This case is about a four year old male Border Collie, named Rush. The dog was brought into our hospital by the owner’s son.  The history at that time was that the dog had been vomiting for the past 2-3 days, and was less active than usual.  He was normally a very active dog.  He was examined, and found to have a normal temperature, and to be in good overall condition, at about 40 lbs.  He did not seem painful or resent having his abdomen palpated. 

            Because we were not sure what was wrong, we recommended and took an abdominal x-ray.  The cause of the vomiting and lethargy was obvious.  There was a 2 inch diameter ball in the dog’s stomach!  Upon questioning the owner further, she remembered Rush playing with, and possibly swallowing his favorite ball several days prior. 

            We decided to give the dog a drug, called Apomorphine, to induce vomiting.  About twenty minutes later Rush did vomit, but did not bring up the ball.  With the owner’s permission, we took the dog to surgery to perform a gastrotomy to remove the ball.  This involves an incision into the abdomen, and then an incision into stomach itself.  There is always a risk of infection with surgery of the G-I tract.  After removing the ball, and closing the stomach, the abdomen was flushed thoroughly with sterile saline.

            Rush made an uneventful recovery, and was discharged the next morning.  The owner was instructed to feed her dog a special diet for several days, and to get him a larger ball with which to play!