Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/weimaraner-gulps-down-rock/

A family from Porth in the Rhondda, Wales region of the U.K. were alarmed when their Weimaraner, Milo, started throwing up and bleeding. Naturally, they whisked the stricken animal to the vet to find out what was causing the symptoms. Once they arrived, the veterinarian asked if he had possibly eaten anything he shouldn’t have. One of his owners, Shannon Stone, noted that the four-year-old occasionally chewed on socks, but hadn’t seen him eating anything out of the ordinary recently.

Emergency Vet Clinics

The vet soon did a scan on the miserable pooch and quickly observed a rock lodged in his lower intestine, much to everyone’s surprise, except, perhaps, the vet’s. Dogs are known to dine on all sorts of stuff they’re not supposed to. They, like cats and many other animals, explore with their mouths, so swallowing something after rolling it around in their kisser for a while isn’t all that unusual. Shannon told the Mirror, “They gave us the options of taking him home with pain medication and seeing if it would pass or leaving him there under observation. Obviously, we left him there to be sure. We had a phone call later that night that he needed life-saving surgery to remove the rock.”

High Cost of Veterinary Care

While they were understandably worried for Milo’s safety and recovery, they weren’t quite ready for the approximately $8,000 vet bill that came along with saving his life. Veterinary medicine is quite costly, and even more so if it takes place at an emergency clinic or requires surgery. That’s why it’s a good idea to get pet insurance before you experience a crisis that can set you back thousands of dollars. Otherwise, you may not be able to afford the tab that comes with the visit and be forced to make some tough decisions on whether to proceed or wait it out while hoping for the best. This isn’t the best choice, as they could be suffering in immense pain. The alternative is to have them euthanized.

Home Sweet Home

Eventually given the go-ahead for returning home, Milo was set to see the vet again for a follow-up to assess his recovery. She stated she was hopeful about the prognosis, as Milo seemed to be back to his old self and happy to be home. While she did have some pet insurance for Milo, it only covered about a quarter of the bill. If you’d like to help out, a GoFundMe page was started that you can donate to here. It’s close to its goal now, so it may have been reached by the time you read this.

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog