamesd010391]

@mistigale Yep know that feeling. My older 14 Pekingese was limping. So off to the vet we go. Nothing found , in fact she'd almost stopped limping by the time we got there.

Did find out she had a minor heart mummer that I needed to keep a eye on.

And managed to get Covid ...it was the only place I could have picked it up at since I work from home and hadn't been out of the house for weeks.

So spent money and got sick for a limp that went away on it's own. But at her being 14 wasn't going to take the chance ..

 

[bluemoon01]

@duktape1121 You're not alone. When I was little I thought my hamster had a tumor and was afraid we'd have to put him down. Vet had a good laugh and told me I had a fit and healthy MALE hamster. Boy, do they have balls...

 

[fdomingos9]

@bluemoon01 I got a female hamster when I was a teenager and I didn't know if she was female or male at first. I found out she was female when 3 days after getting her she gave birth to 4 boys! My brother took one of her sons and honestly male hamsters are well endowed. It's like they have peas under the tail.

 

[ravisingh]

@duktape1121 Hahaha that's a great story! We got laughed at by the vet and the after-hours animal hospital, though thankfully we didn't try to soap his nipples off. We adopted our guy in July and things were going nicely. One evening, he started wandering around looking shifty. He kept doing a weird gulping movement with his head, and I thought he was going to throw up. I opened the patio door and escorted him out to our little garden, where he proceeded to run around and eat any green leafy thing in sight. He was panicking and trying to eat grass etc, but wasn't throwing up. It was 9 pm, so we called the animal hospital. We explained to them what was happening and the line went silent....then we heard laughter.

"Your dog....has the hiccups. He's probably never had them before and has scared himself. If you're really concerned, take him to the vet tomorrow."

We took him to the vet, and yeah, it was hiccups. They stopped when he barked at a squirrel prior to the vet visit. They figured he just had something in the back of this throat, like a piece of fluff from a toy. When he barked, it probably came loose. No more hiccups.

 

[claude221198]

@duktape1121 If it makes you feel better, I felt some weird lumps on the backend of my (male) rough-coated Saint while grooming him as a pup. I spent some time poking at the lumps, fondling them, generally trying to get a good idea of their size and all that. I was panicking a bit.

Ended up calling the vet, and... yeah, they were his testicles, and for god knows what reason that never occurred to me before I called. My excuse is that the fluff obscured them...

 

[umbrabates]

@duktape1121 You would be amazed how often this happens.

You'd be even more amazing how hard it can be to convince some clients that their male dogs also have nipples, lol

 

[everest]

@duktape1121 If it makes you feel better, my dog has his nipple listed as a pre-existing skin condition for his pet insurance because when I brought him in for his initial exam and pointed it out (not realizing what it was) to see if it was something to be concerned about, the vet said “let’s just keep an eye on it“ and noted it in his chart.

(In my defense, I’ve never really checked out dog nipples before and didn‘t know they could be black. Though the reason it didn’t occur to me to see if he had one on the other side, was that my brain‘s weird logic assumed since male dogs don‘t nurse, they only have two nipples & not a “full set”)

 

[2091]

@duktape1121 This is the best thing I’ve ever read. Thank you for sharing.