Is it possible to swallow a golf ball

A dog needed life-saving surgery after swallowing a golf ball while walking near his local course. Pongo the Dalmatian was only X-rayed by vets when he was taken for treatment for a urine infection. But the scan discovered there was something more serious causing him problems.

Pongo was rushed for an emergency operation to remove the ball, which vets say could have killed him if it had moved and caused a blockage. Invert Colors.

Remove Animations. Remove styles. Lights Off. Reset Settings. Accessibility by WAH. The answer is no, he won't be able to pass a golf ball. Dogs do explore the world with their mouths, something they start when they are born, when their eyes aren't even open. If they swallow a foreign object, occasionally it will stay in the stomach itself for a while even a very long while.

In the stomach, unless it leeches out a toxin, the only problem it causes is intermittent vomiting, when it temporarily obstructs the gastric outlet into the bowel. The main problem occurs when a huge gastric contraction occurs and forces the object into the small intestine. This organ is nowhere near as distensible as the stomach, and objects get stuck. This changes the situation almost instantly into a surgical emergency.

I have seen dogs die very quickly when obstructed, so can never feel comfortable not acting very urgently indeed. We performed a laparotomy where a large incision was made in the abdomen to access and expose the stomach, followed by a gastrotomy an incision made in the stomach to remove the foreign object. Once the surgery was finished Coppa was moved to recovery where he was monitored closely by the nurses to make sure he recovered without complications.

That night we offered Coppa a small bland meal which he happily ate and the next morning he was discharged from hospital. The nurses stayed in touch with his owners and 10 days later at his suture removal appointment they reported that Coppa had made a full recovery and was back to his old self. Unfortunately dogs and cats sometimes eat foreign objects that are not able to be digested and may cause an obstruction or damage to the gastrointestinal tract resulting in serious consequences if they are not removed.

Skip to main content.