Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Care call after dog swallows fish hook

Bay of Plenty Times
15 Feb, 2013 12:19 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A dog owner is pleading for fishermen to take care after her young dog underwent major $2500 surgery after swallowing a fish hook on the beach.

Stephanie Hodges was walking Mila, her 20-week-old Rottweiler, along Papamoa Beach last Friday morning when the dog swallowed a large hook.

Mila started gagging and Ms Hodges noticed the trace from a long-line hanging from her mouth.

"We'd been warned about it at puppy class and they said never to pull it out," she said.

She wrapped the rest of the chord around Mila's collar and got her home and in the car to the vet as fast as possible.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The vet at the Papamoa Veterinary Clinic could not see the hook by looking down Mila's throat but an x-ray found it lodged in her oesophagus.


Ms Hodges, her 15-year-old son and Mila were then sent to a surgeon in Matamata for an operation to get the hook out.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Dr Stephen McGill tried to use an endoscope to remove the hook but because of the large size of the hook and the location of it he was forced to perform more invasive surgery.

"I had to go into the thorax, cut between the ribs and spread them so you can get your hand into the chest."

This causes the lungs to collapse so the animal is not able to breathe on its own.

Despite all that, Mila was bouncing around again like nothing happened when the Bay of Plenty Times visited yesterday.

Mr McGill said he had not seen many dogs that had swallowed hooks although vets often dealt with animals that had hooks caught on their tongues or lips.

Dr Lucy Walton of Papamoa Vets said they always saw an increase in the number of animals with hooks stuck in them over the summer months.

Most often the hooks got caught in the corner of the mouth or in a paw. It was rare for animals to swallow the whole thing, she said.

During the last two summers about seven cats and 10 dogs had been brought into the clinic with hooks stuck in them, although only two or three had swallowed these.

Ms Hodges said it was not the first time she had seen traces left on Papamoa Beach and this week she found another one.

While she does not think fishermen were purposely dumping hooks she is appealing for them to take extra care and make sure they have not lost anything on the beach.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Mila's lucky," she said.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Speedway deal: Proposal to sell Baypark stand for $1, extend lease

10 Jun 05:07 AM
Lifestyle

'New perspective on life': Alone: Australia's first Kiwi winner on what got him through

10 Jun 04:31 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Pregnant dairy worker thrown to the ground in attempted robbery

10 Jun 03:03 AM

Why Cambridge is the new home of future-focused design

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Speedway deal: Proposal to sell Baypark stand for $1, extend lease

Speedway deal: Proposal to sell Baypark stand for $1, extend lease

10 Jun 05:07 AM

The council is mulling plans to extend speedway operations at Baypark until 2039.

'New perspective on life': Alone: Australia's first Kiwi winner on what got him through

'New perspective on life': Alone: Australia's first Kiwi winner on what got him through

10 Jun 04:31 AM
Pregnant dairy worker thrown to the ground in attempted robbery

Pregnant dairy worker thrown to the ground in attempted robbery

10 Jun 03:03 AM
Te Puke take hard-fought win, Rotoiti claim Tai Mitchell Shield

Te Puke take hard-fought win, Rotoiti claim Tai Mitchell Shield

09 Jun 11:07 PM
Clean water fuelling Pacific futures
sponsored

Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP