Vandaag naar Oostende geweest. Voor Luka – onze hond – was het de tweede keer aan de zee.
Ideale plaats om wat met onze Chuckit! te spelen. Een Chuckit is eigenlijk niet meer dan een stuk plastiek waardoor je een tennisbal een pak verder kan gooien zonder jezelf moe te maken. Te koop in de betere dierenspeciaalzaak voor geen geld en ongelooflijk plezant.
Dolle pret. Denk wel dat Luka haar ook goed heeft gehad.
Cora Mathijssen
1 month ago
Beste Tom,
Hieronder een berichtje dat mij werd toegezonden door een cursist van mijn hondenschool. Misschien wel interessant om te lezen.
TER KENNISGEVING
Dogs and balls warning
Anyone who owns a dog and especially those of us that train dogs for a hobby has heard the horror stories of a dog swallowing a tennis ball. Sometimes, if you are lucky, the dog swallows the ball and an operation is required to remove the ball. If you are unlucky, the ball sticks in the dogs’ throat and unless you have luck and God on your side, the result is the death of your beloved pet.
We have never allowed our dogs to play with tennis balls for this reason. When we first started using a Chuck-It we were concerned that the tennis size ball used in the Chuck-It could be a problem. However having used the Chuck-it daily for several years without any problems what so ever we got complacent and figured that it was safe to use. We never used a tennis ball and always paid a bit extra for the top quality balls made especially for the Chuck-It.
About a year ago Dixie, one of our dogs, started “collecting” the balls and would often run around with two in her mouth. A few months ago this gave us a pretty bad scare when she got one of them stuck in her throat. Dixie was choking and couldn’t breathe but luckily the ball could be seen and we managed to pry it out. No damage done and a lesson learned. Since then it has been a strictly one ball one dog rule. Until today………
I was out on our field throwing the chuck-it for all four of our dogs. We were about played out and I was collecting the balls when I noticed that Dixie was lying down chomping on one ball with two others lying between her front legs. She had mugged two of the other dogs and nicked their balls. As I approached her to take the balls away she grabbed a second one in the mouth and then tried to take the third as well, which she managed to do, but only by forcing the first ball to the back of her mouth and down her throat. She dropped the first two balls but was obviously choking on the third ball. I opened her mouth but the ball was out of sight. She couldn’t breathe so she obviously hadn’t swallowed it. It was stuck in her throat but beyond reach. I forced my hand into her throat and could touch the ball with the tip of my finger but could get a finger hooked around it. She was staggering about but still walking so I ran to the house to call for help. One of our staff, Luke, was walking past and came to help. Dixie then started to gag and vomit, but no ball came out. I thought (actually I hoped) that she had swallowed the ball. But she hadn’t. I forced open her mouth again and could see the ball but it was still “out of reach”. Dixie promptly, (but by accident), bit both me and Luke when she closed her jaws with unbelievable force.
Dixie then collapsed. She couldn’t breath and we couldn’t get the ball out. As she went into unconsciousness we forced open her jaws again and we could just see a hole in the ball. I asked Luke to hold her jaws open and put my hand right down her throat and with unbelievable luck managed to get one finger into the hole. Using brute force I managed to get the ball out. Dixie wasn’t conscious and maybe not even breathing; I couldn’t tell. I gave her some thumps on her rib cage and after a few seconds (which seemed like hours) she regained consciousness. She lay on the ground in the snow for a few minutes completely disorientated and then slowing came back to compos mentis. I couldn’t tell whether or not she had stopped breathing, probably not, but I just don’t know. Both Luke and I got bitten and my wrist is sore where her back molars gripped in reflex. That is how far down my hand had gone.
What I do know is that the look of utter confusion in her eyes while this was going on is something that I will never forget.
Within 5 minutes she was back to normal. We took her to the vets to get her checked over. She seemed fine but after having my hand down her throat we wanted to make sure that I hadn’t caused any damage.
We have thrown thousands of balls for all our dogs for more years that I care to remember. We had heard all the stories and preached to everyone about the danger of tennis balls, but this wasn’t a tennis ball. It was the special Chuck-it rubber balls. The biggest mistake we made was ever allowing Dixie to carry more than one ball. When she first starting doing it we found it a huge joke. Well this joke turned into one of the worst experiences of my life. From now on any balls will be on a rope. Especially for GSD size dogs.
Brian
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Tom
1 month ago
Beste Cora,
bedankt voor het berichtje. Ik ben er echter vrij gerust in dat ons Luka een tennisbal niet zal/kan inslikken.
groeten,
Tom