A hungry puppy munching on a sweet treat needed emergency surgery when he wolfed down a dessert spoon whole.
Golden labrador Scooby got carried away as he was being fed bread and butter pudding by owner Marie Regan.
He scoffed some of the sweet from her hand – but quickly turned and chomped the spoon in her other hand.
Marie, 34, and partner Paul Cooper rushed the seven month-old pooch to Thanet Animal Hospital in Margate, Kent where he had a major stomach operation.
Luckily they had Scooby insured – otherwise the hour-and-half-long operation would have cost them a staggering £1, 5000.
Marie said: “Luckily we are insured. We pay about £10 a month. But I think this operation has taken us up to our limit on what we can claim.
“I think we’ll have to up our insurance premium because we seem to have a dog who likes eating things he shouldn’t.”
Paul, a photograph technician, added: “I couldn’t believe he’d done it and I still can’t quite. He didn’t muck around with teaspoons, he went straight for the big one.
“He often sits near us when there’s food around and while we were eating bread and butter pudding Marie fed him some from her hand.
“She was holding the spoon in her other hand and quick as a flash, Scooby went over thinking there might be food there too and took the spoon straight out of her hand.
“When we saw that it wasn’t in his mouth, we realised that he must have swallowed it.
“But he didn’t even flinch, he just carried on as normal.”
Paul, 42, added: “He’s tried to eat smaller things such as the tops of Smarties tubes but we’ve always been able to get them off him before now.
“He sometimes takes clothes out of the tumble dryer but he’s never tried to chew them.
“I’m so glad he’s on the mend and I’ve been looking forward to getting him home because he is such a lovely character. It has been very quiet without him.”
Vets tried to remove the spoon with an endoscope but discovered the cutlery was stuck firmly in Scooby’s stomach and had to perform emergency surgery.
Childcare worker Marie and Paul, from Ramsgate, Kent, who have four children between them said Scooby is now recovering well at home.
Head vet Jill Matthews said: “I’ve taken all kinds of foreign objects out of dogs but in 32 years, this is the first time I’ve removed a spoon.
“It was a bit complicated because when I tried to use the endoscope, I couldn’t get hold of it because the handle end was close to the beginning of the small intestine.
“I had to remove it through the stomach wall, which is major surgery, but he’s a young, fit dog and with painkillers he was able to eat breakfast the day after the operation and was well enough to go home. It will be about 10-14 days before he’s fully recovered.
“It was such a big spoon but Scooby is quite a large dog even though he’s very young and a dog that size can easily swallow things like this if they go down the right way and labradors are more prone to swallowing things before testing them.
“I hope that he continues to make a good recovery.”
Practice manager Heidi Purdy said: “When his owners brought him in, you would never have known that there was anything wrong, he was jumping around enthusiastically in reception and seemed totally happy.”
