Satchmo Hargreave is a 5 year old neutered male Golden Retriever (from the kennels of Chartwell Golden Retrievers) who presented to Headon Forest Animal Hospital a few weeks ago after eating a muffin cup. His owner had been baking carrot cake muffins and briefly left the silicone muffin cups unattended with the batter in place. It was easy to surmise that he had eaten the cup, batter and all, when he was seen licking his lips by the empty counter space! After 4 days of trouble swallowing his food, mom knew there was a problem and Satchmo came to visit us.
When Satchmo was examined, he looked perfectly normal. We decided to take an xray due to the certainty of consumption and a visible swelling in his esophagus (the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach). We then did a barium swallow which nicely outlined the position of the silicone cup sitting as expected in the esophagus. The esophagus is not an organ that lends itself to surgery and our concern was that the longer the cup stayed in place, the greater the chance of stricture formation here. Our best option was immediate endoscopy. Fortunately, we had available the services of an internal medicine specialist that same day. We were able to remove the cup using a flexible endoscope. Satchmo recovered uneventfully and went home that same day. His owner has since given away her silicone muffin cups and will never again leave her delicious baking unattended.
