Puppy needed £2,500 emergency surgery after swallowing batteries

Naughty puppy needed emergency surgery after chewing through TV remote and swallowing batteries – leaving his owner with a £2,500 bill

• Sharon Nicholson watched in horror as her puppy chewed through the remote
• After swallowing a battery she rushed the young dog to the vets
• A £2,500 lifesaving operation was performed to stop the batteries fatal leaking 

A naughty puppy forced his owner to shell out £2500 on a lifesaving operation after he chewed through a TV remote and swallowed the batteries.

Sharon Nicholson, 51, was heading to bed on last month when she saw her Hungarian Vizsla Dexter had nicked the remote off her bed and started eating it.

After attempting to wrestle the remote from the dog, she began to offer him treats to coax his jaws off his prize.

However four-month-old Dexter had already chewed through the case and swallowed one of the Duracell batteries in the few seconds he’d had it, leaving the mum-of-two frantic with worry.

Amazingly, despite his meal Dexter was behaving fine but vets told her to bring him in straight away for fear the battery acid could leak and burn through his insides.

Dexter was just four-months-old when he bit off more than he could chew 

In just a few seconds Dexter was able to chew through the remote and swallow the battery

X-ray pictures show how close the battery came to Dexter’s vital organs 

A grim x-ray shows the cylindrical power source lodged inside him – perilously close to his internal organs.

After trying to coax the battery out of his body by making the dog throw up, the vets were eventually forced to fish it out from down his throat.

Sharon had to pay £2,500 for the procedure, which thankfully her insurance will cover.

She has said she doesn’t blame Duracell for the accident, is now urging owners to keep battery-powered items out of reach and seek medical help if in a similar predicament.

Duracell said they were ‘very sad’ to hear about Dexter’s accident, are glad it’s been safely removed and are always seeking to raise awareness of how to use and store batteries safely.

Sharon, from Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, said: ‘The vets told me to bring him straight down because they weren’t sure whether he’d bitten into it first.

‘If he’d bit into it first then it was highly dangerous because of the battery acid but luckily he hadn’t.

‘I was in tears knowing the battery was still in his tummy [the following day].

‘It was just the thought of losing him, putting him through a procedure and thinking it was only a slim chance he would survive that.’

A scope was pushed down Dexter’s throat in order to extract the battery 

The operation to save Dexter’s life cost Sharon £2,500

Thankfully Dexter has now made a full recovery and seems to have learnt his lesson 

The operation Dexter had consisted of a scope being wiggled down his throat.

The grim procedure was successful and Sharon says he’s now back to normal.

She explained: ‘They anaesthetised him and put a scope with loops on the end down his throat to fish it out.

‘It was inside him for nearly 24 hours, it’s a miracle it didn’t leak in that time.

‘He didn’t have to be cut open, which is what we were worried about. Dexter’s now fine, he’s back to normal.

‘I was elated when I knew he was going to be alright, I told the vet I could have hugged him.

‘The operation to fish it out cost £2,500, thankfully the insurance will cover it.

‘It’s not Duracell’s fault, it was just an accident. I’ve been through the house and made sure everything’s out of reach.

‘My advice to any dog owners in a similar situation would be to make sure everything is out of reach and if anything does happen like that seek a vet’s help immediately’.

Mr Doddy, who performed the procedure, said: ‘We saw Dexter, a four-month-old Hungarian Viszla puppy, here at Swift Referrals on a Saturday evening.

‘He had swallowed a battery from the TV remote control. His own vets had given him a drug to make him vomit the offending item up again, but it remained stubbornly in the stomach.

‘He was sent here where x-rays confirmed that the battery was still present.. You might think that we could have just left the battery where it was, in the hope that Dexter would pass it ‘out the other end’.

‘However the strong stomach acid can corrode a battery, this causing the toxic contents to be released and absorbed into the bloodstream.

‘So, under general anaesthesia, we passed an endoscope and with some delicate manoeuvres, retrieved the missing AAA.

‘While we were in there, we also retrieved two sections of a gent’s leather belt and several twigs.

‘Dexter has been firmly told to stick to dog food.’

A Duracell spokesman said: ‘We are very sad to hear about Dexter’s accident and hope that he is recovering swiftly.

‘We are glad that the battery, and the other items that he had eaten, were safely removed.

‘Duracell is always seeking to raise awareness of how to use and store batteries safely.

‘As part of that, we recommend that consumers regularly check the devices in their homes to make sure that batteries are secure and cannot be removed easily.

‘In addition, new batteries and used ones should be stored in a safe place until they can be recycled correctly.’

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