The Dog with the Multi-Coloured Teeth

Boxers are one of my favourite breeds. They tend to be friendly, energetic, comical dogs who make wonderful pets. They also tend to be mischievous and can get into trouble. Years ago when I was a relatively new graduate and working up in Bolton (North of Toronto) I was presented with a new patient that was a young adult boxer named "Chip" who came in with his female owner for an annual health exam. It happened to be early January.

I like to be very thorough with my examinations. In order to not miss things and standardize my exam I always start with the ears, then go to the eyes, then the nose, and so on. Everything was quite within normal until I reached the mouth. I lifted the velvety soft lip of this patient avoding the smatter of drool that all Boxers have and something caught my eye.  It was only a quick glimpse as Chip was bouncing around on the exam table and difficult to control. But I was pretty certain with what I saw and it perplexed me. I thought I saw something quite shimmery and unmistakably green in colour overlying one of the teeth.  Calling for an assistant we more firmly held the patient and I was able to open the mouth further and sure enough it was there. However, this time I also saw there were other colours, reds and blues spattered in and around all of the teeth hiding partly under the gums. I grabbed a Q-tip and played with one of the coloured pieces and found that they were quite well attached. Asking the client about them, it suddenly dawned on her as to what these were. Chip had crunched up a bunch of Christmas lights!!  And now, there were shards of coloured glass stuck into the dogs gums which had been there for at least a week if not longer.  We took Chip to the treatment room, sedated him and spent about 20 minutes pulling Christmas light glass out of his mouth.

I hoped that would be the end of Chip's issues. However, I was wrong.  About a year later, Chip's owner came in concerned.  Apparently Chip had been vomiting off and on for several months and recently had lost several pounds of weight. As a side note, Veterinarians are often discouraged and disappointed by clients who for one reason or another fail to recognize that their pets need the attention of a Veterinarian and prolong their pets suffering by not making an appointment for an examination. This happened to be one of those times as I looked at what was left of the once vibrant Chip that I knew from a year earlier. He was visibly skeletal and I was very, very concerned. Boxers are the number one breed for cancer related issues.

The general physical exam was rather uneventful. The owner looked at me and asked "whats wrong with him Doc?" I replied, "I don't know but I'm going to do everything I can to find out".  With that we took Chip to the X-ray room and snapped a couple of views not sure that I would actually find anything. To my surprise the answer was boldly staring back at me.  Clearly visible on the Xray was a steel darning needle about 4" long!!  The owner was as surprised as I was but did say that a needle had gone missing several months earlier. 

We quickly called some clients and moved some appointments around to make room for an exploratory surgery on Chip. Within an hour I had Chip spread open before me and I was running his stomach and intestines through my fingers. I spent considerable time moving up and down the length of the gut and couldn't find anything!  I was getting frustrated because I knew what I saw on the Xray but for some reason it was nowhere to be seen. Thinking that maybe the needle had perforated through the stomach or intestine I started examining the rest of the abdomen. The more I searched the more I got frustrated. Where was it??!!  This was by far the largest needle I had ever seen and yet it couldn't be found. I started to doubt myself, as afterall I was only out of school a couple of years at that time. One of my personality traits which is both a blessing and a curse is my bulldog stubbornness. I am a perfectionist and I was not going to let this dang "needle in a haystack" beat me. I examined that abdomen over and over and over again not willing to give up.  As I was flipping the stomach out of the way I noticed a little white spot on one of the lobes of the liver. I had seen the spot earlier but not thought much of it because scars or blemishes are not unusual on this organ. This time, I focused in on it and took the liver lobe into my hands. Palpating deeply I thought I could feel something firm. Taking a chance I took a hemostat and poked into the region of the depressed spot and sure enough out popped the head of the needle!!  I was soooo relieved. Grasping it firmly I pulled it out and jubilantly sewed up the abdomen. I was amazed that this needle had been swallowed down into the stomach and then had poked through the stomach wall and lodged in the liver as its final resting place.

Chip went home the next day. Ten days later Chip returned for the removal of the sutures (stitches). A part of me was concerned that maybe the needle was a red herring and that Chip might have something else wrong with him but I was so happy to see him bound in full of life again. He had already regained 2 lbs!  He never looked back and completely returned to normal. The satisfaction of knowing that you have made a difference and helped a pet return to health is a feeling I will never get used to.