A word of warning to those of you out there with dogs who love to chase sticks. A stick can bounce and slice a dog’s throat all the way down to its shoulder.

The dogs in the header are Murphy and Bunty.

Bunty is no longer with us. Murphy is but only just.

As you can see both of these dogs love to chase a stick and I love to throw a stick for my dogs. Or I used to.

Last week I threw a stick for my dog Murphy – the black dog. As always he went off like a bullet after it but then it went wrong. The stick bounced and it broke and Murphy ran on to it. It went down his throat, sharp end first, and sliced a  2 inch flap in the back of his throat. Fortunately it came out but there was much blood and poor Murphy howled and howled.

I was useless. I opened his mouth and groped about inside but could feel nothing and the bleeding was slowing down. Poor Murphy was all shook up and whimpering but all I could do was put my arms round him and hug him. Pathetic eh?

Anyway he quietened down and seemed almost normal but I took him to the vet anyway. I was horrified when she said she was going to keep him in and these injuries were the worst kind!

He had to have stitches in his throat, antibiotics and is still on painkillers. The vet tells me he was very lucky it wasn’t worse – sometimes a stick will go in for 12 inches! Yes 12 inches – it will just keep going till it hits something hard enough to stop it like a shoulder bone.

So – don’t throw sticks for dogs. The next time you do – it could be the last. If you are lucky it’ll only be the last stick. If not it could be the end of your dog.

Remember – even a blunt stick can break and present your dog with a sharp point to throw himself onto.

Click here for more about Bunty

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