Penetrating pharyngeal foreign body in a 5-year-old Labrador mix

Abstract

A 5-year-old male castrated Labrador mix presented to Cornell’s Emergency Service for an acute onset of pain and lethargy following a period of unsupervised outdoor activity. The owner was suspicious of a wooden foreign body due to a hard mass palpable at the point of the right shoulder and something possibly visible in the pharynx. On presentation, no foreign body was visible on oral or laryngoscopic exam, though an object was palpable on the right side of the neck. A CT scan revealed a large foreign body extending obliquely from the soft palate at the level of the occipital condyles to the level of the fourth cervical vertebra, ending in the subcutaneous tissues of the neck. The foreign body (a stick) was removed surgically by making an incision over the lateral aspect of the neck where the foreign body was palpable and extracting it in mostly one piece. The tract was copiously flushed with saline and drains were placed to enable both passive drainage and active flushing of the tract. Using this case as a framework, this presentation aims to discuss the use of imaging modalities to diagnose wooden foreign bodies and the management of oropharyngeal penetrating stick injuries in the dog.