A dog owner was left with a £3,000 pre-Christmas bill after her dog swallowed a fishing hook and line during a swim in the sea.
‘Greedy little terrier’ Pip, 11, was having a paddle on Pakefield Beach in Suffolk when she swallowed the ‘snack’.
She was rushed to the vet’s where she had an ‘extremely challenging’ op to remove the hook, which had speared her oesophagus, before her throat was stitched back together.
Owner Sally Renaut, whose mother had to step in to cover the unexpected expense just before Christmas, said: ‘The worst part was watching her with the fishing line hanging out of her mouth and knowing I couldn’t do anything.’
It comes after a string of similar canine conundrums happened earlier in the year – including a elderly Bichon Frise who swallowed 133 coins.
Charlie was taken to Thameswood Veterinary Clinic in Swindon, Wiltshire, by his concerned owners because he seemed under the weather.
They were told the 13-year-old pooch had stopped passing stools and had lost his appetite.
They suspected he may have eaten a plastic art decoration but vets were surprised to find out he had consumed more than one hundred coins.
A dog owner was left with a £3,000 pre-Christmas bill after her dog swallowed a fishing hook and line during a swim in the sea. Here the fishing hook can be seen in an X-ray image
‘Greedy little terrier’ Pip (pictured), was having a paddle on Pakefield Beach in Suffolk when she swallowed the ‘snack’
Vet Matheus, who led the surgical team was shocked to find the large amount of cash that had been sat in the dog’s stomach.
In December last year another hungry pet also let his appetite get the better of him and scoffed an entire box of Celebrations – including the wrappers.
Owner Erin Lewis, from Birkenhead, Merseyside, dashed to the vets with her Cocker Spaniel, Mow, after the pup managed to climb onto the counter and devour the whole box.
In 2020 it was Alfie, a ten-year-old giant schnauzer, who made a poor diet-related decision thinking 26 golf balls, as well as rubber gloves, a ball of string and multiple bits of wood would make a fine meal, leaving his his owner with a £2,500 bill.
And earlier this year Ruby – small Patterdale Terrier and Jack Russell cross – needed a £2,000 operation to have a lolly stick removed from her stomach after eating a Magnum ice cream whole ‘like a pelican’.
Shelley Coupland’s daughter, two-year-old Sophie Baile, was enjoying a milk chocolate Magnum at home on July 16 when she lowered her arm towards the floor.
Ruby immediately snatched the treat and gobbled it down ‘within a second’.
Ms Coupland, from Sleaford, Lincolnshire, said: ‘She just took the whole thing and swallowed it like a pelican eating a fish, it just went down whole.
‘It’s the most expensive ice cream I’ve ever bought and will ever buy.
‘We didn’t have a second to get up and get the stick off of her so she just swallowed the whole thing.
‘She must have just seen an opportunity and gone for it because she’s usually quite placid and well-behaved.’
