Scottie was only three blocks away from Island Veterinary Hospital when a car clipped him beside the road. Scottie was a spunky Scottish Terrier and known for getting loose so his caregivers, John and Barb, weren't surprised to get a call that he had been wandering again.
This time, however, it was a lot more serious. As I examined Scottie I could see his gums had gone from a nice pink to pale pink to white in less than an hour. An abdominal tap revealed whole blood; Scottie was bleeding internally. After quickly organizing and giving Scottie a blood transfusion we prepared Scottie for surgery.
There was no time to waste and as I scrubbed up for surgery I had John and Barb come to the prep area. As I questioned them I found out that Scottie had not been feeling well and they were planning on bringing him in for an examination but couldn't find him. They were surprised to get the call from the hospital and learn he had been hit by a car as he hadn't been eating well for the past few days and he normally never wandered that far away from home.
A few things didn't add up but I knew the situation would soon be sorted out. I had John and Barb wait in the reception area while I began the surgery. As soon as I opened Scottie up it was apparent that his spleen had ruptured and would have to be removed. A dog can live without a spleen and in no time I had all the blood vessels clamped off and the organ removed. As I paddled around in the bloody abdomen I wanted to make sure there were no other sources of bleeding. Suddenly something hard bumped against my hand and I lifted up the stomach. For a dog that was not eating well I could feel a large object inside the stomach. I lifted the stomach up to the abdominal incision and examined it further. I could feel a large corn cob inside the stomach! After making an incision into the stomach I removed the corn cob.
John and Barb were amazed when they saw the size of the corn cob. "However did he manage to swallow that?" they questioned. "Looking at the size of the corn cob and imagining it sitting in his stomach I guess I can understand him not eating, the mystery of him wandering so far from home is also explained …… I guess he was taking himself to the vets!"
