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The aorta cut off blood supply to the tongue, leading it to swell to four times its normal size. The elderly dog could easily have suffocated or died from a blood infection as parts of the tongue died from lack of blood. Fortunately her owner, Linda Donnelly, rushed Penny to a Glasgow vet hospital as soon as she saw the ghoulish tongue dangling from the dog's mouth.
Penny had eaten the pig heart hours before the incident, Donnelly told the Metro, so at first she had no idea what the problem was. But once the dog was put under anesthesia, the vets spotted the fibrous aorta membrane wound around the base of her tongue and were able to cut it free, the Metro reported.
"When [the vet] told us what had happened I felt awful. She has them as a treat now and again but I never for one moment thought anything like this could have happened," Donnelly told the Metro. "Pigs hearts are now completely off the menu."
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As a vet tech, I will tell you that such an incident is NOT rare or "freak" by any means. I worked for years in an emergency hospital where we saw this happen on a not-so-irregular basis. The cause (pig membrane) is strange, but this happens often to dogs who find soda cans or other objects with small openings and something "yummy" inside. They will force their tongues into the small opening to lap up the goodies, and then the tongue gets stuck, swelling to the point of cutting off blood supply and sometimes doing very serious damage. It's really not as uncommon as people may think and something they should be educated on so they can avoid it.
Never give your pet (dog OR cat) anything that they can stick their tongue into and get stuck. It can happen with things like soda cans, but also with bones that have marrow holes. If the dog can get it's tongue in and through to the other side, it's a hazard, because they will work at it and work at it until their tongue gets stuck and then you have a serious problem. I've seen it MANY times first hand. People with pets need to keep such hazards out of reach to avoid catastrophe.