A 3.5-year-old, 52-lb, spayed Labrador retriever mix presented because of being impaled with a stick. While playing fetch with the owners, the dog jumped to catch the stick but instead landed on an end of it when it “bounced” off the ground. The stick entered the left side of the dog’s chest (FIGURE 1), producing a slight pneumothorax, as shown on a thoracic radiograph (FIGURE 2). The stick had penetrated the chest cavity, missing the heart and all lung tissue and stopping at the diaphragm. Despite the injury, the patient was surprisingly stable and was taken immediately to surgery. The stick was removed, the chest cavity lavaged, and a chest tube placed (FIGURE 3). The patient recovered uneventfully and went home 2 days later (FIGURE 4). She had no clue how lucky she was but was probably upset when she could no longer play with her favorite “toy.”
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3. The chest tube (blue arrow) and Penrose drain (white arrow).
Figure 4
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Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Dogs
