Pomeranian undergoes procedure to remove fish bone stuck in throat
Times of India | 22 December 2025
Kolkata: A 10-year-old female Pomeranian dog that choked on a fish bone stuck in its throat for nearly 24 hours got it removed through a non-invasive surgical procedure in the city. Doctors at the city's state-run veterinary hospital tried to remove the fish bone in the usual way using a prong-line instrument. But later they decided to operate on the dog to do so.
Dum Dum resident Subhankar Chakraborty was feeding his pet dog Dodo cooked Catla fish when it gulped down a part of the central bone. "With the bone lodged inside its throat, Dodo faced difficulty in eating as it was in pain. We waited for a day as we thought that the bone would descend into its stomach. But that did not happen, and Dodo, who is agile and playful by nature, appeared to be quiet. The next day, we took him to the govt veterinary hospital at Belgachhia," said Chakraborty. The pet parent adopted the Pomeranian dog when it was just 40 days old. "We have a close bond with Dodo, who grew up with us since 2015. So, she is our family member, and we got worried as she was struggling to eat food or drink water," he said. "Dodo is fine after the surgery and has resumed eating fish," the pet parent added. Given its age, Dodo was treated like a "senior citizen" because the usual lifespan of this breed is 12 to 16 years. Some Pomeranians also live up to 20 years. This breed, a descendant of the German Spitz, can be traced back to the 18th century. Even Queen Victoria used to own a small Pomeranian, according to experts.
Doctors at the govt hospital conducted an X-ray on the dog. "First, we tried to remove the bone without surgery. But the dog was refusing to keep its mouth open for long, so we advised a surgical removal of the bone. In our hospital, general surgery is done, but that involves more risks for pets if stitches are not taken care of properly. So, we got endoscopic foreign body removal, a non-invasive surgical procedure, done on the dog from a private facility in south Kolkata," said a doctor at the hospital. A surgeon who operated on the dog at Animal Health Pathology Lab said, "We applied gas to make the pet senseless and then inserted a tube to remove the bone. It took us around half an hour to complete the procedure."