Diamonds – Not a Dog’s Best Friend
March 18th, 2010
The other day I ran across this news story about a dog snatching up and swallowing a three-carat, $20,000 loose diamond in a jewelry store.
My first thoughts: Why was a dog in a jewelry store, and did they retrieve the diamond from this Retriever? Turns out, this dog’s human is the jewelry store owner, and he brings his dog to the store each day. On this day, the jeweler picked a large diamond up to inspect. He dropped it, and before anyone could react, Soli, the Golden Retriever, ate it. (If you know Goldens at all, you know how this could happen.)
Their vet advised them to “let nature take its course,” and three days later, after a lot of stinky “prospecting,” they had their diamond back.
Turns out, this story isn’t that uncommon.
What is it with dogs and diamonds? Later that day, I went to to a local jewelry store to have a ring checked. I mentioned this story to the saleswoman. She laughed and said that a similar thing had happened to her. She lost a diamond stud earring. She and her husband tore the house apart looking for it. No luck. So she said she was sad about it and moved on. A few days later, her husband was walking the dog, and yep… found something very sparkly in the early morning sunshine.
He grabbed a stick and a leaf, and dissected out the missing jewel. He carried it home on the leaf, boiled it and cleaned it. She told me that she had the hardest time putting it back in her ear the first time.
My friend DrV (author of Pawcurious) tweeted a related story and wrote:
“I had a dog bite a diamond stud out of my ear once. Not 3c though. Wonder if buyer will be told of its travels?“
I wondered the same thing. Definitely a story to tell!
Dogs eat the strangest things
The technical term for eating icky things is called dietary indiscretion. Sometimes we eat things we shouldn’t, but pets are famous for it. Last year on About.com, I asked viewers to tell us the worst thing your pet has eaten and people had plenty to say. To date, there are over 200 submissions. One of my favorites was one of the first ones a viewer sent in:
“The dogs also chow down on horse poo whenever possible, and we frequently find them standing on the manure pile. Apparently they think the horses are just giant walking snack dispensers.“ —AngelaP
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Snack dispensers – heh heh.
Some entries are more serious, like this one:
I worked at an animal hospital and the most memorial case comes to mind. we had a dog come in with GI issues. the vet did a radiograph and he had a bra in his belly (you can tell by the underwires showing up). We did the surgery and put the bra in a zip lock baggie to give the owners. I was going over the bill with them and the doctor walked in the room with the zip lock bag and the wife’s face dropped. Apparently it wasn’t her bra. True story.“ — vet employee
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Got a story to tell? Join us!
Please share what icky, odd, unappetizing things that your pet has eaten. While these stories are interesting, sometimes funny, and sometimes gross, they also serve a purpose. Learning just what is possible for animals to eat creates awareness and hopefully, prevention of an accident, emergency surgery or … worse. Education and vigilance are key to keeping our pets safe.
Related Reading
Image: Diamond by Jurvetson on Flickr
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Posted in K9 Health | 4 Comments »
4 Responses to “Diamonds – Not a Dog’s Best Friend”
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Janet Tobiassen Crosby DVM never planned to be a writer. She wanted to be a veterinarian from the moment she learned such a job existed - sometime during the first grade, when she accompanied her mom to the vet with a sick cat. Janet "adopted" all the neighborhood cats, and at age 11 she started training her first dog, a newly adopted rescue Collie. At age 12, she joined a dog obedience 4-H club and was active through high school as a member and as a junior leader.
- DrJTC: Sorry for the delay – just now saw your comment. Good point. I am lucky to live in a relatively bug-free...
- Kathleen Winn: Great tips! We live in the country so our dog is a regular “wilderness adventurer.” Our...
- AboutVetMed: Thanks, Deb! I was relieved we ended up with something to submit.
- Deb: Loved this story. Your “HairBear” turned out really cute.
- Jenni Meyer: Dave, Millions of dogs in this country are killed every day. I applaud what you are doing and had no...
I love these stories. Dog do eat the craziest things. When I was growing up on a farm in Kentucky our dogs were always dragging road kill home. That was pretty gross. Those never required a trip to the vet.
I also had an English Pointer, Murphy, that ate the tin foil off of a grill. While not requiring surgery it was a trip to the vet. Murphy was notorious for his dumpster dives.
I once lost a pearl earring off my lobe when my young Dalmatian snatched it while having a kissing fit. Alas, being somewhat “digestible,” it came out the other end much smaller and ruined.
She also would eat makeup sponges, if I didn’t dispose of them carefully. Those too made for funny sponge mushroom shaped outcomes.
The worst, though, was when she popped and peeled a tennis ball and ate the felt. She threw it up, but I wasn’t fast enough, and she ate it again.
The good news is that it came out the old-fashioned way with no issues (shocking, I know), but she did need an assist when it got a little stuck. I had to grab a fistful of paper towels and help. Ick!
LOL (sorry) Roxanne! You are right, pearls are “somewhat digestible.”
Anthony – that is a good point – BBQ foil is pretty irresistible to many dogs.
I am finding that Hammer the Foster Dog has a liking for socks. So far, just chewing them up (very quickly, I might add), but I am watching him closely and keeping all socks out of reach. This is a difficult task with two kids who seem to throw socks everywhere. :-/
Socks would be a disaster in our house. Our kids do the same thing.