Eating Lava Rock

[Guest TLH0739]

Found my Penney had ate a lava rock she from on the ground. I tried to take it away but she swallowed it. She is eating and playing. She had a normal stool today. Do you think I need to take her to the vet on Monday?

[kudzu]

How big was the rock? It's a lot rougher than a many other rocks even gravel. Still, unless it was really big I don't think I would plan a vet visit unless there was some change in her eating, pottying or behavior. If it was rather large I believe I'd call the vet Monday & ask. The only reason I can think for an appt if she's still feeling & acting fine is if the vet think it is too large to pass through her system. In that case I wonder if they may want to do an xray to determine if it may be better to go in & get it. That seem quite unlikely but if you were going to remove it I think I'd prefer them take it out of the belly before it went into the intestines.

 

Really though, if it was small enough to swallow without any sign of problems I'd bet a wait & see approach with careful monitoring would be a decent approach.

 

 

[Guest greybookends]

Basically lava rocks are nothing more than carbon which is what charcoal is and what doctors use to settle stomachs . I should think she'll be fine. Depending on how much she ate her stools will be black when it comes out the other end but that's to be expected. I wouldn't worry to much. Now if she didn't chew it and she ate several I would be concerned about a blockage. So just watch her.

[Guest TLH0739]

Thanks for the great advice. She is playing, eating, and drinking fine. I will watch her.

[kudzu]

Charcoal, as far as I know, is essentially charred wood. Activated charcoal does have medicinal uses. Am not aware of any internal medicinal use of lava rocks but I'm in accounting. Perhaps some lava rocks contain some of the same elements as charcoal but overall I think it is quite different from charcoal.

Just off the top of my head though I'd think the real concern is the size, shape, consistency of lava rock as opposed to the powdered or tablet form of pharmaceutical activated charcoal.

 

Just for comparison purposes, here is a page with an example of the possible composition of lava rock.

 

http://www.palmercc.com/lavarock.htm

Mineral Content

 

Nitrate Nitrogen.................................4.0 p.p.m.

Phosphorus........................................6.0 p.p.m.

Potassium.........................................59.0 p.p.m.

Zinc.........................................................6 p.p.m.

Iron..................................................10.0+ p.p.m.

Copper...............................................5.5+ p.p.m.

Magnesium.......................................2.0+ p.p.m.

Boron.................................................10.0 p.p.m.

Sulfate.................................................7.0 p.p.m.

Organic Material...........................................5%

PH.........................................................8.2 Units

Calcium..................................1.3 Meq/100 gm*

Manganese...........................0.6 Meq/100 gm*

Sodium...................................0.1 Meq/100 gm*

Cation Exchange Capacity..3.2 Meq/100 gm*

* Milli-Equivalent per 100 grams

Edited July 29, 2012 by kudzu