English bull terrier makes miraculous restoration after swallowing a 1.5in razor blade as he rummaged in a bin for a sausage sandwich

Many a dog has eaten something it shouldn’t have.

But English bull terrier Charlie had a close shave – after swallowing a razor blade as he rummaged in a bin for the remains of a sausage sandwich.

The five-month-old puppy was rushed to the vets on New Year’s Eve after swallowing the blade he’d retrieved from a bathroom bin at home in Ludlow, Shropshire.

Charlie went under the knife after an X-ray confirmed the 1.5in (39mm) blade was lodged in his stomach – and was back at home later the same day following emergency surgery to remove the object.

Owner Richard Johnson, 56, said: ‘One of my teenage sons had put the remains of his sandwich in the bin, and Charlie could obviously smell it.

‘We have a stair gate to stop him going upstairs, but it had been left open and he was straight up and in the bin.’

Mr Johnson, who runs a law firm with wife Helen, 49, said he knew he had left a razor blade in the bin, but wasn’t sure if he had put the plastic cover back on it first.

‘We called the vet and told them what we thought the dog had eaten, this was the evening before New Year’s Eve. They told us we’d have to wait overnight in order for anything to show up in his stomach on the X-ray image.

An X-ray confirmed the 1.5in (39mm) blade was lodged in Charlie’s his stomach

Nurse Emma Marston, pictured on the right with colleague Ruth Forman, said Charlie was back at home hours after going under the knife at Teme Vets in Ludlow, Shropshire

‘Charlie seemed absolutely fine so they told us to just keep monitoring him overnight.

‘The following morning we took him in and the X-ray confirmed our fears that he had swallowed the razor blade.

‘Once they operated and removed it we were so relieved to discover that I had at least put the cover back on the blade. It could have been so much worse if I hadn’t.’

The Johnsons have twin sons Evan and Lloyd, 16, but Mr Johnson added: ‘I’m not going to tell you which one left the sandwich in the bin – I promised I wouldn’t!’

He added: ‘It was a hyper-stressful time, but the main thing is that Charlie is fine.’

Emma Marston, the veterinary nurse who looked after Charlie at Teme Vets in Ludlow said: ‘Dogs will eat all sorts, and while it’s certainly unusual for one to eat a razor blade, it’s maybe not the weirdest thing eaten by a dog which we’ve dealt with – that would be a sex toy I think.’

Mr Johnson said Charlie seemed ‘absolutely fine’ despite swallowing the blade in his ‘hyper-stressful’ run-up to New Year

Emma Marston, the nurse that looked after Charlie, said the razor blade was one of the moe unusual items she has known a dog to eat

She said other pets had previously been in to the surgery after swallowing items such as knickers, a glass stopper from a whiskey decanter and fish hooks.

Ms Marston added: ‘With Charlie, we couldn’t make him sick because it might have caused abrasions, even with the plastic cover on.’

A spokesman for Teme Vets said: ‘We think Charlie’s New Year’s resolutions should start with not eating things he shouldn’t.

‘His owners had thought he’d eaten a razor blade and plastic cover and contacted us straight away, however due to the risk of making him sick due to the object, we waited until the next day where this would then definitely be in the stomach if he had eaten it.

‘X-rays confirmed the owners’ suspicions, so Charlie had emergency surgery to remove it as it was the only option.’