A brief message about dogs and fish hooks:
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For reasons best known to humans they have some silly ritual where they attach a perfectly good prawn or squid or some other piece of good fish onto a piece of metal and throw it way out in the water. Of course I’m going to try to get that morsel of goodness before it gets to the water or, if, I’m real lucky, I can sneak around and find some laying around on the sand or in a bucket. I’ve become pretty good at sniffing out delicacies on the boat or at the beach.
The other day I was walking on the beach in the early morning hours with my human Mum and a couple of mates as we often do. I spied a man fishing and sure enough I was able to scoff a lovely prawn. The little metal bit the prawn was attached to had a line tied to it and that line was attached to a long pole. When I ate the prawn I caught a human who was holding the long pole thing. Everyone got excited. People are strange animals.
My human Mum really got excited and called the vet right there from the beach. He said I had to have an X-ray and probably some surgery to remove the metal bit that was attached to the prawn.
To make a long story short, I got a trip to the Clinic, I was made really wonky with some sort of drug and then I must have gone to sleep. I don’t remember what happened to me until later in the day. Can’t understand what all the fuss was about.
My humans couldn’t figure out why the vet couldn’t find the piece of metal in the X-rays. If they had only looked around the yard they would have found it. As soon as we came back home from the vet, they found some vomit in the yard with the famous fish hook. Talk about a crazy day!
I heard Mum and Dad talking about how lucky I was I didn’t have to have a big operation. Apparently, the vets have to open you up to get the fish hook out. That sounds terrible to me. I better pass the word around to my mates to watch out for those little metal hooks with prawns, squid or other fish bits attached. My friends who go fishing with their humans in boats or are around fishers on the beach or on lakes and streams need to keep a sharp eye out to avoid potential disaster with fishhooks.
Dr Alan Fridley BVSc
Vet to Pet Mobile Veterinary Service
Narooma