Quote: betty landercasp

There are critical narrow places in the GI tract. The opening from the stomach to the small intestine. The place where we have an appendix is another one, the ileo-cecal junction, where small bowel meets large. Food can "hang up" in either place, especially if it's mixed with a little grass or whatever. Some dogs can develop a telescoping of one part of the intestine into the next part too, this can just happen from "bad luck" even if the dog is just eating kibble. (intussusception) Worms had cause that too.
Sounds like your dog is going to avoid the knife, which is terrific. IV fluid is really helpful with this, keeps everything moist and moving. Antibiotics to help with any penetration of the bowel is good too. Don't be thinking you should have just ignored that vomit that smelled like stool and waited and things would have been fine. Ain't necessarily so...
I hope all is well. Sounds like a close one!

The opening from the stomach to the small intestine can also become narrowed from a condition called "pyloric stenosis". This was discovered in Callie during an emergency surgery. The opening was so small the vet couldn't even get her little finger through it. This became obstructed by something and we'll never know what, although I have my suspicions she was fed something that I didn't bring for her. We were visiting relatives out of state when she started projectile vomiting, but it was just bile, no poopy smell. 2 episodes of that and I had her at the nearest emergency vet. I originally thought it was complications from her pancreatitis (again, someone feeding her something she's not allowed to have).

I've had no further trouble with it - but I do make sure her kibble is small and moistened with water and canned food added. Fortunately she doesn't wolf her food down - she actually chews it, so that does help. If she should ever have another episode I'll look in to having her scoped and having it dilated.

In the horse Strongylus vulgaris larvae spend time in the cranial mesenteric artery, the main blood supply for the intestines. In this locale they are not affected by oral deworming agents. Anyway, they damage the walls of the artery. Later, when the horse is mature, the blood flow can be compromised leading
to areas of "dead bowel" which = colic and sometimes dead horse. It's super important for horses to live in places where everybody is on a decent deworming schedule.(4x/yr minimumr every major holiday,my favorite schedule)
Foals sometimes can colic from roundworms, (ascarids) they are about the size of a pencil, sometimes huge balls of them are passed when the foal is dewormed.
Dogs can be damaged by this type of obstruction as well, the classic bony pup with the huge abdomen makes you think of ascarids. Plus there are other worms
imbedded in the bowl, like whips. Roundworms are floating, they do their damage by their mass.
Modern deworming agents are terrific, I'm not sure if any of this is much of a problem anymore. It used to be really fun to deworm when critters had a huge parasite load. Really seemed like you were doing something!

Thanks, Betty

Dr. Betty, Just wanted to mention I learn so much from your posts. Thank You!

It's fun to think about these things again, Betty. Lots of it is completely out of date, though.
When I took parasitology our professor told us, " Memorize all these different meds for different worms, but in 2 yrs Merck will be coming out with
ivermectin which is safe for patients and treats everything, worms,lice, mange,ear mites" -that happened, now I think bad worm issues are pretty much a thing of the past.

He is much better, peep, poop and eat.

They saw a masse of solid and bones on the exam. The bone were at the begining of the small intestins and the masse further down.

I check all the toys (4 of them), all are intact, he has been on a drag line for some days before as he chase the darn cat now that they come outside.

The vet is all about raw food was the cause. They had 3 other case the same day. The temperature got much warmer the day before the impaction. In horses I would think of dehydratation causing a bolus impaction.

But now what to do. He will be back tomorrow on the disgusting cane gastro food, it smell so bad!
What do I feed him. I don't want him back on kibbles if possible.
What protocol of feeding should I follow?

BTW, I am very happy to have brought him to the vet last night. And will do it again in a case like this.

Ariane, so glad to hear he is much better.

I was wondering about possible dehydration. Things don't move along as smoothly and perhaps his food got stuck as a result.??
Not sure if this is a possibility, but it crossed my mind.

Are there any Vets in your area that are pro- raw feeding?
I would be very interested in consulting with one of them in the near future.

I am thinking for a short time, you could feed a bland diet of boiled chicken and cooked sweet potato and add in a calcium supplement if you are worried about resuming a raw diet immediately.
You could also use Honest Kitchen as a replacement, either for the time being and or for a longer.
You can add raw meat to it, if you like.

But I would really try to see if there is a pro-raw vet out there that would work with you on this.

Grinding is another option.

He is back home!! and full of himself.
Vet has made some recommandations, including favoring neck bones rather then legs or grinding.

They will not recommand a raw diet, but are respectfull to some point of it if well done.

Now off for a walk before he blows up!

Thanks to every one for the support

Glad to hear he is doing well!