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16. Toy Dog
Alfie, a spaniel, nabbed a plastic dog from a young girl’s doll house and swallowed it down whole. After ceasing to eat or drink, Alfie’s owners went to the vet and were surprised to see the “dog-eat-dog” scenario. After some surgery to remove the toy, Alfie made a full recovery.
Since dogs don’t have hands and thumbs to pick up objects and inspect them, they often explore the world with their mouths – and end up ingesting some unusual objects.
To keep your pets safe, train them very early to only eat food from their bowls and keep areas where your dog has access clean and uncluttered. If you suspect your dog has swallowed a non-food item, take him to your veterinarian immediately, as the complications can be very dangerous and life threatening to your furry friends.
Has your dog ever eaten something he wasn’t supposed to? Tell us your stories about the weird things dogs eat in a comment below!
Jodie Gage
Feb 27, 2016 at 4:17 pm
My Sid loves to empty out the bin and eat tissue. He also is obsessed with melon! He has gone into the bin and eaten the seeds from a melon and I didn’t realise until his poop came out littered with melon seeds!
Andrea Rainey
Oct 2, 2013 at 7:00 pm
My pug, Chester bad habits of licking the floors and of knocking over wastebaskets and eating the contents. He started having small seizures, even though everything else seemed normal (his eating, etc.). His belly looked a little bloated, so off to the vet we went. The vet did an x-ray and couldn’t find anything so we went to Washington State University’s vet school for a possible MRI. Instead, they did an ultrasound of Chester’s stomach and found “a mass,” which turned out to be a 1.5lb hairball that was surgically removed and the vet school kept it “for teaching purposes”. The hairball (aka a trichobezoar) completely filled Chester’s stomach, and you could even see where the pylorus went. Several years later, he developed another hairball, so I cut my hair short and we’ve never had that problem again, even though he still licks the floors! I have his second hairball (which weighs quite a bit less because it dried out), it’s quite the conversation piece for those not squeamish!
Cannonball Jay
Oct 1, 2013 at 7:44 pm
My 1 1/2 year old black lab ate a futon! Yes a wood futon, chewed the legs right off.
willa
Sep 24, 2013 at 8:49 pm
We took our dog for a walk in a local park with nature trails. In the few seconds it took me to pick up her poop, I heard her start to lick something. I looked up to see what she was eating and saw that she had her face in a pile of previously unnoticed horse poop.
Renee
Sep 24, 2013 at 5:52 pm
my golden ate a light bulb. I have his x-ray. slit his tongue in 1/2 sideways, lost a ton of blood and pieces were stuck in his stomach for a while. luckily he was fine. a few stitches in his tongue and the rest came out fine through the other end. lesson learned….. a golden will eat anything in his path to get to chicken bones!
LD King
Sep 24, 2013 at 1:52 pm
As a puppy, my lab had a “hunger for the Word.” She chewed through 3 leather bound bibles (she’s partial to Deuteronomy and Psalms.)
Judi Darcy
Sep 23, 2013 at 10:43 pm
My son’s Great Dane ate an entire box of cornstarch (box & all), got the lid off a new jar of peanut butter & ate the entire contents, he ate a 5 lb bag of potatoes, several pairs of shoes, a pair of thong panties – among other things. Everything passed thru him.
Dayna
Sep 23, 2013 at 7:27 pm
My son’s dog has obliterated and eaten most of two love seats at my mother’s house.
Teresa
Feb 28, 2013 at 11:09 am
Our yellow lab/golden retriever mix ate a $50 bill. We thought we had lost it, but then when we did our backyard spring clean up we found pieces of it in different piles. Didn’t even try to piece it back together. Just laughed that one off.
Melissa
Jan 2, 2013 at 12:18 am
My 4 year old Labrador, started throwing up and showing signs of distress. We took him to the vet and after emergency surgery they removed a large (6 inch)
Kris
Apr 12, 2012 at 5:51 pm
My huskie/rottie mix is a druggie. she has eaten some flexerils, vicadins, Motrin, and sleeping pills. she has also ate 2lbs of m&m’s and a couple of cartons of chocolate covered marshmallow eggs. And yes, she is still alive and well.
Renee
Sep 24, 2013 at 5:56 pm
that’s too funny! I had a mixed breed dog that would never “steal” food except my caramel delights cookies from girl scouts. she lived until she was 11 1/2 and then got bone cancer. I would never recommend feeding chocolate to a dog but she also lived through it every year, lol!
krista jacobson
Feb 23, 2012 at 5:14 am
My lab mix has eaten a cell phone, remote, wall charger to the cell phone, CDs, a leather shoe and a pair of jeans. No surgery though. All came out. My greyhound puppy ate a whole bar of soap.