Dave the dog making a good recovery after being impaled on an 18-inch metal spike

A family say their dog is lucky to be alive after becoming impaled on a rusty metal spike that went right through his body. It happened when Dave the Cocker Spaniel ran into a bush - but fortunately the 18-inch (45cm) spike missed most of his organs.



Three veterinary surgeons were needed to remove the spike from his body and Dave had to spend a week at the vets. The spike caught his oesophagus so he could not eat or drink while it healed. He can only have mushy food now but his owner, Jo-ann Keen, said he seemed back to normal.





"He was very lucky," said Mrs Keen, from Middleton-by-Wirksworth in Derbyshire. "Everybody thought he was going to die, because they didn't know what it had hit, if anything." The treatment has cost the family £2,300 so far, but Mrs Keen said Dave was more important than money.



He was injured on 9 January while he was out with Mrs Keen's husband, Matthew Keen. Mr Keen thinks the rusty spike must have snapped after Dave became impaled on it, because he came running out of the bush with the spike stuck inside him. The family said they were very grateful to McMurtry & Harding veterinary practice for treating him.