It’s been said that dogs will eat anything, whether it tastes good or not, and regardless of whether it is edible. Some dogs not only eat weird things, but they eat as much of it as they can. Here are eight recent stories that illustrate that point.
Rubber Duck
Ozzie is a Staffordshire terrier from Cubbington, England. About a year ago, he was tussling with another dog over a rubber duck. Ozzie established his rights to the toy by swallowing it whole. The vets couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the x-ray, since most dogs chew their toys up before swallowing them. Ozzie required surgery to remove the duck, but made a rapid recovery.
Fish Hooks
Toby is a rescue dog who had been abused and abandoned before being adopted by Brian Sales. Sales keep his fishing tackle box high off the floor, but curious Toby managed to get into it and swallow a dozen fish hooks, which on this occasion were loaded with bait. Sales rushed Toby to a veterinary clinic. Doctors said that the greatest danger would have been if the hooks caught in the dog’s throat, but they had instead passed to the stomach. Because of the shape of fish hooks, they were able to pass through the dog naturally, and in record time because Toby is allergic to the fish that the hooks were baited with!
Cell Phone
Nero is a Great Dane-Doberman crossbreed. The rather large dog from Pretoria, South Africa snatched a cell phone from his owner’s daughter’s hand and swallowed it in the blink of an eye. Nero was immediately taken to the veterinary clinic, where he was x-rayed and then had surgery to remove the phone. The vets found stones in Nero’s stomach along with the phone. Nero recovered, but the cell phone never worked again.
Rocks
Chester, who lives in Bangor, Maine, was attracted to the rocks around the family barbecue, because of those delicious drippings splattered on them. So he went a little overboard. Instead of swallowing one or two rocks, Chester ingested a total of six pounds of rocks! The vet said he’s never seen anything like it. Chester was able to pass the stones naturally, so no surgery was necessary.
Homer Simpson
A ten-year-old Dalmatian named Dixie lost her appetite and behaved strangely, so her owner took her to a veterinary clinic in Aberdeen, Scotland. An x-ray revealed that Dixie had swallowed a plastic egg with a plastic Homer Simpson toy inside. The goods had originally been inside a chocolate egg that Dixie got hold of. Vets removed the figurine from the dog’s intestine, and she is fine now.
Dog
Joanne Dutton of Wilmsly, England took her dog Alfie to the vet when he became ill and wouldn’t eat. The x-rays showed there was a dog inside the dog. Alfie had stolen a miniature dog figurine from a dollhouse belonging to Dutton’s daughter Madeline. Vets performed surgery to remove the toy.
Joanne said: “Alfie is back to normal again now – running around like a lunatic.”
Golf Balls
Bertie is pointer/bloodhound mix who lives in Great Totham, England. His owner, 12-year-old Ben Jewell saw him eat a golfball and so Bertie was taken to a clinic. X-rays revealed this was not the first time Bertie wolfed down a golf ball. A total of nine balls were inside the dog! During surgery to remove the balls, veterinarians found a completely unrelated surprise: a bullet was lodged in the tissue of Bertie’s abdomen, indicating he’d been shot at some time. The bullet was removed as well as the golf balls, and Bertie has recovered.
Arrow
Just last week, Betty, an 8-month-old Staffordshire bull terrier somehow managed to swallow a plastic toy arrow that was almost as long as her body! Her owner Emma Watson (not the actress) noticed she was sick a day later and took her to Thamesmead PDSA PetAid Hospital, where the arrow was found by x-ray. The arrow was 10.5 inches long, and extended from her throat to her small intestine. It was removed surgically, and Betty was on her feet in no time. But Watson had to keep a close eye on her.
‘She doesn’t appear to have learned her lesson because as soon as she got home she tried to eat the TV remote control so we’re keeping a very close eye on her now to prevent anything like this from happening again.’
See also: X-rays in the News and 10 Odd Things Swallowed, with X-ray Evidence.
Comments (32)
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Your images got switched for “dog” and “Homer Simpson”. :)
posted by InnocentBistander on 8-11-2009 at 8:34 am
When I was 17, my dog ate my retainer – luckily, he left the metal part and only ate the plastic part. Pooped it out a week later. And when I was 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 14 my dog ate my homework – how cliche.
posted by Ian on 8-11-2009 at 8:49 am
Thanks, InnocentBistander! Blame my failing eyesight -fixed.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-11-2009 at 9:02 am
My father is fond of pointing to our dachshund and exclaiming: “Check out my new grill, got it for my birthday” in reference to how we had to spend the money saved for his shiny new grill on emergency surgery to get a rock out of the dog. Then he’ll gladly show you the rock, because, of course, he saved it.
