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Old July 2nd, 2011, 09:12 AM
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stormy_daze stormy_daze is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Lancaster, UK
Posts: 7
Exclamation 7 year old shih-tzu swallowed a rubber finger tip.

Hi folks!

Any help would be appreciated.

My naughty little shih-tzu secretly swallowed one of these http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/46...ingertips.html. I had no idea until he passed it this morning. He had been vomiting all day on Tuesday; I took him to the vet but they didn't see anything wrong so they just gave him an anti-vomiting medication.

After that he seems to have returned to normal, and only now has passed the fingertip. I have two primary concerns still on this, tho:

1 - the fingertip grew in size about 5 or 6 times it's normal size. I have no idea how or why this happened, but it was definitely a significantly large piece. My concern is that he might have ingested some toxins from it.

2 - He's been very itchy all week. I don't know when he swallowed the tip, but all week he's been pretty itchy. I have no idea if this is toxins from the fingertip or just seasonal allergies, which he gets. His seasonal allergies make him very itchy, he has to take diphenhydramine 3 times a day to control it.

Aside from itching occasionally, he seems okay. He's alert, he's walking, he's talking, he's eating, he's drinking, and he's playing. But I have no idea how toxic things work because he's never been stupid enough to swallow something before.

It's after hours on a weekend here for vets, so for me to take him in will probably be around £80 minimum (around $130 USD/$124 CA) to have him looked at without any additional tests. I'm an unemployed graduate student and really don't have the money to take him in if it's not necessary. What's worse, is the vet my vet uses as an emergency contact has overcharged me significantly before and he was still quite ill after seeing them for an eye infection. So it's a very expensive trip to have them say nothing is wrong, and I don't really trust them. But, if he is having some sort of toxic shock I don't want to not take him in for something as silly as money. If he is ill, I always find the money to take him to the vet, but as I say I don't want to take him in if nothing is wrong, especially as the emergency vet is not very reliable. But I don't want to risk his life, either!

Anyone have any suggestions on what else I can check to see if it's worth it to take him in? I'd be grateful for any advice, he's my world and I can't lose him! Thank you!!
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