A family have thanked vet charity PDSA for saving their pet dog Mazikine who needed an urgent operation after it swallowed 14 screws which had been knocked on the floor as they were doing some DIY.
Lola Mai-Wellington, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, realised something was wrong when the four-year-old cane cross started being sick with screws and blood in her vomit.
The 32-year-old realised that the dog must have eaten the screws which had been knocked on to the floor as they were putting up a shelf.
She took Mazikine to the Portsmouth PDSA pet hospital where it underwent an operation to remove the screws with the £887 cost covered by the charity.
Ms Mai-Wellington said: “My husband and I were in the process of converting the area under our stairs into a dog kennel for Mazikine.
“The pot of screws was on a shelf in there and someone must have knocked it off onto the floor, without us realising.
“Once I noticed them, I quickly swept them up, not knowing Mazikine had already spotted them.
“Later that evening, I heard Mazikine being sick. There were screws and blood in her vomit. I was so worried and immediately called PDSA and took her in.”
PDSA veterinary surgeon Emily Sharp said: “When Mazikine arrived at the Pet Hospital, she had already vomited up eight screws.
“We immediately admitted her for a sedation and x-rays which showed she’d a further six screws – five of which were in her stomach and one was in her intestine.
“The screws could cause serious internal damage such as tears in her stomach and intestines, so we took her to surgery straight away to remove them.”
Ms Mai-Wellington thanked the charity saying she would not have been able to cover the costs of the operation.
She said: “If we had taken Maz to a private vets, and didn’t have insurance, it would have cost too much.
“We couldn’t have afforded to pay the full cost of Maz’s treatment. I think about money constantly. We have to budget carefully and work out where money is going each month.
“But Maz has helped our family through so much and we’d do anything for her. Despite being named after a devilish character in the TV show Lucifer, in reality, Mazikine is a gentle giant.”
