A golden retriever is “lucky to be alive” after swallowing a fishing line with the hook still attached.
Hapless hound Glen ate the discarded fishing equipment while on a walk at Anstruther pier and had to be rushed to Parkside Vets in Dundee.
An x-ray showed the hook, which was slightly larger than a ten pence coin, was lodged in Glen’s gullet, with vets having to extract it carefully to avoid causing injury.
Owner Lynn Syme said it was touch and go whether the hook would perforate the animal’s esophagus, which would have been fatal.
Lynn, of Cellardyke, said: “My husband Ross and I were on our usual evening walk and we went to Anstruther harbour.
“We walked out to the pier and when we were coming back we noticed the dog was acting strangely – he was choking and gagging.
“That was when we saw a fishing line with the weight still on it hanging out of his mouth. At that point the dog was in real distress because the line was down his throat.
“We managed to pull it out but we couldn’t pull too hard because we didn’t want to hurt him, so we didn’t know if we’d got all of it.
“When we got home we kept an eye on him, but he wasn’t settling. That’s when we decided to take him to the vet.”
Glen was kept in overnight, awaiting the arrival of a vet who would perform an endoscopy which allowed them to see the inside of the gullet to extract the hook without major surgery.
Lynn said: “Glen was lucky to be alive, really.
“If the hook had perforated his esophagus while he was waiting for the procedure, he could have died.
“Luckily the vet was great and two weeks on, Glen is doing well and has made a full recovery.
“I want to warn others to be careful when out walking, and also that leaving fishing equipment like this can be really dangerous. It could have easily been a child that got hurt.”
