Dog Choking

July 9, 2016

Dogs explore the world with their mouths, and most of the time that curiosity is harmless. But it also means that small objects — golf balls, chunks of bone or rawhide, small parts of children's toys — can end up lodged in a dog's throat. True choking is not the same as an ordinary cough or a bout of gagging: a choking dog cannot move air properly, and that makes it a life-threatening emergency where minutes matter.

The single most important piece of advice in this article is simple: if you think your dog is choking, call the nearest veterinary clinic or emergency hospital and head there immediately. Everything below is about what you can safely do on the way — not a substitute for veterinary care.

Recognize the signs:

A choking dog usually shows sudden, extreme distress. Watch for:

1. Pawing frantically at the mouth or face.

2. Loud, laboured attempts to breathe — high-pitched squeaking or wheezing, or no sound at all.

3. Gums or tongue turning blue or grey.

4. Panic, staggering, or collapse.

A dog that is coughing forcefully is at least moving some air — that still deserves a prompt call to your veterinarian, but a dog that truly cannot breathe needs emergency help right now.

This is an emergency — get to a vet:

Call ahead so the clinic can prepare, and go straight there. If someone else is with you, one person drives while the other stays with the dog. Do not spend precious minutes at home trying repeated home remedies — veterinary teams have the sedation, instruments, and oxygen that actually resolve an obstruction safely.

What you can safely do:

1. Stay calm and restrain your dog gently. A choking dog is panicking, and even the sweetest dog may bite in that state.

2. Open the mouth and look. If you can clearly see the object and it is easy to grasp, remove it with your fingers.

3. Never do a blind finger sweep. Feeling around in the throat for something you cannot see can push the object deeper or injure the delicate tissues. Be aware that dogs have small bones at the base of the tongue that panicked owners sometimes mistake for a foreign object — another reason not to pull at anything you cannot identify.

4. Never probe the throat with a spoon, spatula, tweezers, or any other tool. Improvised instruments cause serious injury and rarely help.

5. Never shake, swing, or hold your dog upside down to dislodge an object. This old advice can injure the dog and wastes time you should be using to get to the vet.

6. If you cannot see and easily remove the object, go — immediately. Techniques such as chest or abdominal thrusts for a dog that truly cannot breathe do exist, but they are easy to get wrong and can cause harm; the general veterinary consensus is that they should be learned hands-on, in a pet first-aid course or from your veterinarian, not improvised from a written description in the middle of an emergency.

Medical assistance:

Even if the object comes out at home, your dog still needs to be seen by a veterinarian. Choking can leave behind throat swelling, cuts or bruising, and there is a risk that material was inhaled into the airway. At the clinic, the team can safely examine the throat (under sedation if needed), remove a stubborn obstruction with proper instruments or bronchoscopy, provide oxygen, and treat any damage. Dogs that stopped breathing may need CPR and intensive care — all the more reason to be at a clinic, not at home.

Prevention:

The best choking emergency is the one that never happens. Choose toys and balls sized for your dog — nothing small enough to slip behind the tongue. Skip cooked bones, take away rawhide chews once they soften into swallowable chunks, keep small household objects and children's toy parts out of reach, and supervise enthusiastic chewers. Teaching a reliable "drop it" cue is one of the most useful safety skills a dog can have. If you are ever unsure whether a chew or toy is safe for your dog, ask your veterinarian.