Game, set and down the hatch!

It’s not just the crowds at Wimbledon who have a taste for strawberries and cream this week. A greedy Rottweiler got more than he bargained for when he was served up the summer fruit complete with the spoon it was on!

 

Vets at leading pet charity, PDSA, had to perform emergency surgery on mischievous mutt Max, 10, from Leeds to remove the dangerous snack from Max’s stomach.

Max’s owner Annette Robertshaw, of Wakefield, Yorkshire, said her brother Colin had been visiting her and was eating some strawberries when Max took a shine to them. Colin offered Max one on a teaspoon but was caught totally by surprise after the dog wolfed both items down in one gulp.

 

Despite not suffering any immediate ill effects Annette rushed Max to her local PDSA pet hospital where he was quickly x-rayed.

 

The x-ray showed that the five inch spoon was lodged firmly in Max’s stomach and he was rushed into surgery to remove it.

 

PDSA Veterinary Surgeon, Daniel Cook, said: “I have never seen a dog that’s eaten a teaspoon before although we do see lots of odd things that dogs have eaten, such as socks and children’s toys.”

 

Daniel advises other pet owners to be aware of the dangers of pets eating foreign bodies and recommends that pets are ideally fed in their own food bowls to avoid any mishaps. In addition, some foods that pet’s don’t normally eat can upset their stomachs and can some foods are also highly poisonous to pets such as chocolate.. 

 

Annette, 47, said Max has fully recovered from his ordeal but now turns his nose up at strawberries.

 

She said: “We don’t feed him anything on a spoon any more just in case but he doesn’t seem to be too interested in strawberries lately.”