The Dog That Ate 111 Pennies!
Jack, a thirteen year old Jack Russell Terrier had to be rushed to the vet for an emergency surgery after eating over one-hundred pennies.
Jack is a voracious eater says his owner Tim Kelleher, who made the mistake of leaving some stray bagel crumbs in a bag on his desk Friday morning, next to a box of pennies. Kelleher says: "This is how it happened, he jumped up on the desk, he chewed the bag, knocked over the box, licked up the crumbs, and licked up the pennies, he licked up 111 of them."
That old saying find a penny, pick it up, well Jack didn't get lucky, he just got sick. When Kelleher found him throwing up, he rushed him to the vet. Kelleher says: "The vet saw the x-ray, she said there's no way that's coming out the other end, we gotta go in." The vet says she's seen 3, 4 even 5 coins swallowed by a pet but 111?! That was a surprise to everyone.
Amy Zalcman, the vet, said: "We played the price is right to see who was the closest to the number after we got them all out." All kidding aside the vet said Jack was in bad shape. When he got to the Blue Pearl Veterinarian Clinic. Zalcman said: "The big deal about pennies, especially those minted after 1982 is that they have a high concentration of zinc, when it gets absorbed in the system it can kill red cells."
Dr. Zalcman and her team used a tiny scope with a net attached to fish the coins out a few at a time. After an overnight stay at the clinic, Jack is back home and good as new. While this wasn't his first health scare, Kelleher says yes he has done this before, he's really hoping this is the last time Jack chows down on a chunk of change, or anything else that will make him sick.
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