- Eliot Kaplan, DVM -


Every year several dogs are seen at my veterinary hospital with a common injury seen from chasing after a stick. The dogs are usually presented the day of the injury or shortly thereafter. The history is always the same. Someone was throwing the dog sticks to fetch...usually sticks that were light and thin. All of a sudden the dog yelps and presents to the owner with the stick protruding from the mouth. Instinctively, the owner pulls the stick out of the mouth and notices blood on the tip of the stick.

When the dog is presented to a veterinarian, the dog is often a bit lethargic and not eager to eat. When the veterinarian checks the mouth closely, a laceration under the tongue is usually found. When a case such as this is presented to me, I place it under full anesthetic so I can have a thorough look in the mouth. Once the laceration is found, I usually explore it thoroughly because in many cases, I find pieces of the stick that were broken off and still present deep in the wound. Once I am convinced no pieces of the stick remain, I flush the wound and suture it up.

Unfortunately, I have seen cases in which the veterinarian thought that all pieces of the stick were recovered but was mistaken. This was not the fault of the veterinarian but due to the fact that the fragments may have been small and pushed very deep into the wound. These dogs are then presented with draining abscesses usually located on their necks. In each case, the abscess is surgically explored by a veterinarian and with great effort, the rest of the stick fragments are usually found. However, I have seen cases where two additional surgeries were needed to find all the stick fragments. This puts the patient through quite a lot of surgery and the owner through a lot of expense. It would be much easier on all parties to prevent such an injury.

This does not mean owners should not play fetch with their dogs. However, there are enough safe, commercially made items sold for this purpose. Sticks should be avoided.

2006-10