Bristow Bear was about six months old and I was standing outside our office when my dispatcher yelled, “Bristow, no!” Then, “Oh, my gosh. She just ate a penny!” I called her vet, told him what happened and asked, “What should I do?” He asked, “What year was it?” I laughed to myself and wondered, “Why did he ask that? Does he think it might be a valuable penny?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “She ate it off the ground. “If they are old pennies, no problem. If they are new pennies, they must come out,” he said. Pennies don’t pass, they just roll around in the stomach. New pennies are copper-coated zinc wafers. The copper will leach away, exposing the zinc, which will cause deadly toxicity problems with her bones and several organs, he explained.
So, it was off to see the vet, where x-rays showed not one, but two pennies side by side. Then it was a rush to the emergency surgery clinic. Lucky for us and for Bristow, they were able to retrieve the pennies with a scope and a basket – major surgery not required!
One was 1974 and the other was 1993 – an old one and a deadly one. We’ve saved those two pennies. After all, they cost us more than $1,900!
###
from Terri in North Carolina