Even dogs can overindulge during the holidays.

I'm always amazed at what our patients will eat.

Fritz the Doberman was brought into Brightwood Animal Hospital to see Dr. Laura Surovi Thursday morning because he had eaten a chicken wing two days ago and just wasn't himself.

Fritz has a history of being rather indiscriminate about his dining choices, so Dr. Surovi decided to take some x-rays and see what kind of side order he had with the wings. One chicken wing shouldn't be a problem for a big guy like him.

The radiographs showed a circular object in his stomach. We studied the images trying to guess what it might be. A ball of some kind? Part of a toy?

We weren't sure, but whatever it was it was too large to pass and not likely to dissolve on it's own.

We discussed the options. We could anesthetize Fritz and try to use our endoscope to try to retrieve the object; but it appeared to be too large for the endoscope's foreign body retrieval basket.

We could take Fritz to surgery and open his stomach to remove the object. We decided that should be plan B and we would try to get him to bring it up on his own.

Dr. Surovi administered a medication to make him vomit. He burped and swayed and brought up some foam. A few minutes later he brought up some more. The poor guy dropped his ears and tucked his tail and looked at us as if to say "I don't think this is going to work."

His tummy grumbled and his eyes crossed and on the third try, after a heave that looked like it started at his tail, out came the cap from a wide mouth drink bottle. Satisfied that we had obtained what we were after Dr. Surovi administered an antidote that relieved his nausea.

Surgery was avoided and Fritz was feeling better already!