I’m also well acquainted with a dog who consumed the better half of a frisbee once.
posted by Lynnie on 8-11-2009 at 9:41 am
I have a dog who actually once ate about 4 feet worth of tinsel off the Xmas tree as a puppy. We realized it after noticing tinsel dangling from her rear end. Not the most pleasant memory, but she did pass it as one continuous strip– btw, she’s 13 now.
posted by DaveX on 8-11-2009 at 9:43 am
My dog, a Lab, has an obsession with rocks and golf balls. When we were sure she swallowed a golf ball one day, the vet removed two golfballs and a few good sized rocks from her stomach. The vet has the X-ray of her up on his wall in his office, mounted with 2 golf balls (not the actual ones. We got to keep those.
Seh’s not allowed near golf balls anymore (it would get too expensive) but it’s too hard to stop her from picking up rocks. She’s worn her canines down to nubs from trying to chew rocks.
posted by Laura on 8-11-2009 at 10:11 am
One of our dogs ate a sock, and after his surgery we were on constant “sock duty” to make sure the floor was sock-free at all times.
posted by AWH on 8-11-2009 at 11:21 am
From the looks of it, dog owners need to be particularly careful in the UK!
posted by Bert on 8-11-2009 at 11:28 am
I have a cat that’s particularly fond of catching rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, birds and other small creatures, and swallowing parts whole (found later surrounded by other parts also previously eaten). Though i’ve never had a dog with a swallowing issue, unless you count a dog who eats tree bark.
posted by Steven on 8-11-2009 at 12:00 pm
Does mentalfloss have a say on who advertises on this site? There is a scientology.org ad at the bottom (at least for me). It’s not the first time I’ve seen it at mental floss, either. What gives?
posted by mat on 8-11-2009 at 12:01 pm
Bert, I believe it’s a case of journalists in the UK being more likely to post dog x-rays and call it “news”.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-11-2009 at 12:40 pm
My bulldog Manny used to belong to a family with a baby, and apparently his jealousy led him to consume several pacifiers as well as the better part of an entire baby outfit before they decided to give him to a good home-with no babies in it! Now he sticks to eating \normal\ things, like backyard weeds, moths, and dryer lint.
posted by Alana on 8-11-2009 at 1:29 pm
I used to work for a vet…and we pulled out socks, beanie babies, push pins, lamp cords (with the prong end still attached), rope toys, and lots of other ramdom items. Lots of $ involved in removing these items…
posted by Angela on 8-11-2009 at 1:32 pm
When I was a kid my best friend’s dog ate a box of crayons. She pooped a rainbow. It was the most exciting event in my childhood.
posted by BioloBri on 8-11-2009 at 2:45 pm
I too have known a dog who ate crayons. I still remember the rainbow!
posted by Cathie on 8-11-2009 at 4:12 pm
@DaveX – Thanks for the good laugh and the mental image that went along with it!
@BioloBri – All three of our dogs (2 labs, 1 terrier) looove crayons! And since my daughter has a habit of leaving dropping them on the floor, they must have eaten about two boxes worth in the past year alone.
My terrier swallowed two marbles that fell out of outdoor lamps left by the previous occupants of our house when she was about four months old. She needed surgery to remove them and we have the marbles (in a container) and her x-ray as a reminder.
One of my cats swallowed the tail from his crochet mouse when he was a kitten. We didn’t know until the evidence surfaced in the litter box. Ew!
posted by EL on 8-11-2009 at 4:32 pm
It’s not just dogs. I have a cat who is obsessed with eating tape and plastic (grocery bags) and has wound up at the emergency vet a couple of times because of it. I used to keep it stored in drawers until he figured out how to open them and get to it…now I have to keep it outside in a garage.
posted by Stina on 8-11-2009 at 4:53 pm
dem 2s-yer-olds iz brillyent!
posted by Tigerkat on 8-11-2009 at 5:40 pm
I had a pug as a kid who ate the plastic parts off of my stuffed animals. Lets just say they looked like a different kind of stuffed animal on the other side.
posted by Chandler on 8-11-2009 at 7:58 pm
Former vet tech here-
Some of the weirder things I’ve seen pulled from animal intestines were….
1. Small plastic bugs, the kind you used to be able to buy for kids in science/learning stores. A cat decided he liked the texture and gobbled a small handful down.
2. Shredded garbage bags, in a dog who just went wild in a garbage tin one day.
3. Most of a scatter rug, from the innards of a dog who had seperation anxiety.
4. Part corn cobs, in a Lab who we had a hard time figuring out why the dog was puking. Seems he got into the trash after a family bar-b-que and just could not help himself.
5. One trick with fish hooks is to get the dog to eat cotton-balls soaked in fish oil. I’ve heard of a couple of owners who did this and managed to get the hooks surrounded by the cotton and then it all gets passed out in the end.
