Some dogs will eat anything they can get their paws on: your child’s box of crayons, a forgotten Pop-Tart, or the grease can underneath the grill. Needless to say, their diet often times isn’t too particular, so it’s important to recognize the hazards hearing aids and hearing aid batteries pose to your pet’s health.

Hearing aids are easy enough to swallow and the batteries can pose a significant health risk to any animal that ingests them. Dogs have been known to chew on and swallow hearing aids, particularly if they’ve shown any interest in or annoyance from the whistling or electronic sounds that a hearing aid emits. Cats could mistake them for a toy and bat them around the house.

If your pet has swallowed hearing aid batteries, there are several symptoms to look for:

  • Red and raw tongue, or whitish-gray from dead skin,
  • Heavy drooling or vomiting,
  • Unusually quiet behavior or crying, and
  • Refusal to eat or extremely slow chewing.

These symptoms can be delayed up to twelve hours. When a dog or cat punctures a battery, the corrosive liquid inside can damage its throat and esophagus. Charlotte Means, a veterinary toxicologist with the ASPCA, says small amounts of milk can help dilute the liquid if the ingestion was recent. Too much, on the other hand, can cause diarrhea.

The safest course of action, of course, is to take your pet to the vet. If there are pieces of the hearing aid or battery present in the stomach, surgery may be necessary. Alkaline batteries can cause burns on the tongue, throat and stomach lining. Immediate action is necessary once you’ve discovered your pet has swallowed a battery.

Content provided by Healthy Hearing