When pet toys kill

Noel had just turned seven years old in October 2019. Given recent events, it seems like a lifetime ago, when this purebred snob went rescue at an adoptathon in my local PetSmart.

I was still reeling from the loss of my Boston Terrier, Chipper, from brain cancer, when a friend and I spotted a litter of puppies, and I took the dive. His name was “Starry Night” at the time, but before I would adopt/not adopt, I needed approval from the boss, my German Shepherd Czarina. She sniffed him, looked at me as if to nod, and Noel became a loved member of the family until one January night.

Noel passed in my arms, January 27, 2020, around 2:45 am on the surgical table at the veterinary hospital. After taking ill earlier in the week, numerous attempts at medical management were made by the vet after x-rays showed what appeared to be an elongated mass in his intestine. After his refusal to eat anything substantial, if at all, for 1-1/2 days, I took him to emergency.

Dr. “M”, was on duty that weekend. A compassionate, leave-no-stone-unturned vet with decades of experience, she has looked after my pups since 2002, when she surgically removed two poly-vinyl tubes from a Chuck-It Flying Squirrel, that I watched my Boston slurp down like spaghetti before I could reach him. Dr. M, in this case, reviewed the x-rays and was absolutely confident we were looking at another foreign body lodged in the intestine.

Having been a multiple dog owner since 2002, the cost of owning these pets comes at a price. Contemplating a $4000+ surgery bill, on top of the $1000 already spent for tests and other procedures, meant, in part, to avoid the need for surgery, is a tall order for even the strongest of constitutions. However, I made the deeply personal decision that I could not put down an otherwise healthy pup because of the money and live with myself, so I gave the assent for the surgery.

As mentioned earlier, Noel’s x-rays had shown an elongated mass, which looked like a sock or possibly piece of cloth stuck in the intestine, and was ever so slowly trying to move through. When Dr. M operated, instead she found the two pieces of one of those Tug n’ Toss rope toys, with shreds of yarn and a string tied around a small piece of cloth. The doctor traced the string into the stomach where she found the second part of the chew toy, the knot. Unfortunately, there were three perforations made by this toy in the stomach and intestine that were already full of bacteria, and also in such locations where they couldn’t be cleaned and sutured successfully.

Dr. M called me herself around 2:15 am to say she couldn’t save Noel. I threw some clothes on, drove to the clinic, and held Noel as he passed. For me, it was a repeat almost two years to the week of the debacle when I lost my Boston Terrier, Spunky, to a similar situation as Noel’s – ingestion of dog “digestible” dog chews and bits of toy that were unseen on the x-rays, with no indication on the bloodwork as well.

In my 30+ years of dog ownership, from Boston Terriers to Doberman Pinschers to German Shepherds and Retrievers, my pups have played with almost every toy imaginable — plush, interactive, balls, bones, squeaky, toss, tug, etc. And just as with two-legged children, the four-legged variety almost requires 360-degree, eyes-around-your-head vision. A toy, that one dog will happily play with for hours, another dog will ignore, or destroy or mangle it inside of 10 minutes.

Pet parents walk a fine line between wanting to provide a playful environment for their pets with toys you both enjoy, and toys that can potentially kill without any warning signs until it’s too late, leaving you guilt-wracked and several thousands of dollars poorer when you elect to do surgery. Foreign body surgeries total millions of dollars based on insurance claims and continue to rise each year. According to an article from Trupanion.com, a company offering consumer pet insurance:

Giving a bone, ball or toy to your pet is often harmless, yet claims for foreign body ingestion continue to increase every year. In 2015 we paid almost 10% more foreign body claims than in 2014. An apparently innocent bone was the cause of our highest foreign body claim payout of over $21,000 to help a dog in California who needed treatment for a tear the bone caused in her small intestine.

The moral of this story, pay attention to the toys you purchase (or receive) for your pup. Look at the size of the toy vs. the size of your dog, how it’s constructed, and what it’s made of. The moment a toy starts looking gnarly, stringy or is tearing apart, either cut off the offending pieces or dispose of the toy. Not all toy materials can be seen on x-rays, and those that can, can be mis-identified and their seriousness misconstrued. Some small toys and bits of toys can pass through a dog’s system, but those that remain …. can cause both you and the pup immeasurable grief.

Don’t let this happen to you.