Vets Warn Dog Owners After Multiple Fish Hook Incidents
Veterinarians have issued a caution to pet owners following the treatment of three dogs that swallowed discarded fish hooks within a single month.
One dog treated at The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh ingested one hook and had another embedded in its lip.
Chip’s Ordeal at Lochinch Estate
Another case involved Sheila Baillie's dog, Chip, who swallowed fishing bait during a weekend walk at Lochinch estate near Stranraer in September last year.
"It was just a simple split second that this happened and then we had the trauma and the worry that we could have lost him that night,"Sheila recalled.
She told BBC Scotland News that she was walking her spaniel with a friend shortly after lunch when the incident occurred.
"He was sniffing away and the next thing I could see, he was getting quite agitated, shaking his mouth, shaking his head a lot,"Sheila described.
Upon inspecting Chip’s mouth, she noticed a "foreign body" protruding, which turned out to be an eel used as bait.
"And then from out of the undergrowth, from beside the water in the bushes emerged a fisherman and he apologised,"Sheila said.
"He said 'I'm really sorry - that's bait and there's a hook on it'.... He'd left his line with the bait on it lying on the grass behind him which Chip had sniffed out."
The hook initially caught on Chip’s tongue but dislodged when he shook his head, leading him to swallow it.
Sheila, a primary school headteacher, promptly took Chip to an out-of-hours veterinary clinic in Stranraer where he was sedated and underwent x-rays.
The hook was located in his oesophagus, the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
However, the local vets were unable to treat the injury and referred Chip to a specialist at the Hospital for Small Animals at the Royal Dick in Edinburgh, approximately a three-hour drive away.
"Even the journey itself was quite traumatic,"Sheila said, explaining they were instructed to keep Chip lying flat for the entire trip.
"What upset me the most was the vet said that should he start haemorrhaging on the journey, we were just to Google where the nearest vets were, to see if they could do anything.
He was obviously at risk of this barbed hook doing some damage internally as it passed through his organs."
They arrived in Edinburgh late Sunday night and left Chip in the care of veterinary experts.
By then, the hook had moved into the dog’s stomach, complicating its removal.
The veterinary team operated on Chip’s tongue, which had sustained significant damage, before using an endoscopic tube to extract the hook from his stomach.
Sheila reported that Chip took several weeks to recover.
"But to look at him now you wouldn't know anything had ever happened,"she said.
"He's bounced back to his happy wee self and loving life and loving all the cuddles."
Fish Hooks Rarely Pass Safely, Experts Warn
Dr Ben Lloyd-Bradley, from the Hospital for Small Animals, stated:
"We are delighted that, due to the expertise of multiple teams, the fish hook could be retrieved by endoscopy which saved Chip from requiring abdominal surgery."
He cautioned that, unlike many foreign objects, fish hooks rarely pass through the digestive system safely because their barbs can anchor into tissue, causing damage to the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, or intestines.
Veterinarians emphasize that if a dog swallows a fish hook, it should be treated as an emergency. Owners are advised never to pull or cut the fishing line or attempt to remove the hook themselves.
