A WOMAN whose dog needed emergency surgery after swallowing a fish hook is warning other walkers to be aware.
Becky Baker was walking seven year old Monty on Plaidy Beach near Looe on Wednesday when she spotted something hanging from his mouth.
“I knew what it was straight away,” she said.
“I didn’t want to pull on it. It happened in a second, and within half an hour he was at the vet in Liskeard and under anaesthetic.”
Becky said the nurse had told her it was lucky the hook had been on a line as otherwise she may not have realized that her dog had swallowed it at all until it caused problems later.
The three centimetre hook still had a piece of squid on it when it was extracted from Monty’s stomach by the vet.
“It was at the top of the beach under the sand,” said Becky.
“It could have been washed up, hopefully someone didn’t leave it there, there’s no way of knowing. I think it was just unlucky.”
Other dog owners posting on the Looe Moaners Facebook page have described finding fishing tackle on beaches in the area, with one saying that his dog “had nearly swallowed a fish hook” on Plaidy Beach a few days earlier.
Now Becky has been left with an £1100 vet bill after Monty’s unlucky experience, but she says that as he has other health issues as well, she wasn’t even sure he’d make it through the surgery – and she is just very glad to have him home and on the road to recovery.