An Armadale woman has a warning for dog owners walking their pets near rivers after her three-year-old black Labrador died from ingesting a hook earlier this month.
Wendy Whitlock was taking her dog Charlie for a walk along the Canning River near Rushton Park in Kelmscott on January 25 when he ate a sock full of yabby bait.
She said from then it was a traumatic week until Charlie eventually died a week and a half later.
“We were walking from Rushton Park down to the castle the day before Australia Day and I didn’t know he had eaten anything at that point,” she said.
“He started getting sick on the Saturday but he was okay so I took him to the vet on the Monday.
“They did x-rays and they thought he had a blockage, we cleared all that and got sent home on the Tuesday.
“On the Wednesday night he got sick again and I took him back straight away on Thursday.
“They did more x-rays and an ultrasound and they found he’d actually eaten a black stocking and sock filled with burly and fishing line and hook.
“They did the surgery straight away which went well but the vet did say that it did a lot of damage.
“I took him up to Waaves (vet) in Success and I went and saw him on the Friday and he looked like he was coming good.
“In the early hours of Saturday morning they called me to say he’d gone down and he needed more surgery and when they operated again there was nothing they could do.
“It just ripped his bowels apart.”
She said it was a horrible experience that she didn’t want any other dog owners to go through.
“It was pretty rough, he was only three and he was a beautiful boy,” she said.
“It’s more so to warn other dog owners.
“I don’t want another dog to go through what he went through.
“People should take care around there and keep an eye on what their dog is doing.”
