Trixie with a bouncy ball similar to the one she swallowed two years ago.

Ball rediscovered two years after Trixie swallowed it

A bouncy ball has been discovered hiding in a dog's stomach, two years after she swallowed it, PDSA vets reveal.

Border terrier Trixie is thought to have swallowed the ball while playing in the garden of her Sunderland home two years ago.

However, when her worried owner Melanie Pounder, 42, took her to a private veterinary practice, the ball was nowhere to be found. As she wasn't showing any symptoms, it was assumed that the ball had passed through her system.

Yet two years later, 10-year-old Trixie began being sick and Melanie took her to see vets at PDSA's Reay Hudson Centre.

An x-ray revealed a small object in Trixie's abdomen and after exploratory surgery was carried out, the hide-and-seek bouncy ball was discovered.

"I’ve seen a few strange cases during my time as a vet, but never something like this where a foreign body has just been hiding away for so long before causing a problem," said PDSA vet Emma Holt.

On a more serious note, Emma said it was fortunate that the ball had not moved to Trixie's intestines, where it could have caused a fatal blockage.

Owner Melanie said: "When it turned out to be the ball, I couldn’t believe it – we just assumed Trixie had passed it through her system two years ago.

"I’m now very careful about which toys Trixie plays with, and I make sure she only has ones that are too big to swallow."

Image courtesy of PDSA