Dogs and Sticks

Concho was a high drive dog loving the water and retrieving.  Concho’s favorite toy was a stick; constantly carry one and wanting one thrown so he could retrieve it with all his lighting fast speed.  One day his owner was playing fetch with Concho in the pond that ended in tragedy.  Concho was extremely fast and agile so his owner was trying to fake him out with the throw by throwing the stick opposite direction of the pond, but Concho was too fast.  He was so agile, and had such drive that he was too quick for the fake.  The stick only went about 50 feet. He got to it after it had bounced once, he caught it out of the air in his mouth like a cigar, but he was running at full speed and the other end dug into the ground.


 

Catching the stick vertical and with such speed it proceeded to run down this throat injuring his esophagus.  The owners immediately took Concho to the vet where he fought for life in ICU trying to beat the odds. After 4 days, the vet hospital in Fort Wayne recommended letting him go, as the section of his esophagus that was injured had become necrotic.  The surgeon who worked on him said she had seen several injuries of this type, but never one so severe. Concho was humanely euthanized to end his suffering.  There was nothing else that could be done for him at that stage.  The owners did the right thing by letting him go.

I don’t think there is a dog out there that hasn’t picked up a stick at one point in their life.  Most dogs enjoy a good chase with a stick on the end of the hard run.  Some dogs like chewing on sticks and eating the wood.  But in any case, dogs should not be allowed to chew, run after, or carry sticks of any sort.  Too many dogs have been severely injured and died due to catching sticks wrong, as this story proved, impaling themselves or just have remnants perforate intestine from eating the splinters.  Infections can occur from fragments of wood that have not been found causing abscesses in the body.  The body will treat the splinters as a foreign object attempting to kill the splinter there for causing severe life threatening conditions.  Splinters can migrate and settle anywhere in the body causing dogs to even be paralyzed.  It can be very difficult to find all the debris from a stick injury in a dog.  X-rays and MRI’s are one way of locating fragments but it’s impossible to locate all the small splinters precisely

Many owners don’t realize the dangers of an ordinary romp with a stick that can turn to tragedy or just plain chewing and eating them.  I hope that this article can help other dogs and owners in the future.  There are many alternative toys that are safe for dogs to retrieve and or chew.  Orange bumper retrieving toys are great for the water.  They are highly visible, soft and easy to throw.  Balls on strings for a nice throw as well.  Make sure the ball is big enough the dog can not swallow and soft enough they don’t break a tooth catching it.   These are a just a few safe retrieving toys your dog can retrieve in stead of sticks.  Please learn from this tragedy and other that sticks can kill, not only at the time but years later. 

By

Karmen Byrd

Vogel Haus German Shepherds

Footnote:

Concho was a Vogel Haus bred puppy and a true German Shepherd. His loss leaves a void here at Vogel Haus.