Throw a stick and encouraging our dog to go looking for him is a very common game and, nevertheless, dangerous. It may not seem like it at first glance, but the truth is that when catching the sticks, our pets can suffer serious injuries and infections in the body. The numerous cases of injuries have recently caused experts to sound the alarm.
A few days ago this issue invaded the media after the warnings of the Association of British Veterinarians, motivated in turn by what happened with Maya. This is a small Border Collie, resident in Scotland, who was seriously injured when a 10 cm stick pierced part of her tongue and displaced her larynx.
It had to be attended urgently at a veterinary center, where she was sedated and the foreign object was removed from her body. “We had no idea that that was the problem. There was no blood or any other evidence, ”explains its owner, Cathy Pryde, who came to the clinic after noticing strange behavior in her pet. Fortunately, Maya recovered and her case made the news.
The experts took advantage of this news to warn the public about the dangers posed by our dog playing with a stick. In accordance with Sean Wenley, president of the British Veterinary Association (BVA), his team often sees “terrible penetrating wounds to the muzzle, neck and sometimes to the abdomen. These are serious, life-threatening injuries ”.
According to this renowned veterinarian, it is easy for the dog to be injured when it catches a stick, since acting so quickly the possibilities of performing one wrong move there are many. This causes the stick to get lodged somewhere in your oral cavity or to chip.
Likewise, the expert assures that we can avoid these problems by using the matching toys. "We do not want people to stop playing and exercising with their dogs," he says while warning once again that throwing sticks at dogs can be a "potentially deadly" activity.