A dog has been saved by emergency surgery after a vet found a stick protruding from his stomach.
The vet team were dealing with a stick, which was thought to have pierced a dog's abdomen, but found it was working its way out and not in.
The dog was admitted to Blaise Veterinary Referral Hospital in Birmingham when its owners found the wood protruding after playing in the garden.
But after scheduling an urgent operation, vet Lara Dempsey discovered five-year-old Springer Spaniel Obi had actually swallowed the stick, possibly months earlier.
Despite the life-threatening risk of peritonitis with the skewer having pierced the stomach, the dog had shown few symptoms and has made a remarkable recovery after the procedure.
Owners Robert Clarke and Katie Luckman, from Kidderminster, had called Obi in from the garden to go on a shopping trip when they spotted the stick.
Ms Luckman said: "As I slipped his lead over his neck, we suddenly saw this sticking out.
"It was protruding really clearly, and we thought he’d maybe fallen onto something, and it had stuck in. But we keep the garden tidy and couldn't think how it had happened.
"Although there wasn’t any bleeding, we knew we needed help right away and took him straight to our vets."
Obi was transferred to the specialist team at IVC Evidensia’s Blaise Referrals after an initial assessment at a local first opinion vet in Kidderminster.
It’s a state-of-the-art specialist-led multi-disciplinary referral hospital offering 24-hour emergency and critical care.
Vet Lara Dempsey, a specialist in small animal surgery soft tissue, said: "This was a really unusual case as Obi was mainly asymptomatic apart from him not gaining weight despite a normal appetite.
"You would never have known there was a problem until the stick had exited the abdomen. However, the stick had perforated through the stomach and spleen. Despite that, Obi was still bright and trying to bounce around when he came in.
"We suggested blood tests and CT imaging, but they were keen to just proceed with the surgery straight away."
It was only when Ms Dempsey and the surgical team opened up the abdomen that they saw the stick had pierced its way out, rather than Obi having impaled himself on it.
Ms Dempsey said: "There wasn’t much abdominal fluid, and I could see the stick had perforated through the stomach, skewered the spleen and then exited the left abdominal wall.
"We opened up the stomach to remove it and, as the spleen had been severely damaged, I had to do a splenectomy.
"I debrided and closed the abdominal wall on the inside, but left it open on the outside to allow it to heal."
After the 90-minute procedure, Obi was kept in overnight for observation but was showing huge signs of recovery by the time his owners picked him up the following day.
Mr Clarke said: "He was running round crazy and was immediately back to his old self when we got him home, playing with our cat.
"He started to put on weight again very quickly, but we’d never have thought the fact he hadn’t gained weight before was because he had this in him.
"We’re just so grateful to the team at Blaise for all they were able to do for him."
Vet Ms Dempsey said: "With the stick perforating through the stomach, this leads to peritonitis, which can be life-threatening.
"Obi’s body had managed to wall off the stick, which is why he didn’t show any obvious signs.
"Having had such damage to his organs and the stick in him for so long, Obi was very lucky."
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