Sometimes dogs do silly things. Swallowing undigestible items may be the worst of them.
Here is a list of objects I have personally witnessed removed from the stomach and intestines of mischievous dogs: socks, underwear, sticks, leaves, wads of hair, tampons, panty hose, action figures, rubber snakes, paper towels, diamond earrings, a watch, carpeting, and of course, lots of balls.
One very patient and good-humored dog parent recently shared their own doggy foreign-body nightmare via Reddit. Rather than a long, drawn out account of the event, Ferenginar posted a single sentence and just one photo. Luckily the hilarious picture is worth a thousand words!
$0.25 out of a machine. $947.36 out of a dog. Gotta love that smug “worth it” look. from funny
It turns out the offending bouncy ball was purchased by Ferenginar’s son from a 25 cent trinket machine you find in restaurant and mall lobbies. As the boy was playing with the ball the dog swooped in and snatched it, swallowing it immediately. They considered inducing vomiting, but since the pooch had choked a bit as the ball went down, they feared it would be too dangerous.
They monitored her poop for several days, but the brightly colored ball never reappeared. An x-ray revealed that it was too large to pass through her stomach, making expensive surgery the only option.
As you can see from the photo, the dog is recovering nicely and Ferenginar’s son has a $947.36 souvenir!
H/T to 12News.com
Featured Image via Flickr/Steve Baker