GRAFTON, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The number of dogs swallowing masks is on the rise in Massachusetts, and a well-known veterinarian hospital in Grafton has seen about a dozen cases in the past few weeks.
At least one of the cases required surgery. Now, veterinarians are urging pet owners to be careful where they place their face masks when they're not using them.
"We've had a lot of dogs vomiting up masks," Dr. Katherine Stecyk said.
King is a 2-year-old Labrador retriever and he had two masks surgically removed.
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"What I ended up finding is he had a wad of material that I could feel in his stomach and a second wad of material in his small intestine," Stecyk said.
She said it was a tough operation because the mask was all the way in his intestine. Stecyk added surgeries like this can be dangerous and complicated.
She is now asking people to not discard their used masks on the ground, and for pet owners to store them away from where dogs cannot get ahold of them.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports
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(Photo: Kim Tunnicliffe/ WBZ NewsRadio)