You might not even think twice about the toys you give your dog, especially if they love to play with them, but there are some out there that can turn dangerous if you’re not careful.
This video posted by Inside Edition shares how a South Carolina veterinarian saved a dog who was choking to death on a Kong-style chew toy.
It’s an anxiety-inducing moment that was caught on personal video footage as Dr. Margaret Hunt is seen straddling a large German shepherd lying on his back as she performs what’s called the XXT method to skillfully extract a foreign object from the dog's esophagus.
In the footage, Hunt and her staff can be seen celebrating their big win after the cone-shaped obstruction finally emerges from the dog’s mouth.
“We all kind of rejoiced. We were all pretty excited about it,” Hunt explains.
To the naked eye, this lifesaving technique might look quite similar to the Heimlich maneuver that’s performed on humans who are choking, but it’s a little different. The intervention method is called XXT, or external extraction technique.
The news outlet explores how it works by showing footage from a training video. The video footage shows an XXT trainer applying pressure with their two thumbs along the lower portion of an artificial training dog's throat, which allows a large ball to swiftly pop out of the dog's mouth.
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The XXT technique is performed by vets across the country, and now the German shepherd, Clyde, can count himself as one of the lucky ones who was saved by this intervention.
To see the technique for yourself and to learn approximately how many dogs choke per year, watch the full video shared by Inside Edition.
