A dog has undergone life-saving emergency surgery after swallowing a video game.
Staffordshire Bull Terrier Rocco was taken to vet charity PDSA’s Glasgow Shamrock Street Pet Hospital after he began vomiting and could not eat.
An X-ray of the four-year-old dog showed a rectangular-shaped object in his small intestine that turned out to be a Nintendo DS cartridge.
Owner Sean Johnston, 27, said: “He wasn’t acting himself at all and we were worried he’d eaten a corn on the cob, but we were so shocked when the vet said it was from a video game.
“We don’t own a Nintendo or anything like that so we’re baffled as to where he got it from.
The dog has made a full recovery
“He’s a rescue dog and we’ve only had him for about six months so the only thing we can think is that it was from his previous owners – who knows how long it’s been in there.
“Even though we haven’t had him that long, he’s already such a big part of the family, so we’re delighted to have him back home.
“He’s made a brilliant recovery.”
Had it been left untreated, the cartridge could have caused a fatal blockage.
A Nintendo DS cartridge that was eaten by Rocco
The surgeon carried out the operation immediately and the dog, from Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, was discharged after an overnight stay to rest and recover.
PDSA senior vet Susan Hermit said: “We see dogs that eat strange things all the time but none of us had ever seen anything like this.
The cartridge that was removed from the canine
“Objects can sometimes sit in the stomach for a while, but they cause problems when they try and push through the guts, which are much narrower.
“It was a good job Sean brought Rocco in when he did, as an object of this size trying to pass through the guts could have caused a deadly blockage or pierced his internal organs.”
