Marley’s owner telephoned the surgery on Christmas Day morning because Marley had vomited on a number of occasions over night. We arranged to see Marley at the surgery at 9am.

When Marley arrived at the surgery he certainly did not seem his bright normal self. One examination his abdomen seemed a little tender. Like most puppies he didn’t like sitting still for too long so careful examination of his abdomen was tricky.

However I thought I could feel a long sausage shaped abnormality. Marley’s owner informed me that Marley did have a liking for chewing and eating things he shouldn’t including socks!

We elected to sedate Marley to examine and X-ray his abdomen. The X-ray and closer examination confirmed that there was definitely something abnormal in his abdomen.

Under general anaesthetic we performed an exploratory laparotomy. As soon as we opened Marley’s abdomen we found a six inch section of hard dilated small intestine.

Opening this section revealed a pair of socks. After removal of the socks we carefully closed the small intestine and the abdominal incision.

Marley recovered rapidly from his general anaesthetic and was given intravenous fluids throughout the day. Later that evening when we gave Marley a small amount of food he ate enthusiastically.

Marley was well enough to go home on Boxing Day morning. We checked him back the following day and he was making a rapid recovery from his operation. Hopefully he will have learnt his lesson about eating socks.