By Dr. Laurie Noaker, DVM, DACVIM

Bruno, a young Labrador Retriever, had been playing with an acorn when suddenly, he could not breathe. The owner rushed him to his veterinarian who looked into his wind pipe with a camera to determine if Bruno had inhaled the acorn. No acorn was found but Bruno could still not breathe. The doctor performed surgery and placed a breathing tube into his wind pipe, exiting through his neck. This is a very scary situation since Bruno could die if this tube became clogged or dislodged.

When Bruno came to our emergency room, he was still breathing through this tube, but was having great difficulty. We also looked into his windpipe and still did not see an acorn. We kept his breathing tube in place, kept him comfortable and treated him for developing pneumonia. However, we were still suspicious that Bruno had an acorn in his wind pipe.

Suddenly, on day 3 of his ICU hospitalization, Bruno stood up, coughed and could not breathe. We immediately sedated him to examine his breathing tube. The doctor saw something in front of this tube, towards his head. As we tilted his head up, suddenly, the acorn rolled into the breathing tube. We promptly removed the acorn and were then able to remove his breathing tube. Bruno recovered well from his nutty adventure and went home 2 days later, happy and healthy.

Eating an acorn normally causes stomach upset and liver problems and should not be fed to pets. In Bruno’s case, the acorn was rolling around in his wind pipe (trachea) for days. This was a most unusual presentation of acorn ingestion that we have ever seen!

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