An intestinal blockage in dogs is an emergency. If your dog is vomiting more than once, can't keep water down, has a sore belly or has stopped pooping, call your vet or the nearest emergency clinic now. The same goes if you saw them swallow string, a sock, a corn cob or part of a toy, even if they seem fine.
Most dogs do well when the object comes out quickly. The longer it sits, the more damage it does.
Signs of Intestinal Blockage in Dogs
Call now if your dog has any of these:
- Vomiting more than once, or vomiting after every attempt to eat or drink
- Can't keep water down
- Belly pain: guarding the belly, or growling or snapping when you touch it
- No poop, or straining and passing only small amounts
- Weakness, lethargy or collapse
- A swollen belly
- You saw them swallow something risky, such as string, a sock, a corn cob or part of a toy, even if they seem fine
Many dogs also stop eating, get diarrhea (sometimes with blood) or become dehydrated. The signs depend on where the object is, how much of the gut it blocks and how long it has been there. Vomiting can be less obvious when the blockage is far down the small intestine.
At first, a blockage can look like an ordinary upset stomach, which is exactly why it gets missed. If the vomiting doesn't settle and your dog chews things, let your vet decide.
A swollen belly can also mean bloat (GDV), and sudden bloody diarrhea with vomiting can be HGE. The response is the same: call now.
Found a String? Don't Pull It
If you see string, thread, yarn or ribbon caught under your dog's tongue, do not pull it. The Merck Veterinary Manual is clear that a string in the mouth "must never be pulled."
String is a "linear foreign body". One end often gets stuck, at the base of the tongue or in the stomach, while the rest is carried down the intestine. The gut bunches up along it like fabric on a drawstring, and the string can cut through the intestinal wall. Gut contents then leak into the belly, causing peritonitis (infection and inflammation of the belly lining) and sepsis.
The same reasoning applies to string hanging from your dog's rear end: don't pull it, call your vet. A string under the tongue is easy to miss, so tell the vet if your dog has had access to thread, yarn, fabric or sewing needles.
What to Do Right Now
- Call your vet or the nearest emergency clinic. Say what your dog swallowed (or might have), roughly when, and what signs you see.
- Don't make your dog vomit at home. The ASPCA warns that inducing vomiting at home can be dangerous. Bringing some objects back up is a decision for the clinic, done in the clinic.
- Don't give anything to "push it through." No oil, laxatives, extra fiber, bread or other home remedies. They only delay treatment. Give nothing by mouth unless your vet tells you to.
- Bring the evidence. The packaging, the other sock or the chewed toy helps the vet know what to look for. Mention anything that has gone missing at home.
- Go when they tell you to go. Waiting at home to see if it passes is not a safe plan.
What Is an Intestinal Blockage?
An intestinal blockage (also called a bowel obstruction or gastrointestinal obstruction) happens when something stops food and fluid from moving through the stomach or intestines. It can be partial, where some material still gets past, or complete. Large, round objects often block completely; string and small objects more often cause a partial blockage.
Most blockages in dogs are caused by a swallowed object, called a foreign body. Less often the cause is a tumor in the gut wall or intussusception, where one part of the intestine slides into the next like a telescope.
Behind the blockage, fluid and gas build up. The dog vomits, gets dehydrated, and its salts (electrolytes) go out of balance. Pressure from the object can starve part of the gut wall of blood until it dies or tears. Once the gut leaks, peritonitis and sepsis follow, and the dog can go into shock. That chain is why time matters so much.
What Dogs Swallow: The Usual Culprits
The same culprits turn up again and again:
- Toys and balls, or pieces of them
- Socks, underwear, dish towels and other fabric
- Rocks
- Corn cobs
- Bones
- Sticks
- Leashes
- String, yarn, ribbon and thread (the most dangerous group)
- Trash
Some metal objects, such as older pennies or lead, can also poison a dog on top of blocking the gut.
Young dogs are more likely to swallow things, and the Merck Veterinary Manual notes that young, large-breed dogs are overrepresented. Dogs with pica (the urge to eat non-food items) are at higher risk too.
Where Objects Get Stuck
A swallowed object can lodge anywhere from the food pipe to the colon:
- Esophagus (the food pipe): removed through the mouth with an endoscope or, if that fails, with chest surgery.
- Stomach: many objects sit here first, and some can be retrieved without opening the belly.
- Small intestine: where most blockages turn up. In a UK study of dogs and cats, 63% of the dogs' obstructions were in the jejunum, the long middle section of the small intestine.
- Colon (the large intestine): an object here can still cause signs, and vets often remove it with an endoscope.
Where Is a Dog's Stomach?
A dog's stomach sits mostly on the left side of the front part of the belly, just behind the liver. When it is full it stretches toward the right, and its outflow end leads into the first part of the small intestine (the duodenum) on the right side.
How Vets Diagnose a Blockage
Your vet starts with the history (what your dog could have eaten, when signs began) and an exam, gently feeling the belly for pain or a mass. Then come tests:
- Bloodwork checks for dehydration, electrolyte problems and infection, and helps rule out other causes of vomiting.
- X-rays show dense objects such as metal, stones and bone well. Fabric and many plastics don't show up directly, so vets also look for stretched, gas-filled loops of intestine or bunched-up gut.
- Contrast X-rays, where the dog swallows a liquid that shows up on film, can outline an object that plain X-rays miss.
- Ultrasound can show the object, fluid-filled loops of gut and intussusception. CT is used in some cases.
