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Emergency vets solve poorly spaniel’s corn on the cob conundrum

Cocker spaniel Max requires emergency care after swallowing corn on the cob

An anxious family fretted over their poorly dog before vets solved the mystery of his sickness – he’d swallowed a corn on the cob whole.

Owner Katrina Irving feared cocker spaniel Max had developed a cancerous tumour.

But an ultrasound scan revealed the unlikely cause of the five-year-old’s ailment was a huge corn husk.

Max's owners feared that the mass found in his body was a tumour.

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Katrina, mum to 19-month-old twin boys, said: “Max had been sick a few times and just wasn’t himself.

“He was pacing up and down the house, wanting outside all the time and constantly crying.

“I had to care for Max at home, but everything I gave to him, he brought back up. I was really worried.”

Over the weekend Max’s health continued to worsen. Katrina, 42, added: “Max was just bringing up luminous green bile and wasn’t eating or drinking anything. He was absolutely miserable.”

He was taken to his local vets who performed an ultrasound scan. It showed a large mass in his intestine, which Katrina feared was cancer. But it turned out to be a corn on the cob.

“I haven’t got a clue where he picked it up because we don’t eat them,” she added. “The vet said it had probably been in Max’s stomach for around two weeks.”

Once the problem was identified Max was rushed to the Vets Now pet emergency hospital in Glasgow where he underwent an operation at 11.30pm.

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It didn’t take long following the operation for Max to return to his usual boisterous self.

Katrina, a payroll manager with Lidl, said: “It was a really worrying time. Max is a huge part of our family and we would have been devastated if we’d lost him.

“He’s back to old self now playing with my boys, Matthew and Luke.”

Vet Fiona MacNee, who works at the Glasgow hospital, said Max’s case serves as a good reminder to keep human foods out of the reach of dogs.

She added: “It was good to see Max so alert and responsive after his operation. The blockage caused by the corn on the cob was making him seriously ill and this should be a reminder to us all to dispose of food waste securely rather than leave it where dogs can put themselves at risk by wolfing it down.”

Laura Playforth, Vets Now’s professional standards director, said corn cobs are not an uncommon culprit for this type of blockage.

She added: “Dogs will often pick them up from plates or the floor, from barbeques and out of bins. My advice is always to dispose of the cobs in a large sturdy bin, preferably one which dogs have no access to such as an outside wheelie bin.”

The Vets Now hospital in Glasgow is one of 58 Vets Now clinics and pet emergency hospitals across the UK that are open through the night, seven-days-a-week, and day and night on weekends and bank holidays, to treat any pet emergencies that may occur.

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