Loose chippings find
way into pet spaniel

Swollen-bellied Snickers was named after the popular nutty chocolate bar because the family saw early on the dog was completely “nuts”.

The three-year-old pet lived up to its reputation when it secretly gobbled down more than 140 loose chippings and continued running around as normal for weeks.

When landscape gardener Warren Jones, 45, of Gorseinon, near Swansea, south Wales, took Snickers to the vet, life-saving surgery was immediately ordered.

Schoolboy son Ryan, 13, alerted his father to what he thought might be an unexpected pregnancy when he noticed the dog’s bulging belly. But within hours of seeking help vets were operating.

“I knew that it wasn’t a pregnancy but when the vet told us it was chippings we were amazed, although things started to make sense,” Mr Jones said.

It also explained the small piles of one-and-a-half inch stones which mysteriously began appearing in parts of the garden several weeks before as, unnoticed, Snickers vomited up the stones.