WARNING for those of us who feed the birds in our garden

As I type, my boy Tai is undergoing surgery at the vet.

During all the bad snow, we put out for the robins on the bird table in our garden square fat blocks containing mealworms which we purchased from pets at home. After a few days, the block disappeared and we assumed that the birds had eaten the fat and a crow or a fox carried off the remaining plastic. I put the second one out that I had, and that one disappeared too more quickly. Over this period, Tai has been vomiting quite badly, reaching a crisis over this weekend. He is bringing back up completely undigested food, you can recognise each item of food in the vomit.

We have concluded that he ate these fat blocks, plastic container and all. The fat itself would only make him sick because of the preservatives in it, and then that would have been that. However, it would appear that he has eaten the plastic cartons that the fat comes in and this will have got stuck in the duodenum where it comes out from the stomach. He is going to have an endoscopy to see if they can remove the impacted plastic, but if they can't we are looking at major surgery with the very real risk that he will get septocaemia. The cost will be horrendous, we can no longer afford insurance for the 2 boys, and depending on what procedures need to be done, we are staring euthanasia in the face.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE everyone learn from our mistake and make absolutely sure that any plastic containers for the birds are totally out of reach of our 4 legged friends.

And say a pray for my lovely old boy that he pulls through. Thanx everyone.

Oh God, Nikki, how awful. I will say a prayer for dear Tai and keep him in my thoughts. You must be feeling terrible - I hope and pray he gets through this and all will be fine.
Huge hugs for you all.
xxx

Oh my, thats awful!!
I'm so sorry

Fingers and paws crossed Tai comes out of it ok x

Blimey Nikki fingers crossed Tai can have the plastic removed without major surgery. How awful that trying to do right by the birds your dog is in such dire straits. Hugs babe x
Is the cost of the surgery really that prohibitive?
Reminds me of the time my Boxer Dudley ate the christmas centrepiece off the table, candles, wood log and oasis just leaving the poinsettia leaves and a few bits of ivy behind.

Thank you darling, it's been a nightmare for us, but mainly for the boy of course! The worst thing is the fights that the boys have over who is going to eat the sick! We had to split them up last night so that Tai was sleeping in the dog bedroom with the stairgate in the doorway, and Ben was out on the landing. He squeaked in the night and woke us up, and Tai had been very badly sick, so I cleared it all up but he was in a terrible way. When I left for work this morning he looked to be on death's door, but as is typical of these wolfie boys, once they get outside they charge around like nothing is wrong, so he bounced into the vets like he was going to a party! Luckily the vet was not easily fooled, and listened to the tale from OH and agreed that sounded like what was going on - that, or pancreatitis caused by all the fat, but as he is raw fed, that is less likely than a duodenal blockage.

OH is ringing me at work as soon as he hears anything.

Guys, thank you all. Tai is a tough old buzzard, so the odds are on his side, even though he is 10. It is a nightmare not being with him, and I am beating myself up for making OH cut down on their food because they were getting a bit portly. This has made gutbucket Tai absolutely starving so that he shovels anything he can get hold of down his gob. The last panic we had was a year ago when he swallowed Holly's chihuahua's toy zebra. That took about 3 weeks to emerge, but it was eventually vomited up. We have had several socks and knickers being consumed, and I should have realised that he could knock the bird table over and steal the fat - I just never thought

It's not your fault for trying to look after their weight - if your two are anything like Loki, they'll eat it whether they're hungry or not! Loki hangs around the bird table and searches underneath for anything the birds might have dropped. He hasn't thought of knocking it over yet!

It could just have easily been something Tai found on a walk - I've had plenty of times wrestling something from Loki's mouth!

I hope you get some good news.
x

I really hope your boy comes through this OK. I know my dogs would do the same given half a chance.

Fingers crossed for him.

Oh no poor Tai. Hope he doesn't need major surgery and recovers soon Nikki, *hug*.

Thank you guys ... I will let you know as soon as I hear anything! It is so hard to concentrate at work, but I must