Pet owners, beware this holiday weekend! Your meal or your trip to the beach with your dog could end up sending your pooch to the emergency room for an expensive surgery.
You may not realize this, but corn on the cob is a favorite treat for dogs who may be rummaging through the trash can.
“It’s covered with butter and smells delicious to dogs,” explained Dr. Christian Broadhurst with Clay Humane.
He said, believe it or not, a dog can swallow corn on the cob whole and it will get lodged in their intestine, causing a dangerous, even potentially deadly, blockage.
This happened to an Atlantic Beach silver lab, Wade, three months ago. He had to have emergency surgery, which cost his owner $5,000.
The vet who performed the surgery during Memorial Day weekend said it was his third surgery in the last few days, specifically to remove a piece of corn on the cob from a dog’s intestine.
Broadhurst shared other dangers that have caused blockages in two dogs he’s treated.
One was a dog that ate too much sand, and it clumped so badly in the intestine that surgery was required to save the animal.
The other involved a dog that ate a nerf ball, which also had to be surgically removed.
Broadhurst said you should never feed your dog table scraps either, since you might not know if your dog is allergic to a certain food or if a bone could get lodged in your dog’s intestine.