The sound of mail spilling through the mail slot has been known to send certain dogs into fits of excitement. It's the sound, and all those foreign smells. Normally, after a few sniffs, the thrill wears off.
But one Jack Russell terrier in Devizes, Wiltshire, in the U.K. had to learn things the hard way.
When the mail came through the door one day, there was a particularly shiny piece of junk mail that was just too tempting to pass up.
The dog, whose name is Finlay, just couldn't resist taking a chomp. After all, dogs love to chew, but their choices aren't always healthy.
By the time his owners found him, the normally happy dog was in quite a pickle.
After chewing on the glossy brochure, Finlay's mouth had become glued shut. Try as they and Finlay might, they couldn't get Finlay's mouth open.
They took him to Estcourt Vets and the staff was certainly surprised to see his predicament. Their best guess was that the gloss on the brochure's paper somehow reacted with Finlay's saliva and formed a gluey substance that bound his teeth together.
"When his owners called us and said he couldn't open his mouth, we expected it to be an injury from a stick," says surgery director Scott Carpenter, "not something like this."
Finlay's teeth were freed without damage, but his owners want to warn others about this danger to dogs everywhere.
[H/T: Daily Mail]
Finlay is a cheerful Jack Russell living in the U.K., in a house where the mail comes through a slot in the door, like millions of other homes around the world.
Normally, this isn't an issue, but then one particularly fascinating piece of mail came through the door.
This brochure was printed on a thick, glossy paper, and to Finlay, it looked pretty tempting.
So, like many other dogs in his situation, he started chewing.
But then things got… sticky.
After chewing on the brochure, Finlay was unable to open his mouth.
His owners noticed this and that traces of a gummy white substance stuck to his lips and fur.
And Finlay seemed to know that maybe this wasn't one of his better ideas.
"Finlay didn't understand what was happening," Carpenter says. "It happened so quickly, one moment he had been chewing this brochure, the next moment he couldn't open his mouth."
His owners, who choose to remain anonymous, took him to their local veterinarian's office, where they found that Finlay's teeth had been cemented shut with a glue-like substance.
It seemed that the glass finish on the brochure paper had reacted with his saliva and adhered to his teeth.
Carpenter and his colleagues ended up having to anesthetize Finlay to keep him still while they spent 45 minutes using water, butter, and dental tools to free his teeth.
When they were able to finally free his jaw, they found a coin-sized piece of the brochure still in his mouth.
Finlay made a full recovery and experienced no damage to his teeth or mouth.
He's back to his own lively self, but his owners are making sure to keep the mail away from him from now on.
Carpenter recommends that people keep mail of all kinds away from dogs, especially those with a history of nibbling.
For those with mail slots, he suggests installing a letter box cage to keep mail off the floor and way from curious noses.
Plus you don't have to pick the mail up off the floor.
Finlay is just fine, but it's always a good idea to know new ways to keep your pooch safe!
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