When It Rains, It Pours
We had a light sprinkle last night but this morning the weather was darkly overcast with rain close by. We decided to go on a walk at Lake Poway since Brandy was still recovering from her split nail and the grass would be easy on her foot. It started to rain just as we started our walk. We took shelter under the eaves when it was raining the most, then continued our walk.
Soon, I heard Brandy eating something and tried to get it out of her mouth but she wouldn’t let me do that. She appeared to have swallowed but then kept on mouthing for a bit. Less than a minute later, I saw something hanging out of her mouth and then my eyes focused on the swivel of a fishing leader. The line was difficult to see but I quickly understood the situation, carried her to the car and rushed her to her vet. I was careful to see that there was plenty of slack in the leader.
The vet sedated Brandy in order to see the fishhook, but was unable to see it. The vet took an x-ray (see image above) and determined that the fishhook was in the esophagus. We were sent to an urgent care facility in Escondido that was equipped to perform an endoscopy.
After discussing the situation with the urgent care vet, we left our phone numbers and went to Shirley’s sister-in-law’s home to wait for the results. About two hours later, the phone rang and we heard, “Good news!” Such sweet music to our ears!!! There was no major damage to the esophagus as the barb hadn’t caught. There was no perforation.
I picked up a groggy dog who wasn’t especially happy to see me as I had taken her to the vet so many times recently. I think I lost Brandy’s trust. She has to be kept off food for twelve hours and needs medicine—one of which can’t be in her food—for about a week. It’s difficult hearing her whimper while searching for food in the kitchen.
She’s now asleep curled up on her blanket.