Dorset dog's life-saving surgery after eating surgical mask
A Dorchester vet is urging everyone to dispose of PPE correctly
Last updated 16th Apr 2021
A Cocker Spaniel had to be rushed to the vet for emergency treatment, in Dorchester, after eating a surgical face mask.
Vet, Alice Moore, is warning dog owners to be vigilant while out walking their pooches after the pup nearly lost it's life.
The dog, Jasper, had been vomiting quite severely before he was brought to the Castle Vets in Poundbury.
Alice and the team X-rayed him after they were sure they could feel a blockage in his intestine.
They didn't know what it was but they knew they had to get it out because it would have become life threatening. Alice said:
"We operated that same evening and we found a blockage that was about the size of cigar in his small intestine.
"We removed the unknown thing, at that stage we didn't know what it was. He made a good recovery and at that point we went to unravel whatever it was and it suddenly became evident that it was a material face mask."
The dogs owner was very surprised to discover that it was a face mask, but not surprised that the dog had eaten something daft because he did have a track record.
This is the first time Alice has seen something like this, but interestingly vets are seeing more and more cases of dogs swallowing protective equipment.
ADVICE FOR DOG OWNERS
Alice said dog owners should be aware of what their dogs are sniffing out and what they may eat:
"Make sure things are discarded properly in the way they should be ,which is easy enough to do yourself but you never know what people are going to leave hanging around.
"Don't give dogs access to things they can and will eat, because they smell people or something interesting, because they will eat them, just vigilance really because although an awful lot will pass through a dogs intestines, they will come unstuck at some point and that certainly happened in this case."