Piper is outta control!

Some of you may remember a month or so back when Piper had seemed ill for sometime and was spent six nights in the vet and had exploratory surgery removing the tiniest plastic thing from her tummy along with some hair. She is seeming to being doing really well with a lot of energy.
Piper is a mere eight pounds at six months so she was unable to pass it having such a tiny stomach.

What worries me is...

Tonight, while i was at work, Piper (in her kennel) chewed off her collar. UGH! she was wearing a cat collar because the puppy ones were too big but it was your standard nylon-ish type collar. she appears to have eaten about an inch, maybe two, of her collar. She didn't eat any of the metal pieces, like the clasp, but i think there were metal circles where you could size it.

I have heard of dogs eating random things and parts of toys (Our dogs at home always ate the strings out of those multi colored tug rope toys) and passing them just fine or else throwing them back up but she seems fine as can be...

Mostly I'm wondering how long it would take to pass or how serious this is..?

So sorry - this must be so worrying. Please call your vet. Is there enough left of the collar to show the vet what she ate?

It also sounds like a veterinarian behaviorist is needed as soon as possible. You might want to ask your vet for a referral.

Out of fear for what could happen when I'm away or not looking - my dogs never wear collars or harnesses unless we are taking them somewhere.

A couple of things.

Most important is: you need to see a vet immediately. A dog can easily die from ingesting objects like this. I'd also remove all rope toys if she has them-- eating strings that then wind around the intestine will cause a potentially fatal internal injury to the dog. Any dog that regularly eats strings or is at risk of trying to eat such things, simply cannot be given this type of toy, ever.

Second: I don't think you have a dog that is 'out of control' -- this is more an environment and boredom and supervision and access problem that is entirely the owners' responsibility and that you will need to address.

Basically a dog shouldn't be able to reach its collar to chew it off so it sounds like either it had a quick release (as most cat collars do) and she caught it on something, pulled it off, and chewed on it. Or, it was on far too loosely. In general: it isn't safe to crate dogs in collars or harnesses -- I know of dogs that have hanged themselves by a collar catching on a crate.

Chewing down a collar is also signs of a serious boredom issue. What does she have to do while crated? Ar you leaving *safe* chew toys like filled kongs inside that will keep her busy? Could you confine her to a room or a pen rather than crate? Has she been formally crate trained to accept crating for long periods like when you are working (as if so, she shouldn;t be seeking things to alleviate boredom like eating a collar...)? Anything more than about 3-4 hours is in my opinion, too long for dogs to be crated except at night when they are sleeping. Confining to a room or a dog pen, with a radio left on and some safe toys to keep the dog occupied, plus fresh water always accessible and a comfy bed, is a much better option. Given the fact that she is a chewer she needs to have nothing available to her to chew that could be dangerous, from socks to soft toys to rope toys. I';d also keep collars off her when she is at home inside.

These are all ownership issues that you will need to address for her to be kept safe. Her behaviours your describe are all normal dog behaviours -- not problem, out of control behaviours.

On another forum, two breeders were , unfortunately, able to tell tales, about deaths caused to puppies, they'd bred (both dearly loved ). In one case the puppy ate a piece of the string from a ball-on-a-rope and the other was left in a car for only a couple of minutes, but got it's collar hooked on a fixture and hanged. Because of this, and a warning from a dog trainer (about dogs getting their paws caught in other's collars), my dogs are never left wearing collars .

Ouch.

I have never felt so torn down by the phrase "ownership issues" in my life. Clearly I'm aware that this is my fault, without having my hand slapped. All puppies have a need to chew on things big or small, deadly or not, they don't know any better. I don't think its a behaviour thing, i think its a dog thing. Its not like im feeding her bakers chocoate for breakfast. I left her collar on in her kennel while i was away at work for a mere three hours. I know TONS of people do this and aren't being shunned. I don't really believea behaviour specialist needs to be contacted. I would assume she got bored with her kong or else her collar was bothering her.

