Symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of foreign bodies in the canine esophagus

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Esophageal foreign bodies are foreign objects such as bones, chunks of food, (peach kernels, sweet potato chunks, corn cobs), children’s toys and other wires, fish hooks, and plastic items lodged in the esophagus.

Symptoms

Complete obstruction, the animal performance is uneasy, head and neck straighten from time to time, streaming, do not eat, there is a sense of desire to drink, but drinking to see the amount of water reduced, can be seen in a small amount of foam from the corner of the mouth on both sides of the flow in the water basin, incomplete obstruction, can be shown in the feeding can only be fluid food into the solid food can not be passed.

Food reflux phenomenon can be seen, the animal shows a strong sense of hunger, with the prolongation of time, the sick animals show wasting, light weight.

Inadequate treatment may cause localized inflammation, infection or necrosis of the obstruction.

Diagnosis

  • Based on clinical symptoms and complaints.
  • General anesthesia is used for esophageal exploration, and a gastric tube is inserted into the esophagus. If the gastric tube cannot be inserted into the stomach, or if water cannot enter the stomach, it is possible to determine the diagnosis.
  • X-ray diagnosis, after insertion of gastric tube and filling barium meal at the same time, after taking the film, it can be seen that there is a large amount of barium liquid in front of the obstruction, and there is no barium liquid in the back of the obstruction, so that the location of the obstruction can be known.

Treatment

Different treatment methods are adopted according to the different obstructions and the different parts of the obstruction.

  • Choose an anesthetic with good muscle relaxation effect to give general anesthesia, such as compound thiaminone 5mgk/kg; or 846 combined 0.1-0.2mg/kg.
  • Conditional animal hospitals use endoscopic guidance, and then use long arm forceps to remove the foreign body.
  • For foreign bodies with small obstructions and smooth surfaces, a gastric tube can be used to poke the foreign body into the stomach.
  • For metal objects, they can be removed by surgical incision of the esophagus, and surgical access is determined according to the site of the metallic obstruction, see Surgical esophagectomy.
  • For postoperative care, hunger strike for 3 to 5 days with nutritional therapy, glucose, amino acids, electrolytes and antibiotics can be supplemented intravenously, and after 5 days, fluids can be fed, such as milk, highly concentrated broths or fish soups.

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