My darling 3 year old flushed a plastic turkey down the toilet a few hours ago. What are my chances of retrieving it? Is it even worth the hassle of removing the toilet and searching or is it gone forever? The toy is part of a Little People set that we've owned for less than 24 hours and Thanksgiving is still a few weeks off. (So yes I would like the darn thing back).

You may as well remove the toilet now as it is not gone forever,it is most probably stuck in the curve of the back of the toilet. It will cause problems later on with the flushing of the toilet. I had a similar problem a few years ago,with an electric shaver. The people who were renting my grandmother's house had put it in there,I don't know how. The toilet would flush this time but not the next. We finally took it up and it came out of the bottom. Save yourself some aggravation.

The trapway outlet on bottom of toilets is anywhere from 1 1/2" to (up to) 2 3/8" in diameter, depending on the manufacturer of the toilet. If the plastic turkey was 1" inch, or smaller, it is probably gone forever. However, you might have a 'slim' chance of retrieving it. It could have hung up on the 'snake-like' trapway tubing the waste flows through, depending on the force/volume flush your toilet, but this will require pulling the toilet. And, if the toilet has been flushed since the turkey went down, it is, more than likely, gone forever.

The first thing you must do is to find out whether the toy's still in bthe toilet or did it go through. Do this. Take the lid off the tank and wad up a double hand full of toilet paper and flush it down. If the water begains too raise in the bowl pu8sh the flapper down and stop the water from going in the bowl before it overflows. Now you know the toy is caught up in the trap. You now must make a decision to (1) call in a plumber**or** (2) do the job yourself. If you opted for door numnber two be aware that this is a dirty messy job best left to us dirty messy plumbers. However if you want to pull the toilet and go in from the bottom I can walk you through it if you wish.
Your choice. Regards, Tom

Thanks everyone for your advice - I did call a plumber while waiting on answers and he said the plastic turkey (which is not flexible and bigger than 1") is most likely stuck somewhere in the pipes and if we don't go in and get it we will have problems eventually. My husband is going to love this - especially since this is the 2nd time having to go in (in less than a month - got to love 3 year olds!). I best run to the store to have cold beer waiting - he's going to need it after this job.