Preacher is having surgery this morning. They took the barium enhanced x-ray first thing and discovered that the lump in his stomach isn't the problem. The vet suspects that is just a bit of swelling from all the puking he's been doing. Unfortunately, the barium stops in Preacher's small intestine. It's not clear why it stops, but something is definately blocking it.

So Preacher is first on the surgery list this morning. They are going to go in and find out what is causing the blockage and hopefully remove it. Stuart is out of town, but when I called him at his worksite, he's betting that the blockage is 6 inches of stuffed toy! I like that better than the other options so I'm going with that(or a cat toy) until told otherwise.

On the plus side, Preacher's blood work is, according to the doc, "exceptional" for a dog of his age. That means there is no additional risk to the surgery, beyond the risk that is present with any surgery anytime. He should be able to handle the trauma and process the anasethic just fine.

I will post again when I hear from the doc.