Buy pet insurance and Do not buy squeaky toys!

[Marie and Hoka]

Warning to all our doodle friends!
A) Buy pet insurance B) NO squeakier toys! (Spoiler- Hoka is ok!)

Poor Hoka (almost 11 months old) apparently swallowed a squeaker, possibly 4 weeks ago. I knew something was up at the time. I took away all the soft toys, tried to make him throw up to check his stomach, etc. He seemed better, but apparently the squeaker had been sitting in his stomach or he found a broken piece somewhere that I had missed. Friday afternoon it moved to his small bowel and made an obstruction (nausea, vomiting, no BMs). It wasn't visible on x-ray, so they sent us home with nausea medicine Friday night. He worsened overnight so we returned to the animal specially ER Saturday morning where they saw it on ultrasound.

Hoka had surgery yesterday to remove the obstruction and is doing well. Insurance should save us around $5000 on the cost- should make up for a lifetime of premiums! I feel so, so, so guilty.

[Gail and Bailey]

Oh my goodness..... I am so glad that Hoka is ok!!  So glad you had insurance and it all turned out well but sorry you all had to go through this!  Thank you for sharing your experience and helping others avoid the possibility of this happening to their pup!  Sending positive thoughts for a quick recovery and give that little guy a big hug for us!!

[Judith and Addie]

I am so very happy that Hoka is okay - and that you have pet insurance.

Please try to not feel guilty. You did your best for him at the time when you thought something was wrong, and you continued to get him medical attention until you found the cause. And puppies, like toddlers, only need a second to get into mischief.

Guilt is only good to make you aware of changing a behavior in the future. Use it for that, and then discard it. Enjoy Hoka, and I hope he makes a swift recovery. 

[Mari Bezanson]

We had our puppy ingest a rope toy and the knot at one of the ends got lodged in the small intestine.  No pet insurance here, but regretted not buying it when we first got him.  Lessons learned (our bill was $1600.00)

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

So glad Hoka is going to be alright! Yup...keeping a close eye on our Doods and the condition of the toys is very important. And those rope toys are the worst! So many dogs have even passed from the strings becoming entangled in the intestines.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

So happy to hear that Hoka will be fine and that you had Pet Insurance.  I'm a big proponent of pet insurance.  Every time I log in on Pet Plan to check a claim or something I'm always amazed at the numbers that scroll across the bottom showing claims that they have recently paid.  Anyone who is a new pet owner would probably have no idea that their dog eating a squeaky toy could end up costing them $5000 and the majority of people would not be prepared to incur that cost.  I thought I'd share just a few of the ones scrolling across the bottom of the PetPlan screen now:

(Keep in mind that some of these could be partial claims.  When I filed Sophies cancer invoices it was broken up into 20 different claims because each visit was a separate claim).  As you will see there are some pretty hefty bills here.  The ones that amaze me are Lameness and Vomiting and Diarrhea.  They can add up quickly because the problem can be hard to diagnose.

Congestive Heart failure, $4,608

Conditions of Pxrexia and High Temp $2581

Cushings Disease $1084

Obstruction $1790

Cystotomy, $2315

Pollakuria, $2500

Seizures, $4283

Lameness, $2665

Mast Cell Tumor, $1541

Colitis, $503

Foreign Body Injestion, $3427

Pancreatitis, $713

Lameness, $844

Hepotopathy, $336

$1011 Lameness

Growths, $775

Mast Cell Tumors, $775

Vomiting and Diarrhea, $3434

CCL Tear, $4365

Seizures, $1103

[Marie and Hoka]

Update:

Hoka is home sleeping next to me on a foam mat. We will catch up on Netflix.

He was a bit out of it and afraid to lie down at first.

He did so well, the actual bill was lowered to $3400. (from an original estimate of $5000-6000) I am sure if this happened on a weekday and we could have had the surgery at the regular vet, the price would have been much lower.  We had to go to the specialty center and had the "head surgeon", so at least I felt really confident.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Good to hear Hoka is okay! Been there, done that, with an intestinal obstruction with Oscar, so I know how you're feeling. Don't be too hard on yourself, accidents happen. Live and learn, as far as squeaker toys go. Thank goodness you had pet insurance! Your bill must have been outrageous. Ours was under $3000 if I'm remembering it correctly. I'll have to look it up, as I'm curious now. Hope Hoka heals quickly.

Okay, I just looked it up and the total bill came to $2560 at the ER pet hospital (would have been substantially less had it happened during regular vet hours and the surgery had been performed there). That was 1-1/2 years ago, and in Portland, Oregom. My insurance with Embrace covered 80%.

[al haskins]

My students have been trying to get these items listed as dangerous and to make it easier for surgeons to find them. This  type of surgery is not unusual and is very expensive. Please consider signing my students' legislation and see if your local state government official would carry the bill.

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/save-pets-from-dangerous?source=c....

So sorry.