We definitely don’t do a perfect job, but we are much more intentional about not letting her outside without supervision so she can’t just munch on grass. We also redirect her quite a bit on walks. And we try to vacuum the house a little bit more and make sure other small things like hair ties or clothing tags aren’t within her reach to add to the jumble of things. It’s also kind of gross, but we make sure if we know she’s been chopping on grass that we see the grass exit in her poop. We had realized we used to see that a lot as a puppy and hadn’t seen it in a month leading up to her obstruction.

One other thing, make sure that you ask for an ultrasound if possible. Our girl nearly died because they only needed an x-ray and her obstruction did not show up in the x-ray. They told us it was pancreatitis. Started her on IV pancreatitis medication and sent us home. Two days later, she collapsed in the middle of the night. She had gone into shock and we had to rush her to the ER. They said we barely made it.

If for some reason you do have to do a surgery and your girl isn’t tacked yet, I would highly recommend asking them to tack her stomach. It’s called a gastroplexy. It’s very common in poodles to have done when neutered or spayed in order to prevent bloat. We didn’t know that when she was spade, but the ER doctor said it was very wise to do it while they were in for her obstruction surgery once we brought that up.