Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Owners warn of rope toy danger after puppy Gimli’s brush with death

Gimli the puppy, with his owner Clarissa, is now on the road to recovery.
Gimli the puppy, with his owner Clarissa, is now on the road to recovery.

A five-month-old puppy had a lucky escape after swallowing part of a rope toy, leaving him needing life-saving surgery.

Gimli, a wire-haired Hungarian Vizla, was with his owner Clarissa Wright at her mother Helena’s home in Cults, in the west of Aberdeen, on July 11 when they noticed he had become lethargic and was unable to eat or drink.

Suspecting he had swallowed something he shouldn’t have, Clarissa and Helena initially thought it may be a pine cone or a piece of deer excrement.

But when Gimli’s condition had not improved by the following day, they realised something was seriously wrong.

Gimli had to have major surgery to remove the piece of rope.

Puppy swallowed ‘huge piece’ of toy

The puppy was examined at Town and Country Vets, who decided he needed emergency surgery.

After he went under the knife, vets found a huge piece of rope toy had got stuck in his intestine.

Dogs are unable to digest pieces of rope, which can then get tangled – meaning if Gimli had not had his operation, he could have died.

Thankfully he is on the road to recovery, but Clarissa and Helena now want other pet owners to be aware of the dangers the toys can pose to their animals.

Warning to other owners

“I didn’t know they could be so dangerous, and I have owned dogs all my life,” Helena said.

“Rope gets all tangled round their intestines because they can’t digest it. After what happened to Gimli we looked on the internet and there were lots of stories of people whose dogs sadly didn’t make it.

“Thankfully he has perked up now but we were really, really scared.

Gimli is now on the road to recovery after his ordeal.

“We want other people to know how dangerous it can be. Rope is one of the worst things a dog can ingest but the toys didn’t have any warnings on them.”

Clarissa added the experience had left her “in shock”.

“I thought it might be something minor,” she said.

“My general advice [to dog owners] would be to make sure you don’t buy rope toys as they are actually pretty dangerous. They go right through to the intestine.

“He’s made a very good recovery thankfully, but it was a close shave.”

Advice from the PDSA describes rope toys as “great for tugging games”.

But the charity urges owners to throw away any toys which are damaged and not leave pets unsupervised.

This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.