Archie is a lovely 2 and a half year old Cockapoo that recently presented to Vet, Rupert after the owner witnessed him eating a nail!

Although Archie was presented to us very soon after the incident, we could not induce vomiting due to the risk of the nail causing injury on its way up.  The risk of allowing it to pass through and potentially causing penetration in his stomach or intestines was also too high therefore diagnostic imaging was recommended to first confirm presence of the nail.

The owner consented to this and as you can see from the image the nail was visible within Archie’s stomach, the next step was to perform a gastrotomy (surgical incision into the stomach) in order to remove the nail, the owner once again consented and this was performed immediately.  The nail was surgically removed and the rest of the examination revealed that, luckily there were no obvious internal injuries caused.  Archie’s wound was closed and he was handed over to the care of our 24 hour nursing team for hospitalisation.

By the very next day Archie was bright and interested in food, he was also pulling on a lead for a walk!  He was doing so well by the following evening that he was discharged to the care of his owners on oral medication.
We are pleased to report that by his re-check appointment a few days later Archie was doing very well, we wish to thank his owner’s for allowing us to share his story with you.