Puddin' gave us the fright of our lives this morning!
A favourite snack food in South Africa is biltong...jerky. They even make a special variety for teething babies: about as thick as your thumb and dried without spices or preservatives or salt. Puddin' loves this stuff and I make sure to take it away from her when it gets down to about an inch.
Well, seems she stashed one and this morning she took it out and started gnawing on it. When I saw what she had I reached to take it away from her and the little scamp swallowed it whole.
Thankfully it got past her trachea so she didn't choke, but it got stuck below that. She cried and wriggled and ran around, gulped and hacked, and cried some more. I was still in my nightgown, so Hubby grabbed her up and jumped in his car and headed for the vet...in rush hour traffic. He left in such a rush he left his cell phone and wallet behind.
I jumped into some clothes, grabbed his phone and wallet and followed. It took nearly 20 minutes to get to our vet only half a mile away. When I caught up with him, they were in the surgery, the vet and an assistant hovering over her. She was still whimpering and gulping, Hubby says she threw up in his car twice, but only liquid came up.
The vet tech syringed water into her and said if that didn't get it moving down towards her stomach, they would put in a gavage tube and push it down manually. Once in her stomach, it would be fine, since it's just a piece of dried meat.
Well, the water worked. Eventually she stopped whimpering and gagging and now she is home, tucked up her her "cave" of pillows on my bed, sleeping it off.
What a fright! This has caused me to look at her toys and chewies and remove some of the smaller items (chew sticks she has reduced, etc.) and I told Hubby "no more biltong!" I thought I was keeping a good watch on that stuff, but obviously she hid a stub and I didn't realize it.
Thank goodness she is alright, but I've received a terrifying lesson that I will not soon forget!
