It's no surprise to us that Labradors are the most popular dog breed in the UK. We love their temperament, retrieving skills, obedience and keenness to hang out with their humans. They are also known for their veracious appetite; including eating things they shouldn’t.

Goose is a typical Labrador and belonging to a vet doesn't make him any less ‘hungry’! You can imagine the sinking feeling when on a busy Saturday afternoon, he was sick several times, looked miserable, and even more worryingly…wouldn't eat his tea. I felt his abdomen and could feel a suspicious lump…I suspected the worst. Did he have something stuck in his intestines?

Goose was admitted to our Ivybridge branch for stabilisation and investigation. We use various methods to confirm intestinal obstruction, including ultrasound scans, x-rays and even CT in difficult cases. Goose's obstruction, however, was clear for all to see: a big white circle on the x-ray! With the support of Rhys and Alice, the on-call team that day, I opened up his abdomen and removed the marble from his small intestine. Despite feeling very sorry for himself and giving me some sleepless nights, plus the tricky task of keeping an 18-month old Labrador rested for 2 weeks, Goose recovered very well.

You might think that Goose had seen enough of the vets by this point, but there’s more! Three weeks later, Goose was joining in a family celebration. We were all in high spirits, but when the champagne cork flew from the bottle, it was the retriever who was the quickest one to the cork! Goose swallowed it in a swift gulp. My heart sank again as we jumped in the car and returned to Ivybridge. We were hopeful that we may be able to retrieve the cork with the endoscope (a narrow flexible tube with a camera and grabbing device), which with a lot of skill and some luck we can sometimes pull objects back out of the stomach and avoid the need for surgery. Despite best efforts, every time we got the cork to the stomach entrance and tried to pull it into the oesophagus, the cork popped out of the grabbers and floated away in the stomach juices. As Goose had an enterectomy to remove the marble so recently, we were worried that the cork would also get stuck at the site of the previous surgery. We decided the best option was to remove it surgically from Goose’s stomach before it got any further. Will and Viv were on duty that weekend and did a great job removing the cork from the stomach without any further drama. Goose recovered well, felt very sorry for himself (but got significantly less sympathy this time!) and struggled even more with the post op rest!

Goose continues to be a lovable, enthusiastic buffoon and as a vet, I have learnt much about seeing things from the other side of the consulting room table. I now have more empathy with our clients when they sometimes struggle with our post op instructions!