Be careful giving your dog bones from the butcher. Look what happened to Carly.
Carly- spayed female, golden retriever, 2 years of age
History:
About 30 minutes before presentation, her owner noted that she had a bone stuck on her lower jaw
The owner was unable to gently wiggle it off.
Exam-
Carly was normal on physical exam, she was amazingly tolerant of the bone stuck on her jaw. It was firmly situated behind the lower canine teeth.
This is not an uncommon occurrence. This bone is most commonly found in ham steaks (cross-section of femur). It resembles a ring (circular) and somehow the dog gets both the lower canines through the center. Some dogs with this problem will be very anxious and paw at their face and rub their head on objects in attempt to remove it.
Treatment Plan:
Because the bone was firmly stuck, it would need to be cut to remove. Sedation is necessary for patient comfort and immobilization for this procedure.
Before sedating Carly, we obtained a blood sample to check liver and kidney values. This was done to be sure the medications we used for sedation would not aggravate an underlying unapparent problem.
We also gave her an anti- nausea medication to alleviate that common side-effect of the sedation medications.
Her blood screening tests were normal and she was given an intravenous injection for sedation.
She quickly relaxed within 5 minutes, and we carefully sectioned the bone to remove it from her jaw.
Her mouth was examined for lacerations and other oral or dental injury that may have resulted from pressure and movement of the bone while it was stuck. There were no other injuries present.
Carly was given an intramuscular injection to reverse the sedation. Within 15 minutes she was able to walk. She was dismissed about 30 minutes later.
