A BELOVED but 'serial offender' dog is back home recovering in Oswestry after vets saved his life from a blockage cause by a turkey bone.

Alfie the West Highland White Terrier spent the New Year receiving emergency treatment at Northwest Veterinary Specialists (NWVS) in Runcorn, Cheshire, after the bone became stuck deep in his oesophagus.

The expert team at NWVS acted swiftly to remove the troublesome turkey bone with strict advice that there should be no 'fowl' play for the 11-year-old in future.

Northwest Veterinary Specialists’ internal medicine clinician Francesca Venier said treatment started after Alfie swallowed a turkey bone on the evening of January 2 and the following morning he started retching.

She said: “Radiographs at his local vet showed the bone in his oesophagus, and our own radiographs confirmed this, so I performed an oesophageal endoscopy to explore the blockage further and hopefully retrieve it.”

However, things escalated to soft tissue expert Krizia Compagnone, who was primed to perform surgery to remove the bone after Francesca was unable to treat Alfie.

Krizia said: “The surgery took a long time as the bone was difficult to move even from the gastric approach.

“Eventually, after many attempts and repeatedly lubricating the bone in a bid to dislodge it, we finally managed to move it forward into the oesophagus.

“That’s when we quickly decided to go back to the endoscope so that, while we were still in theatre, I could push from the stomach and Francesca could try to retrieve the bone from the mouth.

“Finally, our nurse Rhian Griffiths-Jones managed to grab it from the back of Alfie’s mouth and pulled it out.

“It was a very successful outcome to a very challenging, emergency case and we are pleased Alfie recovered so well."

Relieved owner Joy Griffiths said she was grateful for Alfie’s recovery but compared him to a 'cat with nine lives'.

She said: "Unfortunately, six years ago he needed major surgery after eating a bone. Since then, he’d been banned from having them.

“We have no idea how he managed to get hold of this turkey knuckle bone, it was the size of a gobstopper.

"It must have been when he went for his night-time walk but I knew that something was wrong the following morning as Alfie was all hunched up and wrenching.

“I took him to the vets and they could see a bone lodged in his oesophagus and he was referred to Northwest Veterinary Specialists straight away.

"They were on the case very quickly but were hampered because of Alfie’s previous surgery which had left him with a narrower oesophagus and some scarring too."

For more information visit www.nwspecialists.com