Posted on 12/16/2009 5:29:27 PM PST by Nachum
CUDDLES the two-year-old labrador is recovering at home after swallowing Christmas decorations, costing her owners thousands of dollars in vet operations.
A typical labrador with a big appetite, Cuddles thought all her Christmases had come at once, the Herald Sun reports.
Tell us: What strange things has your dog eaten?
A "scarf" made from baubles and ribbon tossed around a stuffed toy reindeer's neck looked tantalising, like festive food good enough to eat.
Several days - and a budget-blowing $7000 - later, Cuddles is sore and sorry with a belly full of stitches.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
What have you caught your dog chewing?
They are carnivores after all....
$7000? Sorry dog, you gonna die.
I have a 2 1/2 yellow male lab that I have to keep track of or else papers, anything plastic, wood doors & door mldgs, rugs etc. will be chewed. I don’t know what it is about labs but they can be a handful. One of our favorite movies is Marley because we are still going thru all the damages & can relate.
I had a freind years ago whose dog would chomp in one gulp the aqua blue glass balls on the tree..did not seem to like any other color. Between not being that many and what there was remaining being moved way high, pooch did not seem to get into too much trouble.
“Cuddles is sore and sorry”
No he isn’t. He’ll eat stuff again as soon as he gets the chance.
I have two lab mixes, they always have stuff in their mouth. It’s a lab thing. That, and the lab “lean”.
We have a Flat Coated Retriever female and she is much the same.
my daughter had a border collie eat a whole box of chocolate covered cherries, that dog had the Oklahoma quick step for three days. we had a Irish setter steal and eat a bag of Whoppers “malted milk balls” we had to evacuate the the house and make sure there were no open flames or pilot lights on. one of the most fowl odors i think i have ever smelled
That’s why I call mine a labradork.
“Xmas” in the title? This is Free Republic.com. And “xmas” as a keyword?!? Merry CHRISTmas!
What is it with labs? These dogs seem to come hard-wired with an eating disorder that would obviously be fatal if they didn’t have human protectors watching over them constantly.
A few years back I was in the waiting room at my vet’s office with my 21 year old cat. There was young lady there with a labrador who’s home she’d been housesitting at while owners were on vacation. The dog had eaten its nylon leash . . . in three bites. One piece had been fished out the back end by a vet on a previous visit, and another had passed through on its own, but the third piece was firmly stuck deep inside and the dog was being admitted for major abdominal surgery to remove it.
I just don’t get how these dogs, that look like nice normal dogs (and not the result of some insane breeding scheme, like many dog breeds), picked up this suicidal gene across the whole breed.
At least those things are FOOD. Labradors seem to completely lack the ability to distinguish between food and non-food when it comes to wolfing things down.
I took her to the vet a few months back as she was constantly vomiting. . .the vet did an x-ray and found FIVE rocks working their way through her system.
She also loves to chew on my husbands pillow and pillowcase. She leaves mine alone but eats his. Smart girl.
I only cut and pasted!
Our lab puppy actually ate holes in the sheetrock wall. I don’t know whether he was going after the paint or the sheetrock itself. He ate just about everything that he could reach. Labs have got to be the most hyperactive dogs on earth. We had had a chance to get his brother also, but two puppies seemed like too much. If I had it to do over, I would taken both of them. A sibling playmate would have given him something to do besides chew on stuff.
My guess is it’s been bred in as an unwelcome side. Labs are retrievers and I can tell you mine is like the little kid who is not happy unless he is putting something in his mouth.
It’s really sort of funny. His mouth is never empty - it may ba a sock, a water bottle, a paper plate. When I let him out in the am, he turns back from the door and runs around the house searching, until he can find something to carry out. I didn’t have to teach him to fetch. He knew from the time he could run.
I suppose that’s as good an explanation as any. But fer cryin’ out loud, look at post #14. That one has a habit of swallowing ROCKS! As you noted, little kids instinctively like to put things in their mouths too, but they don’t *swallow* things like rocks, nylon leashes, and all sorts of other random objects that have no hope of passing through their digestive systems. They often accidentally swallow very small objects they’ve put in their mouths, like coins, buttons, tiny pebbles, etc, but that’s very different.
I haven’t had a dog since I was a little kid — I’ve been a cat person, largely because they’re easier to take care of. I do plan on getting a dog somewhere down the road, but I’ve ruled out labs on account of the swallowing-stuff problem. It’s funny until the dog is writhing in pain and the vet informs you that it’s going to cost several thousand dollars to save the critter.
Thank you for catching that, newbie! Welcome and a Very
MERRY CHRISTMAS to you!
You are forgiven! =) Merry Christmas!
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