# Dog ate his collar



## bluetick (May 11, 2002)

Good grief! I called my vet's office this morning since this could develop into an emergency situation over the weekend.

"T" is a rescue GSD I brought home in January. He was 16 to 18 months old then. I also have two other GSD's, 8 and 10 years old. All are spayed/neutered.

From the start T was a destructive chewer, but he has gotten much better. I am retired and home almost all the time, leaving for shopping, medical appointments, etc. about every 7 to 10 days, or so. On those occasions, T is crated to prevent "accidents", and because I don't feel he can be trusted in the house while I am away. He exhibits some separation anxiety by crying and carrying on when he knows I am getting into the car and leaving.

My shopping excursion yesterday had me away for about 4 hours. During the evening, I noticed his collar wasn't on him. It is a nylon collar, and all three dogs wear one in case they should get loose. Their licenses and rabies tags are attached to the collars.

Near dawn I heard a dog making vomiting sounds, and figured it must be T as the other two (in my half awake state) seemed to be on my bed. Upon getting up a bit later, I went to the back door first thing, as usual, to let them out. On the way I scanned the floor, but didn't notice any vomit.

Assuming T lost his collar in the yard Friday while playing hard, I looked for the collar there first. Then I looked in the house and checked the bedroom floor again, but found nothing. He had managed to fold the bed in his crate oddly, so I checked in there and came up with the metal buckle and metal ring with the tags attached, but no collar. That's when I realized where the collar might be, and the reason for the sounds during the early morning.

Since crating him yesterday, he has eaten two meals and had a few treats. I will be keeping an eye on him today to see if he is having bowel movements. The vet's receptionist recommended feeding him something "bulky", but I am not sure what that might be. She indicated she would speak to him and call me back. Sigh... I mentioned to the vet in January that this might happen as his chewing problem was apparent the first day he was here.

He also managed to do something yesterday that borders on the impossible. While in his crate, he somehow managed to reach the rockers of a rocking chair near his crate. He pulled the back of the chair rockers into the crate and gnawed on about 12" of the wood pieces!

The collar was a nylon woven fabric, about 1" wide and 18" long. If anyone has any ideas that might help prevent emergency surgery this weekend, please let me know! So far, except for the incident early this morning, he appears perfectly normal. :help:


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## NightmareRanch (Dec 24, 2006)

I have never had a dog eat it's collar. Chewed to pieces, yes, but not eaten entirely. My old lady Afghan once at stuffing out of a sleeping bag. She vomited up her chicken quarters (but no stuffing, and not other kinds of food) two days in a row, then passed a small bit of stuffing, so I finally figured it out. I gave her five or six slices of wheat bread and a bunch of stuffing passed out the same day.

Jess


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## Susan n' Emily in TN (May 10, 2002)

Canned pumpkin will soften up everything and help smooth out the ride. If he is showing any signs of being uncomfortable; not eating much, laying around, continually bowing ( stretching out his front paws), or if he has his third eyelid up, DO NOT FEED HIM ANYTHING, and get him back to the vet asap. Those are all signs of pain.

He may pass it all though, too bad he threw up the metal, you would be able to see where everything was on an x-ray.

Don't you just love weekends, that's when all the fun happens.
Susan, Vet Tech


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## bluetick (May 11, 2002)

This guy seems to like getting into trouble on weekends! On a Saturday morning in mid-March, right after a 12" snowfall, he cut a pad on his foot very badly. My kitchen looked like a crime scene until I was able to stop the bleeding. I called my vet but heard a recording that his office was closed - an unusual situation for a Saturday morning.

On Monday, I called again and learned the vet was out of town, so called my avian vet who also treats cats and dogs. T ended up with 3 wire sutures to close the wound, then had to be kept from running and climbing stairs for 10 days - not to mention that with snow and mud outdoors he had to keep his foot dry... I still haven't figured out how he cut his foot.

