Precious - Penetrating foreign body

By: Colleen Nault, DVM

"Precious" is a 7-year-old, spayed female, mixed dog who presented to the Albuquerque Animal Emergency Clinic for a skin laceration on her chest wall.  Precious has a history of anxiety issues and had been on anxiety medications to help manage them.  She had been playing outside in a fenced yard and when the owner came home that evening, had noticed a cut on her chest wall.  On physical exam, Precious was difficult to evaluate due to her anxiety issues but was sedated for evaluation with the owner’s permission.  Once sedated, the wound was clipped and examined and appeared to be a superficial skin laceration.  

However, when the full exam was completed, it was noticed that a firm object was palpated on her abdominal examination.  An x-ray revealed a linear foreign object that appeared to penetrate into her abdomen.  Lab work was performed and no abnormalities were found.  The owner consented to exploratory surgery.  

On the abdominal exploratory surgery it was determined that the foreign body was a 12" piece of wood that had entered the wound found on the thoracic wall.  The piece of wood did not enter the thoracic cavity but had traveled under the skin and eventually penetrated the abdominal wall near the lower back region. Amazingly the piece of wood had lodged against the back muscles and did not damage any abdominal organs. The piece of wood was removed and the rest of the surgery was uneventful.  Precious made a full and complete recovery.  

The owner later realized the piece of wood was actually a piece of fence that Precious had run into while playing in the yard.  

Dr. Nault earned her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine degree from Louisiana State University in 1995.  Since then she has practiced in North Dakota, Vermont, Minnesota, and Oregon before eventually settling in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  She has been one of our emergency veterinarians at the Albuquerque Animal Emergency Clinic location since 2008. Dr. Nault is an outdoors enthusiast. While not practicing medicine, she can be found either mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, or involved in whatever sport intrigues her at the moment. She also enjoys spending time with her two dogs, her parrot, and her cat.