Harlow dog swallows ear of wheat and is saved by surgery

Mick and Kim Groarke said Buddy was eager to get back to his usual exercise

Surgeons have been thanked for saving a dog's life after it inhaled an ear of wheat.

Mick and Kim Groarke from Harlow, Essex, took Buddy to their local veterinary practice after the two-year-old Labrador ran through a field of wheat on his birthday.

The couple said he was coughing, was lethargic and had lost his appetite.

Buddy has since recovered and his owners said he was "eager" to get back to his usual exercise.

Grass seeds can cause abscesses and serious infections in dogs

An x-ray found abnormalities in his lungs and specialists said they could not remove the wheat via a "minimally invasive endoscopy" because it was "stuck in the bronchus the wrong way round".

Surgeons at Southfields Veterinary Specialists in Basildon performed open chest surgery and removed the entire affected lung lobe.

Grass seeds inhaled by dogs can migrate through the body and cause abscesses and serious infections.

The practice in Basildon described the ear of wheat found in Buddy as "one of the biggest grass seeds we've seen".