A woman in South Africa walked into her living room and was perplexed. She had left her engagement ring on the coffee table, and it suddenly wasn’t there anymore. She looked around, trying to figure out what had happened — and then noticed her dog Pepper sitting nearby and immediately became suspicious.
She had no way of knowing for sure if Pepper had eaten the engagement ring, but she had to find out somehow, and Pepper certainly wasn’t talking. The pair headed to Valley Farm Animal Hospital, and once the staff there heard what may have happened, they sprang into action.
Valley Farm Animal Hospital
“The easiest way to see if something metal has been swallowed is to take a radiograph,” Julia van Draanen, operations manager at Valley Farm Animal Hospital, told The Dodo. “Sure enough, one quick X-ray of Pepper’s abdomen showed a very obvious ring-shaped metal object in her stomach.”
Valley Farm Animal Hospital
Once they were certain that Pepper had indeed swallowed the ring, the team came up with a plan to get it out of her. Their first priority was making sure that Pepper was healthy and safe.
“There would have been four ways to get the ring back — we took the easiest as it was still in the stomach and not passed through to the intestines,” van Draanen said.
Valley Farm Animal Hospital
Pepper was given a dose of apomorphine, a vomit-inducing medication. It only took a few minutes for it to kick in, and out came the ring.
Valley Farm Animal Hospital
Pepper looked pretty sheepish sitting on the operating table with her secret revealed, but her mom of course forgave her immediately — after all, it is a beautiful ring. Pepper just couldn’t help herself! Luckily, the ring was back safe and sound and Pepper was completely OK. Pepper’s mom took her home, and likely made a mental note to never leave her ring out on the coffee table again.