Lani presented to us with a sore throat, coughing and just not being quite herself. She had a few days prior eaten a raw, frozen chicken foot. She thought this treat was delicious and ate it very quickly!
Lani was admitted for further diagnostics as there was concerns that she had either got a oesophageal foreign body (where a piece of bone or cartilage was lodged in her oesophagus), Oesophagitis (inflammation of the Oesophagus) or also aspiration pneumonia from hoovering down the chicken foot too quickly.
Lani came into the hospital and had a full blood profile and chest radiographs. We wanted to check Lani’s inflammatory markers on her bloods as well as how her organs were going. We also were interested in checking her white blood cells as this can indicate an infection. Thankfully Lani’s blood results come back mostly normal with just a slightly elevated inflammatory marker. We were able to rule out problems with her kidneys, liver and pancreas.
After we received back the blood results we performed a chest radiograph to rule out a large oesophageal foreign body. If there was a Oesophageal foreign body including a piece of bone then this would have showed up on her X-rays. Fortunately for Lani, there was nothing seen on the X-ray to indicate a large piece of bone lodged in her Oesophagus. This unfortunately cannot rule out Oseophagitis or small fragments of bone as this would not show up on the radiograph.
After much discussion with Lani’s pawrents, it was elected for Dr Belinda to do a Gastrope with our Endoscope. This can ensure we rule out any bone fragments that may be lodged or also any inflammation or ulcers present.
Lani’s chest radiograph to rule help rule out esophageal obstruction
Lani’s elevated blood results – inflammatory marker
Once Lani was anesthetized for the procedure, Dr Belinda passed the endoscope down into Lani’s oesophagus. This gave us a good view of what was happening for Lani. The chicken foot she had so hastily ingested had scratched her throat causing ulcers in her oesophagus. Fortunately for Lani that was all that was found and there were no lodged fragments of bone.
Lani got discharged the same day and went home with some medications for pain relief and to help the ulcers heal.
We are very happy to say that Lani is feeling alot better and is back to her normal self.