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My dog swallowed earplugs. He's fine, but does he need an X-ray?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

My 8mo old chi swallowed 15 earplugs the past 4mos. He s fine--pooping, eating, playing CONSTANTLY, Humping, running around, no crying, no pain, no shaking. He puked 1 up (was tired rest of day) because it was a WHOLE, the rest were 1/2s. Do you think he still needs an XRay: prob is I don't see ANY in his BM, tell me you're best diagnosis based on his 0 symptoms whether you think they're still in his body OR could they somehow be disguised in his poop? I didn't monitor poop that closely either.

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

Published on November 6th, 2016

In most cases, it takes about 2-3 days for a swallowed foreign body (such as an ear plug) to pass all the way through and be excreted in the poop. Signs of an obstruction usually occur during this time if there is going to be a problem - usually if it's been more than 2-3 days, you're in the clear. So I would not be very worried about this as long as your pup is acting normal, although I would definitely try to make sure that he can't get to your ear plugs anymore as they are absolutely a risk for causing an obstruction. In rare cases, foreign bodies can stay in the stomach for weeks, months, or even years before eventually moving into the intestinal tract and causing problems - so there is still a slim chance that this could happen at some point, but there would be no way to tell this without an x-ray or endoscopy.

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Based on the fact that he has no symptoms, my best guess would be that they passed just fine in his feces. If you didn't monitor his feces closely, then they could have easily been missed. I would not recommend him needing x-rays, as he's showing no signs of obstruction. I would recommend keeping earplugs out of his reach, however, in the future :-)

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