“Ceres” Roets
Ceres is a young Weimeraner, who is a “habitual stone eater”! He loves to play with stones, and carry them in his mouth, but unfortunately, then accidentally swallows them!
The first time this happened, the owners presented Ceres to Dr Karin, because he was miserable, and vomiting, not eating, and lying in a “praying position”. This is often a sign of extreme abdominal pain. Dr Karin did a full clinical examination and felt a hard mass in his abdomen. She took an abdominal x-ray, and lo and behold- there was the stone, in the gastro-intestinal tract! An obstruction like this in the intestines, is an emergency, and needs to be operated on, as soon as possible. Dr Karin performed an enterotomy (cutting into the gut) to remove the stone. Ceres was up and about, and happy as can be, by that same evening. He even chewed off his drip! He went home, and we thought that was the end of his problems…..
But a few months later, he presented to Dr Karin with exactly the same symptoms again, and, you guessed it, another stone obstructing his intestines! We opened him up again, removed the stone, and he improved quickly after his surgery.
Ceres’ owner removed every stone that they could find in their garden, to try and prevent him from playing with them. But, Ceres loves his stones, and believe it or not, this happened another 3 more times! He has had 5 abdominal surgeries in total now, to remove stones he has swallowed! He is on our wall of fame in the practice, featuring his photo and some of the stones we removed!
The last few stones he has swallowed, have thankfully been smaller pebbles, and he managed to pass them without any surgery, only some laxatives! What a relief – for him and for us!
