Silver’s Brush with Death: A Cautionary Tale for Dog Owners

As many of you know, this week was largely marred by Silver (our family dog) being unwell. Though I’d been experiencing some career and personal highs, the week was a nightmare due to our pup feeling so under-the-weather. That said, she’s in recovery mode now and should be feeling better in a week or two, but I wanted to share our story in the event it happens to others.

Silver, fresh out of post-op. Poor thing was totally looped.

Dogs and corn cobs— a little threat that goes a long way

On Tuesday of this week, Silver started acting odd. Her appetite had gone (which, for her, is a huge deal) and she didn’t have her characteristic energy. She was walking slower, seemed less alert, and just… off. The next day, she started throwing up. A lot. Not to be gross, but it was the kind of “throwing up” that let us know something was seriously wrong. We began that evening with our first of four vet visits.

The first vet visit consisted of a less-compassionate veterinarian telling us she would be “fine by morning.” I rejected that theory, but the vet refused to do much more than send her home with some meds and some “advice.” He also wrote “danger, danger, danger!” in Silver’s file (since she had to be muzzled, probably because she felt so poorly to begin with) which seriously rubbed me the wrong way. We went home distraught and dissatisfied, hoping she’d be better by morning (but worried all the while.)

The next morning (Thursday), Silver had thrown up again. She refused to eat anything, or even take a sip of water. Back to the vet we went, but this time we saw a different doctor. Doctor Alicia Dillon, actually— and she was wonderful. She let us know that the vet the night before had missed the key signs indicating that Silver was horribly dehydrated. She got Silver a full blood-panel, X-Rays, and an IV drip within moments of examining her. Finally, we felt things were going to be solved.

After many tests and treatments on Thursday (blood work normal, X-Rays normal, pancreas and liver reads normal), we went home with every expectation that we’d see small improvements each day with the IV fluids and medicines that had been administered… but then Friday came around.

On Friday, it was the same story: throwing up, lethargic, refusal to eat or drink. We went in for another out-patient treatment of IV fluid, meds, and an exam, then once again went home. The doctor called to check in on us afterward, clearly stumped herself and upset for us that we couldn’t quite find the culprit. We cried all night Friday evening, holding her as she slept (she was so, so weak.)

Finally, on Saturday (this morning, as I type this) we found the culprit. Silver kept vomiting so Dr. Dillon told us to come in, and voila— there it was. She could finally feel a blockage in Silver’s intestines that hadn’t shown up on any X-Rays or presented itself whatsoever until that moment. She literally jumped when she felt it, and yelled to the nurse, “I FINALLY feel something!” The pure emotion and compassion she had at that moment let us know that Silver was in good hands— and the pre-op treatment began immediately.

We didn’t have much time to process what was going on as Silver was rushed to surgery, but Dr. Dillon stayed calm and collected throughout the morning as we watched our pup get prepared for her operation. We left her in the Doctor’s hands, and received a call two hours later that she was waking up and the surgery had been successful.

Long story short? Silver, when we weren’t looking (which isn’t often, as she’s with us or confined to the crate or the covered-porch 24/7), had ingested a corn cob. Yep, you read that right— a corn cob. Something so small and insignificant had hidden itself in her stomach, wreaking havoc all the while, and nearly killed her within a span of a few days. I’ll spare you the gruesome photos of the corn cob post-removal, but she’d eaten a chunk of one whole and was luckily her intestines had withstood the trauma.

Silver is home now and resting, and should hopefully make a full recovery by end of week. That said, take this as a cautionary tale about dogs and table food— if they can find scraps they will eat them, and if your dog starts acting strange trust your gut. Us getting Silver to the vet for early intervention prevented her from having intestinal rot, which would’ve been MONTHS of recovery and post-op visits.

Now? Silver is sleeping in bed as I type this, probably dreaming about all the good stuff she’s going to eat once she feels better. She’s one of the lucky ones.

Silver with my husband, Andrew. The bed is bare because little-miss-thing here threw up on the covers, which are currently in the wash (lol!)

Xoxo, MM.