A Great Dane in Portland, Oregon has such a unique appetite that it landed him a spot in the operating room and the animal hospital where he was operated a place in an X-ray competition.
The 140-pound animal was repeatedly vomiting and retching as well as refusing to eat before he was brought to the Portland's DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital. The owners did not know why the dog became increasingly sick but an examination revealed that the three-year old dog had a severely swollen stomach. The X-ray also showed that the dog's stomach had a lot of foreign materials. It turned out that the animal had been feasting on his owners' socks.
The veterinarian who performed an exploratory surgery on the animal found 43 and ½ socks in its stomach. The surgery took three hours but things fortunately went well. It did not also take long for the Great Dane to get well. He recovered so fast he was allowed to go home the day after his operation.
The incident occurred in February this year but it only became known to the public after the hospital submitted the dog's X-ray as entry to a competition, which eventually took the third place. A frog that ate over 30 rocks and another dog that gobbled a shish kabob skewer took the first and second places respectively in Veterinary Practice News' 2014 X-Ray Contest, which was sponsored by Pet insurer Trupanion of Seattle, Washington.
DoveLewis earned $500 from the contest and the amount will go the hospital's Velvet Assistance Fund, which provides assistance to low-income families so they can pay for veterinary emergencies.
The incident is not the first time that the DoveLewis hospital has performed a surgery because of odd causes. It has, for instance, already performed a surgery on a dog that feasted on Gorilla Glue.
"Whether it's an anxiety thing when they're missing their owners and the smell of the person on the clothing attracts them, or they're mad, who knows," said DoveLewis Staff Surgeon Ashley Magee. "But we do remove articles of clothing often from dogs, but this certainly is a record holder."
The sock-loving Great Dane may have become an animal celebrity for his odd taste for food but his owners have requested not to be identified which means that the dog's identity would not be made available either, said DoveLewis spokesperson Shawna Harch.
