In the late summer of 1996 we examined Sadie, a four-year old Vizsla who had refused all food and treats for four days. Sadie was drinking normally and there was no vomiting or anything else abnormal about her. The physical exam and the blood tests we did were normal. She was active and healthy. We questioned the owner extensively about the possibility of Sadie's ingestion of something unusual, but he was emphatic that she was on a leash whenever she was outside. We asked the owner to take Sadie home and entice her with her favorite treats.

The owner came back the next morning reporting that Sadie had refused a cheeseburger, beef jerky, peanut butter cookies, chicken broth, and some mashed potatoes and gravy! Again, our physical exam revealed a healthy, active Vizsla so again we took x-rays, which were again normal. Our next step was a barium series, in which the dog drinks liquid barium and we take x-rays over eight hours to plot its course through the gastrointestinal tract. Barium is radiopaque; that is, it appears as an easily seen light area on x-rays. Generally the barium will stop moving at any obstruction along the GI tract. Sadies barium passed through her entire GI tract with no abnormalities. She went home to another night of tempting treats, but was back again the next day. At that point the already thin Vizsla had lost two pounds, so we did another round of blood tests: perfectly normal. Our next course of action was exploratory surgery. An exploratory surgery is a diagnostic procedure and can be done on any area of the body. Abdominal exploratories are the most common. It turned out that this procedure might well have saved Sadie's life.

The exploratory revealed a mass in her small intestine, and when we opened the intestine we found a peach pit! The pit had absorbed a lot of moisture, which made it similar in density to the intestinal walls - therefore it did not show up on the x-rays. Also, it had not yet formed a complete obstruction and allowed liquids (including the barium) to pass through normally. The sharp point of the pit had nearly cut through the delicate intestinal wall. A serious, possibly fatal infection called peritonitis would have been the result if the pit had punctured the intestine.

The foreign body (the pit) was either causing Sadie pain or solid food made her nauseated, thus accounting for her lack of appetite. Her behavior was a typical response to a complete or incomplete intestinal obstruction. We removed the peach pit, completed the surgery and sent Sadie home the next day. That night at home she would have eaten an entire supermarket if the owner had let her!