Dog's razor woe was down to bathroom bin's bangers

A puppy whose adventures took a sharp turn when he swallowed a razor blade was sniffing out a sausage sarnie left in a bathroom bin, his owner has revealed.

The BBC reported on Sunday how Richard Johnson from Ludlow had rushed five-month-old Charlie to vets on New Year's Eve to remove the sharp object.

Teme Veterinary Practice informed the owner that as the instrument was in its protective plastic casing, no harm was done to the English bull terrier. But mystery had surrounded how the close shave came about.

Since sharing what drew the pooch to the bin, Johnson has stated his family would in future be more careful about where they left their banger butties.

They have a baby gate in their house to stop Charlie getting upstairs, but he had somehow got past it, perhaps drawn by the sossie smell.

"One of my teenage sons had left some of his sausage sandwich in the bathroom bin for some strange reason," Johnson explained.

"Charlie being a bull terrier was straight in there."

Immediately his wife raised concerns, saying she was sure a razor blade had been left in the bin too.

That left the pair "incredibly concerned" and having an "awful time of 'did he or didn't he' because all the sausages were gone", Johnson told the BBC.

Iain Prentice, a vet at the practice, said he was used to recovering items from dogs, including toys, stones and even underwear.

"They do all sorts of strange stuff, but this was a first for me," he said of the blade, adding it had shown up clearly on X-ray because it was metal.

Charlie was sedated and the object was surgically removed as there was no guarantee it could pass through him without coming free from its case.

Since his ordeal, Charlie was said to be recovering well, and for him, it was "like it never happened".

His owner said: "We're recovering more than he is for the shock and the stress of it."

He thanked the vets for their swift action and said there was now "an absolute outright ban on any type of food upstairs".

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