Beagle on OT table after swallowing sitar’s mizrab
Times of India | 2 November 2025
Kolkata: A four-month-old Beagle that swallowed a metal object and eventually faced physical problems got it removed from its stomach, not through general surgery but through an advanced procedure at a city pet clinic.
According to veterinarians, this was the first time that a procedure called endoscopic foreign body removal – which is usually done on human beings – was performed on an animal in Eastern India.
The dog, living with the family of Shaktinath De, a Lake Town resident, has returned to his normal life after the surgery, according to doctors. The De family brought the Beagle, Kuttus, home when it was 24 days old. According to De, some days ago, his daughter was playing the sitar when the dog accidentally swallowed the mizrab, a plectrum or finger pick, used for playing the string instrument.
De stated that initially, they thought the dog would excrete the foreign object. But when that did not happen, the dog developed some physical complications and the family immediately sought help from veterinary doctors.
After examining the dog, doctors at Bengal Veterinary College and Hospital, Belgachhia, suggested general surgery but also flagged the challenges of the operation. Finally, the doctors decided to remove the metal object from its stomach with the help of the advanced procedure conducted at Animal Health Pathology Lab in south Kolkata.
A team of two veterinary surgeons used anaesthesia gas to sedate the dog and then inserted an advanced instrument into its mouth to remove the foreign body.
Pratip Chakraborty, CEO of the lab, said, "This is the first time such an advanced surgery has been performed on a dog in eastern India, specifically in Bengal. The same procedure is often used to remove pen caps or other objects swallowed by children. This was the first time it was applied to a dog."
One of the veterinary surgeons who operated on the Beagle said, "Surgery on dogs is not as straightforward as it is on humans. In general surgery, stitches are required, and the stitched area must remain still. But how do you explain that to a Beagle?" Often, their stitches tear, worsening the situation. That is why we planned the non-surgical procedure, in which we inserted a flexible endoscope through the dog's mouth with a camera at the front of the tube.
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The surgeon also added that they removed another foreign article, which the Beagle was believed to have gulped before the metal object.