When tests are inconclusive but the signs still point to a blockage, your vet may recommend exploratory surgery, which confirms and fixes the problem in one procedure.
Treatment: Endoscopy or Surgery?
Treatment starts with stabilizing your dog: intravenous (IV) fluids, plus medicines for nausea and pain as your vet decides. What comes next depends on the object, where it sits, how long it has been there and how sick your dog is.
Option | When vets use it |
|---|---|
Vomiting induced at the clinic | Some recently swallowed objects still in the stomach that are safe to bring back up |
Watching it pass, in hospital | Small, smooth objects that aren't causing a full blockage; the vet repeats X-rays and keeps the dog on fluids |
Objects in the esophagus or stomach that a camera and grabber can reach, under general anesthesia | |
Surgery | Objects in the intestines, string, a blockage that is getting worse, an object that isn't moving, or when other options fail |
Endoscopy passes a flexible tube with a camera and a small grabber through the mouth while the dog is under general anesthesia. It reaches the esophagus and stomach, but not most of the small intestine, and it is not used for string.
Surgery is how most intestinal blockages are treated. The vet opens the belly, checks the whole digestive tract and removes the object through a cut in the stomach (gastrotomy) or the intestine (enterotomy). If part of the intestine is already dead or torn, that section is removed and the healthy ends are stitched back together (resection and anastomosis). String more often needs this, because it can damage a long stretch of gut.
Recovery After Blockage Surgery
Most dogs stay in the hospital for a few days on IV fluids. They go home once they are eating on their own. Eating early helps the gut heal, but how and what to feed is your vet's call.
At home, follow your vet's feeding and activity plan exactly, protect the incision with a cone or whatever your vet recommends, and give only the medicines your vet prescribed.
The riskiest window is the first few days. The stitched gut can leak (dehiscence), most often 3 to 5 days after surgery, which causes peritonitis and usually means a second surgery. Low blood protein before surgery raises that risk. A slow gut (ileus) and narrowing at the repair (stricture) are other possible complications.
Call your vet right away if, after surgery, your dog:
- Is lethargic or weak
- Stops eating or eats less
- Vomits
- Seems feverish or in pain
- Has drainage from the incision
- Has a swollen belly
Outlook: Do Dogs Recover?
Most do, especially when the blockage is caught early. The American College of Veterinary Surgeons calls the prognosis after foreign body surgery "usually quite good," and Merck ties a good outcome to quick treatment.
Two studies put numbers on it:
- At a UK first-opinion hospital (Hayes, 2009), 94% of dogs with a solid object recovered, compared with 80% of dogs with string or another linear object.
- At a US referral hospital (Hobday et al., 2014, 499 dogs), dogs with string were sicker and more often had damaged gut, yet 96% of dogs in both groups went home.
What makes the outlook worse: signs that have gone on longer, string, gut that has already died or leaked, and surgery on several parts of the intestine.
Preventing Another Blockage
Some dogs swallow things repeatedly, and every repeat belly surgery carries more risk:
- Keep socks, underwear, towels, string, yarn and small toys out of reach.
- Choose toys too big to swallow and take away any that are breaking apart.
- Don't give bones, and use a dog-proof trash can.
- When you can't supervise, use a crate or a room with nothing your dog can swallow.
- Teach "leave it" and "drop it."
- For a dog that keeps eating things, ask your vet about basket muzzle training.
Questions Owners Ask
How long after eating something do signs show?
There is no fixed timeline; it depends on what was swallowed and where it gets stuck. Waiting costs more than it seems: in the UK study, dogs whose signs had gone on longer were more likely to die. If you know your dog swallowed something risky, call your vet now rather than waiting for signs.
Can a dog still poop with a blockage?
Yes. With a partial blockage some material still gets past, so your dog may pass small amounts of stool or have diarrhea. Seeing poop does not rule out a blockage. Our dog poop color chart explains what normal and worrying poop look like, and our guide to constipation in dogs covers straining without a blockage.
Can a blockage pass on its own?
Sometimes a small, smooth object passes. But your vet decides whether that is safe, and the dog is watched in hospital with repeat X-rays and fluids, ready for surgery if the object stops moving. String is never a "wait and see" problem.
Questions to Ask Your Vet
- Where is the object, and is the blockage partial or complete?
- Can it come out without surgery?
- What should I feed after surgery, and when can my dog be active again?
- My dog keeps eating things: would basket muzzle training or a behavior consult help?
Originally written by Akosua Kumi Nyarko. Updated by the I Love Veterinary editorial team.
Sources
- Merck Veterinary Manual: Gastrointestinal Obstruction in Small Animals
- Merck Veterinary Manual (Pet Owner Version): Disorders of the Stomach and Intestines in Dogs
- Merck Veterinary Manual (Pet Owner Version): Disorders of the Mouth in Dogs
- Cornell Riney Canine Health Center: Gastrointestinal Foreign Body Obstruction in Dogs
- American College of Veterinary Surgeons: Gastrointestinal Foreign Bodies
- Hayes 2009, J Small Anim Pract: Gastrointestinal foreign bodies in dogs and cats, 208 cases
- Hobday et al. 2014, J Small Anim Pract: Linear versus non-linear gastrointestinal foreign bodies in 499 dogs
- ASPCA: Is It Ever Safe to Induce Vomiting?
- VCA Animal Hospitals: Foreign Bodies in Dogs
- Huynh and Berry, Today's Veterinary Practice: Ultrasonography of the Gastrointestinal Tract, Stomach, Duodenum and Jejunum
This article is for general information and is not a substitute for advice from your veterinarian.
