December 12, 2007 - 11:06pm
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - Marine Cpl. Dustin Jerome Lee and his German
shepherd, Lex, scoured Iraq for roadside bombs together, slept next to
each other and even posed in Santa hats for a holiday photo.
Please click on the link for full article.
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=104&sid=1309368
TENNIS BALLS ARE NOT SAFE FOR BIG DOGS
By DeTroy Kistner, Diamond State German Shepherd Club
Please Read this if you have a Ball-crazy German Shepherd, Golden
Retriever or Labrador.
While I was talking on the phone Sailor my I 0- month- old German
Shepherd brought me his ball for a game of indoor catch. It was a hard
rubber ball about tennis ball size. It had little raised dots of
rubber. I was quite sure it was too large for there to be any danger
of him swallowng it. I would toss it to him and he'd catch it on the
fly. We must have done it thirty times when suddenly I looked at
Sailor and saw that he was in great distress. I knew instantly that he
must have gotten the ball stuck in his throat on the last toss. His
head was down and he was trying to get it out but was unable to do so.
I dropped the phone not even taking one second to explain to the
caller what was happening. I grabbed my dog and he wriggled free
struggling to get air and free himself of the object lodged in his
throat. I was wrestling him in his own fight for survival.
Three times I grabbed him and three times he got away from me. Finally
I got him and pried open his mouth. Trying to get the ball out V,/ith
my fingers only seemed to cause it to slide further down in his
throat. The poor animal was struggling to be free of me and to get air
into his lungs again. The ball was now in his throat beyond reach,
like an enormous Adam's apple. He had locked his teeth and was trying
to swallow it. And of course he could not. By this time I am as
desperate and frantic as he is. I live on the fifteenth floor of a
pre-war building in mid- Manhattan. There is no vet in the building
and none of my neighbors are at home. I know that by the time the
elevator operator puts down his newspaper and saunters into the
elevator and brings the old machine up 15 stories my beloved young dog
will be near death. And then to go down again and try to find a cab
that would take me and the dog to a vet or the Animal Medical
Center... well, no creature on earth could go for that length of time
without air and make it.
Never have I felt more alone and scared then I did at that moment. I
knew that if couldn't figure out how to save him and do it quickly he
was going to die. I grabbed onto him again, straddling him. I put my
hand below the hall on the outside of his neck and gently worked the
ball up his throat the way you would work a ball through a tube or out
of the toe of a sock. It came up part way, but then Sailor eeled away
again in his panic and struggle. I grabbed him again and threw him on
the couch, again half straddling him to try and hold him. His teeth
were clamped down, I seemed to need at least four hands and I only had
two. I remember telling God I needed his help RIGHT NOW! I knew that
time was running out and the thought of my beautiful young dog dying
in my arms while I am powerless to help him gave me a feeling of
despair I'd never known before. Again I tried to work the ball up his
throat from the outside by squeezing it gently from beneath. SloWy but
surely it rose up his throat. I pried his teeth open with my fingers
and finally, holding his head against me and keeping one hand under
the ball, I was able to reach into his mouth and grab the ball from
the back of his throat and pull it out.
We sat there for a long time. He kept swallowing and was very quiet.
Young as he was he seemed to know how close to death he had come.
There was a fair amount of blood on my fingers and I wasn't sure
whether it had come from his throat. I thought that perhaps his throat
was tom so I took him to the vet immediately. The vet checked him out
and found him to be okay, but gave him some antibiotics just in case.
He told me that I had saved my dog's life. Most people, he said, try
to get help and the dog dies on the way. They just can't get to help
fast enough to save their dog. Usually, he said, when I see them they
are already dead. I see a lot of golden retrievers with tennis balls
that have died on the way.
Most of the blood had, I found out later, came from my own fingers
that had taken a bit of a beating prying open those clamped sharp baby
molars. My fingers were sore for days, but who cared I had my dog and
he was alive! I started to warn other owners of big ball-happy dogs in
Central Park. Some would respond with, "But he's never swallowed it
before." Yes, well the first time could be the LAST time. It only
takes one time for your dog to die. He may have caught it for years
and then one day he catches it on the fly and it gets beyond his
tongue and you can lose your dog.
Three weeks later a friend's German shepherd got a tennis ball caught
in his throat. The dog is seven years old and has been retrieving
tennis balls for years. It happened in Central Park and the NYPD
happened to be close by and threw the dog in the patrol car and raced
(sometimes literally over the sidewalk) to get it to the Animal
Medical Center.
The dog was blue and almost gone when they pulled up at the Animal
Medical Center. "What did they do?" I asked, expecting to hear about
quick major surgery. "Oh, they just worked it up his throat from the
outside and it popped right out!" said his owner. So why doesn't
anyone tell owners about this? Everyone thinks that a tennis bail is
safe. TENNIS BALLS ARE NOT SAFE FOR BIG DOGS.
I have heard that the Heimlich maneuver can be used to expel something
lodged in a dog's throat. I don't know whether it was a method that
might have worked. It is probably good to know as well. But I do know
that a major animal hospital used the same method of working it up
from the outside that I described. I think big dog owners should know
this. Obviously one doesn't take animal medicine into one's own hands
when there is a vet at one's elbow. But when your dog is for sure
going to die if YOU don't DO something then it is good to know
something you can do.- Last week I heard that another Central Park dog
died the same way. His owner tried to get the dog from the park into a
cab and to a vet and he didn't make it.
That's why I wanted to share this, because many people are so panicked
that they don't think to even try to work the ball up from the
outside. I thought perhaps this might save a dog's life. Now all
Sailor's balls are rope balls. They are tennis ball sized but there is
a rope attached. One mail order company even sells ones that float.
And the rope enables me to throw them further and Sailor gets a longer
run.
