Over the years, foreign bodies have been varied and various. They can, on occasion, travel straight through the intestinal tract without, remarkably, causing damage.

Thus it has come to pass that entire wooden kebab skewers, stones, bits of plastic and metal and lots of other stuff has, em, been passed.

The list of foreign bodies that have regrettably required abdominal surgery sounds like it might have been the line-up on the conveyor belt in The Generation Game. (Demonstrating my age again. First hosted by Bruce Forsyth on BBC1 in 1971 and, latterly, by Graham Norton in 2005, the winner was shown a number of items that passed by them on a conveyor belt; they got to keep everything they could remember in 45 seconds.)

First up is the pin cushion! Yup, you wouldn’t have thought it possible, but a needle subsequently had to be removed from the stomach. You’d need to be a knit to swallow a needle, wouldn’t you? That diagnosis was not just a stab in the dark.

And then there was the strange case of the dog that chewed up the flip flops. Flippin’ eck, why on earth would you do that? We had to tread very carefully, but fortunately the patient was the ‘sole’ survivor that day.

And what do you do if you come across a half-eaten, carelessly discarded KFC bucket? Well it’s paw lickin’ good after all, so you eat the rest, don’t you? Well, you do if you are a dog. The result is a tummy full of bones. Not a time to wing it, so immediate surgery was called for. Our patient’s breath was rather fowl for a few days.

Next was the lovely Mastiff that we thought had swallowed a whole pig’s ear; the swine! Abdominal palpation revealed a tubular blockage of the bowel that turned out to be a cuddly ‘cow’ toy. (There was always one on the conveyor belt, remember, going pasteurize.)

The ‘cow’ toy’s stuffing had adhered to the intestine, causing an udder problem. It just wouldn’t moo-ve, you see. The surgeon that day was legend-dairy: he used drugs he found in the farmacy, and made a cattle log of the symptoms he saw.

Then there was a peach stone and a dummy teat. Both are relatively common foreign bodies. The former usually comes as a complete surprise to the owner, who rarely can work out where it came from.

The stones are difficult to see on X- ray and their rough surface is very damaging to the bowel, so they can be exceedingly dangerous. Give me a banana any day; you can still have a skinful but don’t get stoned.

Dummy teats are so readily dropped by babies that it is a wonder more aren’t swallowed. It’s enough to make you cry…

Common also are batteries of different shapes and sizes. I am never sure exactly what to charge for their removal. And there are coins; sometimes consumed in large quantities. Their removal can offset the vet’s bill, and cause considerable change in the condition.

And finally, keys. Yes. Dogs swallow them. We only have to make a little opening to get them out, though you always need a little lock.