Oscar presented to us for persistent vomiting. He was bright, playful and running around like a lunatic, but every few hours he would stop and vomit.
When he was presented initially he was treated for gastroenteritis and sent home.

Unfortunately Oscar continued to vomit despite the medication he had received.
Oscar was a known scavenger - his way of exploring the world was through his mouth. A stomach or intestinal obstruction was suspected, so a survey x-ray of his abdomen was taken. (See first x-ray) This revealed no obvious changes.

He was then fed a meal of barium (x-ray contrast agent) and the plan was to take a repeat x-ray of his abdomen after several hours and again the next day to see whether the barium was moving through the gastrointestinal system in a normal way or not.

The next morning the repeat x-ray was taken to check on the passage of the barium – most had moved into the lower bowel, however there was a suspicious ring of barium that had not exited the stomach! (See second x-ray)

An exploratory abdominal surgery was performed. (See picture)

This revealed a foreign body in the stomach. It was a hair band that involved a 30cm long piece of elastic! This was causing an intestinal “linear foreign body” obstruction – one part of the foreign body gets anchored somewhere in the gastrointestinal system and the rest of the length of the foreign body passes along the intestinal tract. This can cause severe damage to the intestinal lining and eventually cause the intestines to “scrunch” up and stop working properly. If left untreated, this condition can lead to intestinal rupture.

During a lengthy surgery, the linear foreign body was carefully removed from Oscar’s gastrointestinal system. (See picture)

Oscar recovered without complication. He is now back to normal, bouncing around and leaping off the walls. The only reminders of the incident being an unusable, slightly digested hairband and a big scar on Oscar’s tummy!

Then again… chicks dig scars.... don’t they Oscar!