Kris­tel-Marie Ram­nath

In­testi­nal block­age, al­so known as bow­el ob­struc­tion, is a par­tial or com­plete block­age of the in­testines, which pre­vents the pas­sage of solids and liq­uids through the gas­troin­testi­nal tract. When nu­tri­ents and wa­ter are no longer be­ing ab­sorbed, the dog can be­come mal­nour­ished and de­hy­drat­ed. Block­ages can al­so de­crease blood flow and cause de­te­ri­o­ra­tion to por­tions of the in­testines, as tis­sue dies. Fur­ther­more, an ob­struc­tion can press on the in­testines, which can be very painful and even cause in­testi­nal rup­ture or in­flam­ma­tion of the ab­domen (peri­toni­tis).   

All dogs are at risk of in­testi­nal block­age, but younger dogs are es­pe­cial­ly vul­ner­a­ble be­cause they are more cu­ri­ous and ea­ger to put ob­jects in their mouths. Pup­pies al­so chew on al­most any­thing when they are go­ing through their teething phase. Toys, bones, rocks, balls, cloth­ing (such as socks) and a myr­i­ad of oth­er items can end up in the tum­mies of dogs and be­come lodged when they are un­able to pass through the in­testines.

Lin­ear for­eign ob­jects such as string, yarn, rope and car­pet fi­bres are par­tic­u­lar­ly dan­ger­ous be­cause they can twist in the in­testines and cause the in­testines to bunch in­to each oth­er. Old­er dogs tend to be past the chew­ing stage and ob­struc­tions caused by for­eign body in­ges­tion are less com­mon, how­ev­er they may de­vel­op mass­es (ab­nor­mal growths of tis­sue) or tu­mours in their in­testines.

Oc­ca­sion­al­ly, oth­er med­ical con­di­tions can cause bow­el ob­struc­tion, in­clud­ing tor­sion (twist­ing of the in­testines), se­vere in­testi­nal par­a­sitic in­fes­ta­tion, stric­tures (nar­row­ing of in­testines of­ten due to scar tis­sue), in­tus­sus­cep­tion (tele­scop­ing of the in­testines where a por­tion of the in­tes­tine slides in­to an ad­ja­cent por­tion), her­nias, se­vere in­flam­ma­tion of the small in­testines, and py­loric steno­sis (nar­row­ing of the pas­sage from the stom­ach to the small in­testines).

Un­less you have seen your dog swal­low a for­eign ob­ject, symp­toms of dog in­testi­nal block­age are usu­al­ly dis­missed as an up­set stom­ach. Symp­toms in­clude the fol­low­ing:

* Vom­it­ing – per­sis­tent vom­it­ing can lead to se­vere de­hy­dra­tion and elec­trolyte im­bal­ances

* Loss of ap­petite

* Weak­ness/lethar­gy – can be caused by de­hy­dra­tion and/or elec­trolyte im­bal­ance, as well as by pain

* Di­ar­rhoea – dogs with par­tial block­age may ex­pe­ri­ence di­ar­rhoea as liq­uid squeezes around the ob­struc­tion

* Strain­ing or un­able to poop – dogs with com­plete block­age will try to poop but be un­able to

* Painful ab­domen to the touch

* Whin­ing

* Bloat­ing

* Rest­less­ness

* Hunch­ing

If you see or sus­pect that your dog has eat­en a for­eign ob­ject, you should seek im­me­di­ate vet­eri­nary at­ten­tion. In some cas­es, the dog can be made to vom­it, bring­ing up the for­eign ob­ject be­fore it can cause an in­testi­nal block­age. This should be done no more than 30 min­utes to two hours af­ter the dog ate the ob­ject.  

If your dog is show­ing symp­toms of an in­testi­nal block­age, it is like­ly too late to in­duce vom­it­ing. In this case, your vet­eri­nar­i­an will do a phys­i­cal ex­am­i­na­tion and rec­om­mend an ab­dom­i­nal x-ray for fur­ther eval­u­a­tion. De­pend­ing on the size of the dog, how sick they are, and the size of the for­eign body, some­times dogs can pass an ob­ject and poop it out in their stool. How­ev­er, if it gets stuck and be­comes an in­testi­nal block­age, surgery will be need­ed to iden­ti­fy and re­move the block­age.  

The most ef­fec­tive way to pre­vent in­testi­nal block­ages is to elim­i­nate or re­duce ex­po­sure to non-food items by keep­ing dan­ger­ous ob­jects out of the dog’s reach, mon­i­tor­ing your dog when he is play­ing with or chew­ing on his toys, pro­vid­ing safe chew toys and en­rich­ment to keep your pup­py from get­ting bored, not feed­ing bones to your dog, and keep­ing your dog from scav­eng­ing through trash.

Un­treat­ed, a dog with a com­plete ob­struc­tion would like­ly die with­in 3-4 days. If a dog is di­ag­nosed with an in­testi­nal block­age, surgery is rec­om­mend­ed as soon as pos­si­ble.