Linus ate a plastic bag!

TwoWhitePiggies

Post   » Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:37 am


Pigs eat poop plastic yet some fruits and veggies are suspect.

Tell me about it. Linus refused the grape tomato Jim offered, even though Tom devoured his.

I just squished through about 30 poops. Some of them seemed almost like they sparkled, but then maybe they always do that when they're fresh and I've just never studied them closely enough to appreciate the effect. Nothing blatant has come out yet, like a piece of plastic with the recycle symbol on it.

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JaneDoe

Post   » Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:41 am


Would an X-ray help?

TwoWhitePiggies

Post   » Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:45 am


Can you see clear bits of plastic on an x-ray?

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JaneDoe

Post   » Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:54 am


I don't know, I am not a vet or an X-ray tech. But it COULD show some blockages, I imagine.

TwoWhitePiggies

Post   » Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:03 am


I see your point about the blockages. So far he's pooping up a storm of normal sized and shaped poops, though.

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JaneDoe

Post   » Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:13 am


I would say that's a good sign. That's how it was with the boys and they did fine after that.

maremma

Post   » Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:47 pm


Not likely an xray will show the clear plastic unless it has begun to block him.

I used to put the babies snack in a huge plastic ziplock kind of bag to carry it into their room. I would then sit the bag up on the top of a cloth covered grid I use as a tent for the girls until I was done giving everyone meds that needs them.

It fell off the grid some how and I didn't hear it land next to Darty's pen until after I heard plastic russling and spun around to see Darty had managed to pull part of the bag into her pen, bit a hole through it to pull a piece of romaine in with her!

She knew she was being naughty too because she ran like her butt was on fire with the hunk of plastic and romaine and hid under her bed when she saw I turned around and could hear her!

Darty NEVER runs from me walking towards her and is one that loves to stand and be petted in her pen. She woofed it down faster than I could take it from her. I picked through all the shavings hoping to find the missing peice of plastic had been dropped before she grabbed the romaine. No suck luck.

She was so mad at me for a 4 days. She isn't my best drinker so I had to syringe a lot of water into her every day and she did not appreciate it one bit! She didn't much like the mineral oil either and gave me royal heck for that and a good hard pinch! I gave her mineral oil every day after a good fluid session until the plastic came out.

She would even nip at me when I reacehd in her pen as I was constantly in it to quick take all the poops out before she could re-eat the plastic if it happened to come out and that was a poop she chose to eat! I never saw her so mad in the entire time I have had her!

As for them chewing them well and making them tiny peices either Darty was rare, she was in way to big a hurry to bother to chew at all, that is not true or the thicker freezer bag plastic was not real chewable and she swallowed it whole anyway.

It took four days for it to come out and it was a whole piece when it finally did. She had a poop dragging behind her and when I picked her up there it was half in the poop dragging behind her and the other half still needing to be oiled well with a q-tip and mineral oil then gently pulled the rest of the way out with another poop at the other end of it. Once again she was NOT amused and nipped me a good one!

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JaneDoe

Post   » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:15 am


After the scare Lightning gave me I said to him "let this be a lesson to you." The vet said "their short term memory isn't what you hope it would be."

>sigh<

TwoWhitePiggies

Post   » Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:04 am


I squished through many more poops. He's kicking out perfectly perfect poop. I didn't catch any pieces of plastic yet. He and Tom are both eating tons of hay and drinking plenty of water.

I'm thinking it's possible, if he nibbled on it on and off for a few hours, that there may not be a big piece, just lots of little bits of plastic.

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JaneDoe

Post   » Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:06 am


That could be. As I am not a vet, I can't tell you much about their GI tracts. I know hydrocholric acid in human stomachs can dissolve a lot.

maremma

Post   » Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:23 am


I'm sorry you haven't found the plastic yet. Since your baby wasn't in any particular hurry to scarf it down before you could take it from him perhaps he did bite it to tiny, tiny bits before he got it to his back teeth or swallowed it. I could see tiny pieces being very hard to find even if/when they did poop it out.

Are their back teeth really really sharp or more dull like ours? I delibrately tore off a peice of plastic bag and tried to chew it with my own teeth to see if our back teeth were capable of tearing it to bits without any further help from the front sharper teeth. It didn't tear apart very well. It was more like chewing gum and it just balled up for me to spit it back out. If their back teeth are more flat and dull like ours I would think he had to either swallow it whole or he spit it out and you missed it in the shavings.

Since he is such a good eater for you it maybe it was quite well wrapped in hay when it went through him and he pooped it out before you started looking for it? Wasn't it a day or two between the time he ate it and you began looking for it?

TwoWhitePiggies

Post   » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:31 pm


Have you ever had a mouse in your house, and seen the little bitty tooth marks a bag of rice, with just a few pieces missing? That's what Linus's handiwork looked like.

Linus ate his plastic on Wednesday. Maybe it's all gone? Our vet said that it might take a few days to get kicked out.

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