Help...she ate fabric...

Sorry -- I didn't see this.  AT this point just watch her.  The signs of obstruction are both failure to be able to poop AND vomiting everything she eats or drinks.  Usually takes 12 to 36 hours (depending on where the blockage occurs).  She likely will pass it. 

I would just watch her closely.  I've known some dogs who routinely eat entire socks. 

A year ago Sydney ate a good size piece of sheet that was covering the table a tree was on. He is a big dog.  We didn't notice he had eaten it right away (it was on the back side), but he started getting lethargic, and not wanting to eat, and not being able to poop.  Bradley took him to the vet and the obstruction was there.  We waited and it did pass (wasn't pretty), and he was fine.  But I would watch for any unusual signs, if you see any take her to the vet immediately.

 

Best wishes. for you and Rory.

 I know a dog who swallowed a latex glove, whole, and was totally fine...but I agree that if she starts acting in any way that isn't normal for her, it's time for the vet. 

 Dingo, my BFs blue heeler eats holes in clothes when hes anxious and he has always passed them.

Well we were probably stupid and took her to the all nite vet. They induced vomiting and got it out. I wanted to do it at home with peroxide, but I got scared. I was scared to leave it, scared to take her in, scared to make her vomit. So DH just took her in. It was a long stressful nite, at one point I called to see what was going on and they said she was staying over nite and would possibly need surgery. I was like WTF? The lady wouldnt put my husband on the line and I wanted to tell him to just come home and we'll see if it would pass but I guess she was wrong and the vet knew since it was fabric, it would still be in her tummy (this happened at 1030 and she didnt get seen til 1am.. it was packed), so they had her vomit. DH got home around 230. That was an expensive pair of undies, let me tell ya. Everyone I know has already told me that she would have been fine cuz their dogs when they were kids always ate underwear and were fine. And maybe she would have but we did what we felt would make us feel better. So shes home and is fine and is snoozing in bed with dad... we're going to work late today.

 I'm glad she's doing well.  Its nice that she has you to watch out for her and notice things like this.

Onyx is one of those dogs that routinely eats socks.  She has an affinity for baby socks in particular and is the queen of stealth at getting them.  Most of the time I don't know about it until it comes out the other end.  But I do watch both of my dogs eating a pooping habits quite closely so I would know if something were wrong.

jenn52

I was scared to leave it, scared to take her in, scared to make her vomit.

Please, please try to get over the fear of making her vomit.  Hydrogen peroxide is not going to hurt her and, if she ever swallows something poisonous, making her vomit quickly could save her life. 

This is especially important now that so many "sugar-free" foods contain Xylitol.

I'm sure glad she is OK!! 

I found one of my gardening gloves on the living room floor, minus all the fingers.  Wonder who did that?  Over the course of the week doing the poop scoop I found all the fingers in separate little piles in the yard. If nothing else, a glove finger keeps the poop in a neat, easy to pick up shape.

Joyce

My Rory ate a whole hat one time excluding the bill. It was odd too see a MLB label in her poop, LOL but I just kept a eye on her

Sequoyah ate an American flag when she was a puppy (small one, only about 3x4 inches).  She was home with Mike all day, and I didn't know she had eaten it until she pooped red, white and blue.

 

When you own a hound, you need to be prepared to not be squeamish about inducing vomiting.  But, do learn when to do it.  With some poisons, you don't want to do that.  With others, time is of the essence, as Janet said. 

I kept searching the internet about the peroxide thing and everywhere call the vet first.  And then I read if you make them puke, it could get stuck in their throat and then they could stop breathing.  So I was nervous.  I think for poison or something I wouldnt have as much hestitation.  All I wanted to do was call Callie, but being in the middle of the night, I spared her...LOL!

What can happen is that if you have them vomit the wrong thing, it can cause more damage coming up than it has the potential to do just going straight through.  Underwear could have fallen into that category if the elastic jammed somewhere, or as you say the dog could have gone into distress, inhaled vomit, and then you'd have a real emergency situation.

So you were right to call the vet.  And you didn't waste your money taking your dog in.  You had the best possible outcome (well, other than your dog immediately upchucking the undies right away so you didn't worry at all), but there were many scenarios that would have required the vet's intervention.

The receptionist has to describe the worst possible scenario, so you are prepared.  Like when I brought Lynn to the vet with all the signs of parvo.  They showed me a quote that included two weeks of specialized hospital care (they don't charge over that, no matter how long the dog is there), all the meds she might need, and one parvo test.  I added a parvo test when the first was negative (that one was negative too), but other than that I knew what the worst could be - about $1100.  It turned out to be only $550 and she was out in four days, thank goodness.  But imagine if the vet didn't prepare someone for the worst case scenario.

There are many times that it's fine to administer an emetic at home (if you don't have peroxide, salt on the back of the tongue works too).  But unless you have prior experience with the exact circumstances, call your vet or poison control first.  Zhi loves raisins but they are poisonous to dogs!  I've had to make her upchuck raisins and grapes so many times that she goes running when I get the salt out while cooking.  So in that case I know what to do. 

But, another time I had a dog eat 100 tablets of vitamin B.  Upchuck, yes or no?  The answer was no!  B is very irritating and the vet didn't want to risk damage to the esophogus.  B is water soluble and gone from the body in hours, and tolerable up to levels of thousands of times over the recommended daily allowance.  So she simply had me give him plenty to drink and watch him carefully.