An adorable little Yorkshire Terrier named Teddy from Marina da Gama is very
lucky to be alive after swallowing a razor sharp fish hook attached to a
metal swivel and approximately 300 mm’s of fishing line on Thursday, April 22.
His owner rushed him to their local vet who recommended surgery as the only
way to safely remove the hook, line and swivel which at that point appeared
to be firmly lodged in Teddy’s oesophagus.
Unfortunately, Teddy’s owner couldn’t afford the life-saving operation as her
business had suffered major losses over the lockdown period. Given her financial
predicament and Teddy’s life-threatening condition, her veterinarian
recommended that she approach the Animal Welfare Society of SA to perform the tricky operation.
During the initial consultation, Teddy’s owner explained that both her
teenage children are avid fishermen and that Teddy had accidentally swallowed
some fishing tackle left lying around by them.
Her daughter first noticed Teddy sitting awkwardly on her fishing tackle bag
with a length of “thread” dangling from his mouth and immediately suspected
that he had “swallowed a hook”.
Given their strong suspicion that he had swallowed a lot more than the
length of fishing line they thankfully decided not to tug at it.
A fresh set of x rays taken on Friday, April 23 showed that the fishing tackle had
travelled all the way down into Teddy’s stomach and it was decided that the
the operation could not be delayed due to the fear of the hook becoming lodged in his
abdomen or nylon becoming tangled in his gut.
Teddy was on the operating table for quite some time as the team carefully
extracted first the hook, then the line and finally the swivel before
suturing closed his wound and pronouncing the operation a success.
Earlier today we had the pleasure of handing a fit and healthy Teddy over to
his grateful owner who was reminded of the dangers of leaving fishing tackle
lying around.
Picture/s: Supplied