Dogs Eat the Strangest Things, but Why?

Nov. 10, 2010— -- Breakfast may be Fido's favorite meal of the day, but don't think his eating habits are limited to food. The assortment of non-food objects ingested by family pets is astounding.

In my 25-year career as a veterinarian, I've seen some pretty incredible things including: an entire set of Happy Meal Toy Story figurines removed from the stomach of a vomiting dog; a large (and I mean large) kitchen knife accidentally lodged in a dog's esophagus as a result of his wolfing down an entire chocolate cake that was left on the kitchen counter; and the critically ill dog who really liked Billy Joel's "The Stranger," on cassette tape.

It is easy to see how a dog might eat the first two on this list, since they both were associated with food. But I still can't understand how -- or why -- these items were appealing to the dog.

I recently talked to some of my colleagues at The Animal Medical Center (AMC) to find out what other unusual items had been discovered inside their patients. My unscientific survey of the AMC staff proved dogs are not fussy when it comes to what they will eat. The list will boggle your mind and you too will have to wonder what these pets were thinking as they munched away.

AMC veterinarians reported underwear as a repeating theme in the realm of dog foreign object ingestion. No family member's undies were exempt from consumption. AMC veterinarians described removing a bra and panty set, panty hose, boxers, briefs and even a diaper or two. Socks were the runner-up clothing items on our list.

Sometimes, the story of a dog eating something strange became a bigger problem than simply extracting the object. Take for example an engagement ring consumed by a dog who was brought into the AMC more than ten years ago. The AMC veterinarian carefully explained that an x-ray would identify the setting, but the diamond would be invisible since diamonds do not show up on x-rays. To the bride-to-be's relief, the ER doctors were able to identify the ring on the x-rays of the dog's stomach. Much to the groom-to-be's chagrin, we also diagnosed cubic zirconium.