6. The WEIRDEST object I’ve seen was actually in one of our veterinary texts and was the x-ray of a dog who swallowed…wait for it….a whole carving knife. Thankfully the dog swallowed it wooden hilt first (smelled good??) and the hilt itself was sitting in the stomach, with the blade in the dog’s esophagus. According to the text, the dog survived the incident after being operated on but it’s a good bet that the owners learned to lock the dog away during meals after that!!
posted by Saffron on 8-11-2009 at 9:57 pm
Also a vet assistant….
A guy I’ve worked with for a few years said that he was cleaning kennels one day and as he was spraying the poop away, he found no less than 5 hundred dollar bills in perfect condition, other than being covered in poop. Needless to say, he said that the woman who owned the guilty dog was well off, and “wouldn’t have missed them anyway.”
posted by marisakaye on 8-12-2009 at 12:59 am
Don’t know if it’s still on Animal Planet or not (haven’t had cable for a few years now) but the show Emergency Vets did a whole show years ago about the things dogs swallow. Rocks are the most common, along with articles of clothing. The image that stuck with me was the big padlock.
I knew a family that had a yellow lab that would eat anything. I saw her scarf down entire loaves of bread, wrappers and all, and if you tried to interfere, she acted like she would eat you!
One a similar note, we had a cat that was obsessed with thread and string. One day we found a length of thread dangling from his bottom, with a sewing needle threaded on! How it made it through his system without getting stuck, we will never know.
posted by Pam on 8-12-2009 at 4:47 am
This is just funny! I cringed when I saw the fish hooks. Reminded me when my friends son passed a penny, I thought that was kind of funny yet pretty dangerous considering the lead content of US coins.
posted by Robert Fisher on 8-12-2009 at 10:05 am
Must be the area they live in, something in the air there lol : )
My dogs are into chewing on a toothbrush holding it between the paws as if they’re brushing their teeth..add a little vaseline they’re really happy spray it with liquid catnip they go wild they love catnip…may find a toothbrush inside them or fragments lol : )
p.s.
hint: the vaseline or bagofbalm they love to lick even babyoil on your hand helps with hairballs from the long loose dog hair or other things they gag on. Its great for when they have a choking spell,dry mouth attack or something stuck inside the throat area…seems to stop the gag or choke and what ever was in there coughs up.
posted by Jen over here in Canada : ) on 8-12-2009 at 10:28 am
My local paper once ran a contest to see what dog in the county had eaten the strangest thing. The dog that won had eaten an entire box of tampons–which had to be immediately and surgically removed, given their absorbent and expanding nature…
posted by P on 8-16-2009 at 11:51 pm
Some years ago, our German Shepherd ate an ENTIRE BOX (the 64 colors box) of our child’s Crayola crayons. We found the leavings in the yard– needless to say full of crumbled BRILLIANT COLORS… and it took several months to completely wash away and biodegrade, the crayons outlasted the poop. Sometimes we still recall this and laugh about it. Your stories reminded me… ::::laughing::::
posted by gail in ohio on 9-22-2009 at 9:18 am
My Border Collie/Blue heeler once ate almost an entire bathroom rug (you know, the kind that are furry and have a rubber backing). Yeah…the rug came out for weeks.
posted by Julie on 12-23-2009 at 2:37 pm
Our dog’s a drawer & door opener – she got into my sewing kit & swallowed an embroidery needle. It managed to pass within 24 hours, but man, what a nerve-wrenching experience! What provoked her into eating a small pointy piece of metal (and nothing else – there were safety pins spread everywhere) I will never know.
Now, the embroidery kit is locked away, along with anything else that might possibly fit in her mouth.
posted by Jane on 6-27-2010 at 11:20 am
Our St Bernard ate a whole potholder. I found it again the next spring when I was mowing lawn.
posted by Laurel on 6-27-2010 at 1:29 pm
my grandma wanted to give her dog flourescent food so to avoid stepping on poop in the dark.
posted by dirk alan on 6-27-2010 at 6:19 pm
Our lab liked to eat rocks so much we actually had to get him surgery to remove them. Twice. Our terrier loves to eat dryer sheets and women’s panties. Gotta make sure that the baskets of clean laundry are kept high up.
posted by Jenn on 6-28-2010 at 7:04 pm
My dog Rusty was always eating non-food things. He ate my bed sheets (right off my bed no less!), bathing suit, beach towl, countless socks and underpants, half of a roller skate, half of at least three frizbees, a tennis ball, loads of napkins (cloth and paper), half a roll of paper towls, and more! If he only at half, you can bet it was bcause some one caught him, not because he gave up. But he was fine, he never had to have surgery, the vet just told us to watch out and bring him in right away if he ate some thing sharp.
posted by Ariel on 7-16-2010 at 6:00 pm