Ernies eaten 3/4 of a fat ball

[Ernies mum]

We were out on walk in our local field this morning when ernie approached me carrying what looked like a pale green ball in his mouth . On closer inspection I realised it was a bird " fat ball ", unfortunately as soon as I tried to get ernie to drop it he then ate 3/4 of it . That was about 6 hours ago , he seems absolutely fine in himself ( hasn't gone to the toilet yet though ) but I'm just bit concerned as he does have a sensitive tummy . I think I remember reading on here that someone else's cocker ate one and was quite poorly .
Can anyone offer any advice please

[elaine.e]

Chances are he will either be fine or will have a bout of diarrhoea. But, worst case scenario, so you need to be aware of it just in case, is pancreatitis.

Pancreatitis is very painful and usually ends up in a stay at the vets until stabilised. Cockers as a breed are prone to pancreatitis and a common cause is eating very fatty food. So if Ernie starts to show signs of pain that you think are anything worse than a mildly upset tummy please phone your vet for advice straight away. Or, if your vet has an out of hours service you could phone now and ask if there's anything specific you need to watch out for.

Hopefully he'll be OK though

[Ernies mum]

Thank you Elaine , ernies now had a couple of episodes of diarrhoea but seems fine in himself . I'll keep a close eye on him and will phone the out of hours vets and as you advised check if there's any symptoms I need to look out for .

[BobnDot]

Our Chaz chomped on half a fat ball that had been dislodged from the bird feeder last year. Instead of giving him his normal food we gave him some boiled chicken that evening and noticed that he was drinking water more frequently than normal.

The following morning he was very loose and this continued through the day as well as drinking more, but his poo started to become more normal as the evening went on. We substituted boiled chicken for his normal food again and the next day his poo was back to normal as was his water consumption.

We mentioned it to the vet at his next checkup and were told that we'd done the right thing and that a single fat ball shouldn't do any damage but that problems had been known of if dogs had eaten a large number of them or were fed them over a period of time.

Hope Ernie comes through this as easily as Chaz did 

Bob.

[Joules]

Hope Ernie is OK this morning

Coco has eaten a whole fat ball once when it fell out of the bird feeder 

Like Ernie, once she had it, there was zero chance I would be able to get it off her   

She was absolutely fine though - as Elaine says, there is a risk of pancreatitis with a large amount of fat in one go.  I just kept an eye on her and no problems - hope Ernie is the same   

[Ernies mum]

, ernies back to firm poos today . Definitely feeling fine as has been his usual lunatic self . We're off to agility shortly .
Once again thank you for your best wishes and advice

[Mudmagnets]

Good to see he back to hos old self, they do like to frighten us, aye 

[Jaysmumagain]

Fat balls are a menace in my garden first thing Ollie does is try and lick the bird droppings....have decided they will hang in front garden next winter

[Ernies mum]

Weird thing is we were in a field with bypass on one side and housing estate on the other so not quite sure how the fat ball ended up in the field .... My friend suggested that a pigeon may have picked it up from someone's nearby garden and dropped it mid flight  . I'm really hoping that we don't come across anymore  .

Yep jaysmumagain ernie is very partial to bit of bird poo although pigeon poo seems to be a particular delicacy... Yuk 

[JennyBee]

Glad he is feeling fine . Brodie ate a fat ball, I think a few months before she had her pancreatitis episode, and had no ill effects because of it. Because of that bout I am incredibly careful with fat balls now and prefer not to have them in the garden. Dread to think if she found one in the park!

[MIN]

I stopped putting them out because the jackdaws would wreck the holder and fly off with as much as they could carry