I don't know if T vomited up the metal pieces from his collar. They appeared to be clean and dry and were under the folded bed in his crate. 

I called my daughter who had a small dog that ate a towel and required surgery to remove it. She suggested the collar might be too big to pass into his intestines, and might more easily be thrown up. Nothing is happening now. All the dogs are resting after a recent romp outside.


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## Terry W (Mar 10, 2006)

You may try a good stiff dose of heavy mineral oil. That stuff is great-- things tend to slide right out the back end.....I know of some breeders whose dogs had a habit of eating larger rocks, and after paying for several emergency surgeries, went the mineral oil route. No more blockages...... I even tried it on my little dog once, when she ate a pair of my daughter's underwear ( darn kids!!!_) they were satiny, so the oil helped them slide out-- they were still in one piece- a potential blockage issue for sure!!!


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## GoldenMom (Jan 2, 2005)

Hopefully he chewed up the collar into a few pieces (fairly likely since you found the metal bits). Don't worry too much unless he pukes more or is acting sick. I've seen some amazing things pass right on through big dogs!


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## belladulcinea (Jun 21, 2006)

Bella eats towels, which gave me an excuse to replace several!  She ended up with a 3 day 2 night stay with the vet in order to get everything through. Seems she also developed an appetite for a hemp rope that she somehow got ahold of in the back yard :shrug: . Since then she has slowed down on eating the towels but still likes to at least chew on them. :nono: 

Her other passion is chewing on 20 oz coke bottles. She gets the cap off and holds it between her paws and sticks her tongue down inside or rolls over on her back and drinks whatever coke/pop is left. She brings them to us to take the labels off after getting in trouble for ripping them off herself. Then she plays fetch with them. My junior housekeeper got under everything in the living room and pulled out 14 assorted pop bottles. Seems that Bella knew they were all there and whined for a long time over the missing bottles. Gotta love em!


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## bluetick (May 11, 2002)

Good news! After T's dinner this evening, I watched him outdoors. When he pooped, I checked it out and saw pieces of the collar! I hope he chewed the rest of it into such small pieces. Good dog! - sorta... :dance:


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## longshadowfarms (Nov 27, 2002)

bluetick said:


> Good news! After T's dinner this evening, I watched him outdoors. When he pooped, I checked it out and saw pieces of the collar! I hope he chewed the rest of it into such small pieces. Good dog! - sorta... :dance:


LOL! Silly dog! Glad to hear that he's doing ok!


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## Rouen (Aug 19, 2004)

bluetick your dog sounds like my female, she's eatten 2 leashes and a harness, she's been lucky this far and everything passed, she also broke her nail and bled everywhere, and she's only 24 lbs.


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## JasoninMN (Feb 24, 2006)

I bet you have never been so excited to see a dog poop!.....lmao Glad to hear it went through. It is amazing what dogs can pass through them.


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## SherryR (Aug 7, 2005)

I used to have a bc that would chew through my german shepard dogs collar at least once or twice a week. . . either chew through it, or pull it off. He knew what I meant when I would come outside, and say 'where's Hildy's collar?' . . he'd lead me right to it. Had to buy 4 or 5 ever 3 weeks.
That was the same dog that ate my kids socks, (they'd remove them in the sand box), I saw him taking a long time pooping, and it was pink! came closer, little frilly sock. He also ate the tail off of a stuffed leopard toy. That was iinteresting, as well, because I dont know where he got the toy, my kids didn't own one.


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## Terry W (Mar 10, 2006)

SherryR said:


> He also ate the tail off of a stuffed leopard toy. That was iinteresting, as well, because I dont know where he got the toy, my kids didn't own one.


 I told the neighbors kids to put their toys away if they wanted to keep them-- my boy LOVES to carry things, and he KNOWS they have nice, large balls all over the place-- Connor doesn't seem to realize that the corner 5 acres doesn't belong to Uncle Jimmy any more-- sigh--- so he goes over to investigate every new thing. Time to get out the shock collar, I guess.


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