|
 |
 | | | | | |||||||||||||||||||
| | You are in: UK: England | |||||||||||||||||||||
 | | Thursday, 31 January, 2002, 21:15 GMT Dog survives after pebble feast  Belle has recovered after eating hundreds of pebbles A vet says a springer spaniel is "lucky to be alive" after removing more than 400 patio pebbles from its gut. The dog's owner took two-year-old Belle for an emergency operation after she ate the ornamental stones from the family's front garden. "I don't know what got into her that day, but the stones were blocking her intestines and she was very poorly," owner Margaret Westwood, of Halesowen near Birmingham, said. Vet Antonio Fratello said he had never seen anything like it in five years of practice.
"She is definitely lucky to be alive," Mr Fratello said. "She had a stone blocking the intestine, and it was about to perforate it, which was very dangerous," he said. Vet practice manager Val Marsh said: "She's obviously got a liking for stones, because she vomited 200 up before the operation. Jagged stones "Some of the stones were quite jagged and the worry was that she could have punctured her stomach lining." Belle, who wolfed down at least 620 of the ornamental stones, has been given the all-clear after follow-up checks. The family was told to keep a close eye on the dog and has removed the ornamental stones from her garden. "We've replaced the pebbles with larger ones that she won't be able to get into her mouth," Mrs Westwood said. | |   See also: Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top England stories now:  Links to more England stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Links to more England stories |
 | | ^^ Back to top News Front Page | World | UK | UK Politics | Business | Sci/Tech | Health | Education | Entertainment | Talking Point | In Depth | AudioVideo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII|News Sources|Privacy  |
E-mail this story to a friend