Mostly I guess i was looking for help with the matter, not to be told what i did wrong. The missing piece of collar is a clear message and reminder for me. The distress, trip to the vet, and bill with be another.

Either way, the vets have been called.

Thanks for your concern.

You are a great doggy parent, or you wouldn't be posting here! You're right, some puppies do eat stupid things, no matter how careful we are. All you can really do is minimize the opportunity for it and closely supervise. I certainly don't think you're a bad owner because you left her collar on. And I don't think anyone on the board thinks that either.

I'm always torn about whether to leave Daisy's collar on all the time or not. I do tend to leave it on most of the time because I have a fear that she will bolt out the door someday, or get out of our fenced backyard, and if she doesn't have her ID tags on, it will be harder for someone to return her. (Yes, she's microchipped, but that will only work if someone knows to check it.) If I think of it, I often remove it before she goes in her crate, but leaving it off for days just seems too risky.

I do have CollarTagz instead of a hanging tag, just to minimize the danger of her becoming entangled in her crate or elsewhere. (http://www.boomerangtags.com/store/index.php?A=G&ID=5)

I definitely would see the vet since you know she ate something like that. They can do a barium series that shows the collar part moving through her (as you probably know given your past experience with her swallowing something.) That would make me feel a lot better. Also, look very carefully around and make sure that piece isn't somewhere under her cushion or elsewhere. That would save you lots of $ and vet trips if you happen to find it.

Good luck!

Hi aperfectsonnett, you are a good doggy parent, as Daisy's Mom says, if you were not then you wouldn't bother reading or posting on this forum. Pups eat wierd and wonderful things if they get the opportunity to do so and it is hard to be on top of them every minute of the day. I am certainly not making excuses for when we have been remiss, but as a new dog owner I am being truthful. Quite honestly, I would be amazed if anyone could honestly say, hand on heart, that they had never once in all their time as a dog owner had a bit of a panic on after realising that their pup had scoffed something they shouldn't, especially if the owner was new to dog ownership. I believe it is a lesson that we all learn through experience!!
Like Daisy's Mom, I am afraid to take Phoebe's collar off in case she makes a dash for the door or makes some sort of amazing escape attempt. She is not yet microchipped as I'm hoping to get this done when she has her general at the time of spaying. I could not bring myself to get her chipped when she went for her check up, have you seen the size of the needle?!!:yikes Checking around to see if you can find any of the chewed bits of collar is worth a go and very best of luck when you go to the vets.
Please do post and let us know how Piper gets on, very best of luck

called my vet (which also happens to be one of two emergency vets in a thirty mile radius) and she told us to moniter her stools for the next day or so but that it will likely pass. I trust her as she is the one who did Pipers surgery last month and saw her last week for her post surgery check up.

Anyway, thats that. Piper seems as hyper and happy as normal so I won't worry just yet. I'll be closely examining Pipers stools (yummy!) and, of course, no more collars in the kennel! If i see nothing in the next day or two, I'll call her back.

Thanks guys!

I'm really pleased that Piper is bright and perky, fingers crossed that she will just pass anything that she's eaten.......brace yourself for the pooh checking thing!:grnyuk: :yuk::*gh: :yikes

I have a magic dog who poops out collars on command!!!!!

(Piper passed what appears to be an inch or so of a black and white checkered collar! She goes to vet on in the later part of next week for post post exploratory check up and a check on her liver again, I wonder if cloth would show up in an x-ray. Kinda want them to check just in case even though everything seems to be normal, I'm sort of a worry wart!)

Glad to hear she passed it, i too have a pup that needs watching like a hawk else he'll hoover up everything insight!

fabric wouldn't show up on an xray unles there was any little metal bits in the fabric.

good luck with check up next week,

Yeah, Piper! Good job! That must be a huge relief to you!:rah:

Excellent news!