My sister has 2-year-old GSD that swallowed his kong last night. He immediately started choking and my father tried to do some kind of heimlich (sp)maneuver on him. The kong went further down instead. Originally, they thought it went into his stomach because he began to bloat but when the vet tried to pass a tube into the stomach, it wouldn't go through. It turned out the kong was blocking the way. They were able to fish it out and are now watching the dog to see if it gets a lung infection due to aspirating saliva. (he was able to breath through the holes in the kong) Anyway, I read an article once about a man who saved his dog from choking on a tennis ball by working the ball back up the dog's throat by pushing it back up from the outside and then pulling it out from the dog's mouth. (he said he got bit pretty bad because the dog was frantic)Has anyone ever done this or have been able to save their dog from choking any other way?

Kitty S.

I am glad that your sisters dog is going to be okay. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I had an experience of choking with my dog when he was about one. On our walk, while I was not being as attentive as I should have been, he picked up a bone of some sort that someone must have left for a stray cat or it fell from the garbage. He swallowed it instead of chewing because he knows the consequences if I see him picking up something from the ground. He was acting strangely on the leash and when I looked at his face it was contorted, his jaws were in a vice grip with teeth showing and he was not breathing. Although I am quite a small person, I managed, with great difficulty, to pry his mouth open and stick my hand down his throat. Although I could feel the bone I couldn't grasp it. I then did the Heimlich maneuver and the pressure dislodged the bone but as with the kong, it went down the throat, it was not expelled.

The problem I see with working an object up is that there isn't much time to act to get the dog breathing. But with a large object, there may be no other option but to try. I would also be interested to learn if there are effective techniques to use in this type of emergency situation especially when dealing with a larger object.