Snickers ate glass shards....

Vasoline!!!   Tons of Vasoline!
 
Years ago, I had a dog that got mad everytime I walked out and would steal things and chew them up and eat a lot of it.   One day I had 2 packages of single edge razor blades, each package contained 5 blades. I put them on my dinning room table by the centerpiece, and ran to another store.  Sammy took both packages while I was gone and chewed them all to pieces. I was horrified. I had no idea how much she actually swallowed.   The vet said to buy the largest jar of vasoline that I could find and feed her as much as she will eat of it, to coat her insides. Then told me to feed her food. The thought that the vasoline will grease up her insides and let anything slide out easier, and the food to help absorb any small pieces she might have swallowed.   I did it and everything was fine.

Ummm did you mix the vasoline with anything?
Snickers is so finicky... I've heard the suggestions of vaseline and cotton balls but I haven't a clue how to get her to EAT them!
Maybe I can mix vaseline in with wet food? She might eat some of that...
this is a dog that doesn't eat if she's not hungry.

No, I did not mix it with anything. I went and got my neighbor to help me  because I figured I would have trouble getting it down her throat,,figured someone would have to hold her and someone feed it to her.   DH took a hike, said "its your dog!"  I got the big jar, I mean BIG,, the kind you might buy when you bring a brand new baby home.       Believe it or not, she LOVED LOVED LOVED it, and lapped up almost the whole jar, and then I fed her.   They said she would have the runs after that so I should put down papers and make sure to get her outside a lot, but she didn't. No problems!

Yikes!  Poor Snickers.  Karen, here is the procedure for using cotton balls:
[linkhttp://www.food4pets.com/cottonballs.htm]http://www.food4pets.com/cottonballs.htm[/link]

Just talked to the vet...Ideally they'd like to xray her, but they have no appointments. They said to not to feed her vaseline because it could cause harm if that upset her stomach and caused the shards to come up again. We are to watch her carefully for pain in the abdomen, whimpering, bloody stools etc and if any of that happens to bring her to emergency immediately. They said we need to watch her for the next 24-48 hours.

The cotton balls soaked in heavy whipping cream WORKS!!!
 
Please get it into your dog...the cotton wraps around the glass allowing it to pass safely through the intestines

What do I do.. the vet told me not to do that ... ok this is stressful I don't want to do something they told me not to, but it seems everyone thinks I should....

Ok... I'm going to go out and get the stuff.. I'm just so uncomfortable doing something the vet told me not to do but if it's going to help Snickers...

Karen, I'm sure it is stressful, I'd feel the same way if my Vet was telling me one thing and I was reading something else online.  I don't have personal experience with cotton balls, I've just read about it numerous times. 
 
I guess if I were in this situation, I'd either do the cotton balls or else I'd get them in somewhere right away.  I don't think I'd be able to wait it out.  It seems to me that if Snickers starts having pain and/or blood, then by that point it's going to be kind of serious.  Sorry...I'm probably not making you feel any better.

Karen, I don't know if you read the link I sent...but be sure to buy REAL cotton balls.  You don't want to use the puffs that have man-made fiber in them.

Isn't bread supposed to work in the same way as cotton balls?

Hi Outdoorschik,

I can tell you what MY vet told me with my 50 lb dog when he swallowed a bone.  He told me to try the cotton balls.  He said they work better for glass shards and staples but to try it for the bone.  He told me to give my 50 lb dog 3 cotton balls ( no more because that could cause an impaction on its own) he also had me give laxatone ( which is the same as Vaseline).  He also had me to up his fiber in hopes to move everything through his system.  This did not work for the bone, he ended up digesting the bone.  But the cotton came out just fine without impaction.

Check with your vet again,  if he told you not to do it I don't think I would since he knows the specifics... but it may be worth running it by him again, also asking for another xray. 

My vet said this system with the cotton balls is not very popular with vets, but he had me do it because he had personally seen it work for staples. 
The one thing I was very worried about was him throwing up, I didn't want him to throw up anything sharp... so just make sure whatever you do you don't upset his system too much... vomiting glass would be BAD!

I hope everything turns out OK, keep us posted!

also if you do use cotton... make sure you use REAL cotton.  It has to be 100% pure cotton!

ORIGINAL: marty_ga

Isn't bread supposed to work in the same way as cotton balls?

 
I was told the difference is that bread is digestible the cotton isn't.  So you hope that the cotton will wrap around the chards and cushion the glass as it makes its way through the dogs system.

well I did it...
She ate three pieces of 100% cotton ball (they were "triple sized so i ripped them up into halves) dipped in whipping cream...
Now to wait...
i didn't call the vet back b/c they were just going to tell me the same thing (it was a tech i talked to who conversed with the vets there and I don't know if they even talked to my regular vet that I trust anyway)
i figure my dogs have passed plenty of stringy/cottony stuff when they destroyed rope of toys so cotton couldn't hurt.
i was shocked that she ate it since she is so finicky but Imade a big deal of acting excited and that is was something "really special" I was giving her lol.
The worst thing this could do is impact which I don't think I gave her too much for that... she's 48 pounds. or make her vomit, but that seems unlikely.