A VETERINARY surgeon is asking dog owners to be more vigilant - after she removed a face mask from the intestines of a cocker spaniel.

The dog, named Jasper, was rushed to Castle Vets in Poundbury where he had to go under the knife after an X-ray revealed a 'foreign body' was stuck in his intestines.

It emerged during the 45-minute operation that the one-year-old dog had consumed a surgical face mask, which had caused him to 'vomit severely'.

If the mask had not been removed, Jasper would have died, the vet who treated him confirmed.

She urged pet owners to be aware due to an increase in masks being discarded during the Covid pandemic.

Vet Alice Moore, who looked after Jasper during the operation, said: "Jasper is a one-year-old cocker spaniel who was presented to us with a history of severe vomiting.

"He had earlier that day vomited up a child's glove, but had continued to be sick throughout the day.

"My colleague felt something solid and worrying in his intestines, so he was sent up from our Weymouth branch to our Dorchester branch for X-rays.

"I X-rayed him and found some sort of foreign body stuck in his intestines.

"We operated to discover a 15cm-long, 2cm-wide tubular foreign body stuck in his small intestines.

"This was surgically removed. We checked the rest of his intestines and he was then sewn up and made a good recovery.

"When we unravelled the foreign body we found that it was a rolled up material face mask.

"Spaniels are notorious eaters of crazy foreign bodies - particularly clothes belonging to family members."

Jasper had his stitches removed in early March and has made a 'very good recovery' according to Ms Moore.

She said: "If we had not removed the mask the gut would have become necrotic and he would have died."

The vet has spoken about an the increase of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks being discarded due to the coronavirus pandemic.

She said: "The pandemic has seen a recognised increase of PPE masks being discarded. As a result there has been an increase in these types of cases at other veterinary clinics.

"I would ask both the public and dog owners to be more vigilant and to keep dogs away from certain items of clothing."