A SOLIHULL dog lover has described the horror of discovering her three-month-old puppy screaming in agony with a metal pole and hook jammed in his jaw.
Shocked Mandi Pountney revealed the pole was so long her partner had to cut two-feet off the end just to be able to fit the family pet into the car to get him to the vets.
The young Staffordshire bull terrier, called Paddy, was admitted as an emergency out-of-hours case at Linnaeus-owned 608 Vet Practice in Solihull, with Mandi, whose previous dog had died only seven weeks earlier, admitting she feared the worst.
She recalled: “I was upstairs and suddenly heard Paddy screaming in the garden, so I ran down expecting him to be trapped or something.
“However, he was running around with the metal pole in his mouth. I managed to get hold of him and discovered it was lodged firmly in his mouth.
“We were all so shocked when we saw the X-ray, it was horrific for him and major guilt for us.
“We were very concerned as he was so young and had suffered such an awful injury. We didn’t think he would get through the surgery.”
Vet Silvia Ruiz is part of the emergency out-of-hours team at 608 Vet Practice and took charge of the challenging case.
The metal pole was a stake from a garden ornament Paddy had been chewing.
Mandi had removed the ornament from the garden however she didn’t realise a a family member had put it back in the ground in the garden.
Silvia explained: “Incredibly, there was no bleeding from the wound but it was clear that, due to the nature of the injury, we could not extract the pole with Paddy still conscious.
“All went well and Paddy recovered very positively. He’s since had two post-operative checks and all is well.”
Mandi confirmed: “Paddy is absolutely fine now and was running around again the day after surgery as if nothing had happened.
“The vets were amazing and we cannot express our gratitude enough to the team at 608 Vets.
“They saved his life and really supported us as a family 100 per cent. They all love Paddy, he is like a celebrity when we go in now!”
