Dog undergoes lifesaving surgery after strange item found in stomach
When Rocco the Staffordshire Bull Terrier started vomiting and refusing to eat, his owners feared the worst.
But when vets took an X-ray, they didn’t expect to find a video game lodged inside him.
The four-year-old rescue dog was taken to the PDSA’s Glasgow Shamrock Street Pet Hospital after his owners noticed he wasn’t behaving like his usual self.
Vets took an X-ray and found a rectangular-shaped object in his small intestine, which turned out to be a Nintendo DS cartridge.
“He wasn’t acting himself at all and we were worried he’d eaten a corn on the cob, but we were so shocked when the vet said it was from a video game,” owner Sean Johnston said.
“We don’t own a Nintendo or anything like that so we’re baffled as to where he got it from.
“He’s a rescue dog and we’ve only had him for about six months so the only thing we can think is that it was from his previous owners – who knows how long it’s been in there.”
Left untreated, the cartridge could have caused a fatal blockage but surgeons were able to carry out lifesaving surgery the same day and Rocco was discharged the next day.
PDSA senior vet Susan Hermit said: “We see dogs that eat strange things all the time but none of us had ever seen anything like this.
“Objects can sometimes sit in the stomach for a while, but they cause problems when they try and push through the guts, which are much narrower.
“It was a good job Sean brought Rocco in when he did, as an object of this size trying to pass through the guts could have caused a deadly blockage or pierced his internal organs.”
Owner Sean, from Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, added: “Even though we haven’t had him that long, he’s already such a big part of the family, so we’re delighted to have him back home.
“He’s made a brilliant recovery.”
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