WE ALWAYS think of young dogs doing daft things (like swallowing stones and underwear) but on Monday evening I treated Radar, a lovely 12-year-old German Shepherd dog that should have known better. Radar had gone fishing with his dad all his life and never had a problem; his owner keeps his fishing tackle hanging up in the garage and there has never been an issue – until Monday afternoon when Radar went into the garage on his own, spotted that a fish hook still had a tiny bit of bait on it and jumped up to eat the bait – fish hook and all. Radar was coughing and gagging but his owners could not see the hook in his mouth – they were terrified what damage it would cause further down.

Radar was rushed to us at the surgery, by which time he had bitten off the line that was attached to the hook, but we knew the hook was in him – somewhere. The worry with fish hooks (and we see them being swallowed by dogs quite a lot being so near the sea) is where they become lodged and what damage they can cause. Radar was stable when he arrived with us but still coughing, we anaesthetised him straight away and to my huge relief on opening his mouth fully to intubate him I could just see the fish hook lodged in his throat at the very back of his tongue. We were able to remove the hook and Radar has made a good recovery.

These removals are not always so straight forward – fish hooks lodged in the oesophagus or intestines can be a real headache and require tricky surgery. The moral of the story must be, however old your dog is, always keep fish hooks and fishing gear out of reach.

Alice Moore is a vet at Castle Veterinary Clinic, Dorchester and Weymouth. Tel 01305 267083