Happy ending: Dog expected to be OK after bone stuck in jaw

It was an unusual call for firefighters in North York.

A woman walked her dog Ginger to the fire station near Banting Avenue and Dufferin Street on Friday morning, saying there was something wrong with her pet.

Turns out the pooch, a 10-month-old Shepherd mix, had a bone stuck on her lower jaw. It’s unclear where the incident occurred.

 

Firefighters reported the call as a personal entrapment rescue just before 8:15 a.m.

Toronto Fire district chief Joe Bennett said the woman initially went to the vet, who told her to take Ginger to the emergency veterinary hospital, but she stopped off the fire hall on the way.

The firefighters took Ginger to nearby Willowdale Animal Hospital, a 24-hour emergency hospital on Sheppard Avenue near Yonge Street.

“The dog was never not breathing or in danger, but it had a hollow bone wrapped around its lower jaw,” Bennett said.

At the hospital, fire crews called for another fire truck that had personal entrapment equipment on it.

Once the dog was sedated, veterinary staff and firefighters worked together to remove the bone. They had to cut two sides of the bone with a Dremel tool.

Ginger is expected to be OK.

“She should make a great recovery. We don’t expect any problems with her. She should do awesome,” Dr. Jonathan Bloom, the vet, said.

 

 

Dr. Bloom said cases such as these are common in dogs.

“You see it quite frequently. They’ll come in with these marrow bones wrapped around their lips and lower jaw.”

He said the problem is that the bone gets stuck on a dog’s canine teeth, which causes their lips to swell and lock the bone in the jaw.

“We often anesthetize them and try to wiggle that off if we can. And if they’re really trapped on there tight, then [the bone] needs to be sawed off.”

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today