Let me tell you about Billy, a very lovely and very boisterous Dogue de Bordeaux cross that clients of mine rescued from Battersea Dogs Home just before lockdown. If you cannot imagine what he looks like just think something along the lines of an over-enthusiastic Staffordshire Bull Terrier the size of a small pony! Billy’s owners contacted me one evening last week to say that they were pretty sure he had managed to get hold of a ball that he should not have had access to (it was a tennis ball-size rubber ball that lit up and flashed when it bounced). Billy’s owners saw it in his mouth – tried to take it from him and he appeared to swallow it in protest.

This presented a worry on two counts – if he had indeed swallowed the ball it could cause a blockage in the guts and, if it was pierced, the batteries that it contained to make it light up could be toxic. I got Billy’s owners to bring him down to the surgery and we gave him an injection to make him sick. Believe me he was definitely sick – trying to get a boisterous Billy to be sick neatly in one place whilst his owners and I tried to maintain social distancing was no mean feat. Plenty of supper was brought up but no ball.

We now had a dilemma – if this ball was in there it was not coming back up the way it had gone down. Billy and his owners went home for one last check around the kitchen to make sure the ball was not hiding in a corner; the next morning the ball had not been found so I called Billy back in for an x-ray.

To be continued next week….

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