Facebook / Animal Referral Hospital
When Lexi the 6-month-old Staffy couldn’t stop vomiting, her owner decided to take her to the vet. Turns out their puppy did have a sore stomach, but it wasn’t a tummy bug. It was a knife!
Unbelievably, when the vet performed an x-ray it revealed a 20cm long steak knife lodged next to Lexi’s heart. The poor pup had somehow managed to swallow the serrated knife handle-first which meant it miraculously didn’t stab her insides.
Lexi was rushed to the Animal Referral Hospital in Sydney’s west for emergency surgery where Dr Judy Braddock’s team were astonished at the task before them.
‘My first impression was how could this even happen?’ she says, in a video from the ARH.
After 45 minutes in surgery Dr Braddock’s team was able to delicately pull the knife back up through Lexi’s throat using forceps and a endoscope camera.
Lexi spent the next 3 days recovering in intensive care.
The question is how did Lexi come to swallow a knife in the first place? Veterinary dentist, Dr Christine Hawke, suspects it was because of a common dental problem that caused Lexi’s teeth to press into her gums when she closes her mouth. Many dogs with this condition chew to help ease the discomfort.
‘Every time she closes her mouth she’s biting herself it’s very common for us to find these dogs are chewing everything in sight’, she explains.
Lexi’s mum will be keeping a closer eye on her from now on!
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