Veterinarian Dr. Karin Schlotterbeck explains:
It's a lovely autumn - storms sweep through the country, the wind blows through the fur and causes piles of leaves to grow. But it's not just leaves falling from the trees, acorns and chestnuts can also be lying on the ground at the moment - posing a potential danger to pets.
Puppies in particular devour anything that falls in front of them when they are excited. In the worst case, this can lead to an intestinal obstruction that requires surgery. For example, if a chestnut is swallowed whole or slightly chewed, major problems can arise in the intestinal tract - because the intestine is still small.
By the way, cats are not spared from intestinal obstruction, although this more often occurs due to toys or rubber bands, for example, and not to acorns and chestnuts.
If you see that your pet has swallowed a chestnut or something similar, you should go straight to the vet!
But of course you can't have your eyes everywhere when you go for a walk and when dogs in particular know that they aren't allowed to eat something, they become masters at the inconspicuous "quick sniff and quick swallow" of course the same applies to cats. So if you haven't seen If you have swallowed something large, you should pay attention to the typical symptoms of an intestinal obstruction.
These are: severe abdominal pain, apathy, vomiting, loss of appetite and a hard stomach. Your animal will tell you that something is wrong.
If these symptoms appear, you must consult your veterinarian or nearest veterinary clinic immediately. Here, an X-ray can be used to find out whether there is a foreign body and, if so, an unusually large amount of accumulated air in the intestine. If this is the case, this foreign body must definitely be removed during surgery. An untreated intestinal obstruction leads to the death of the animal.
