When the family returned a few hours later, the fishermen had left, and Pax was no longer leashed.<\/p>\n
It was at this point that Muller\u2011Ward believed Pax swallowed the hook.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a longline, how many hooks are on there, and so as they come in, they have to unhook them all, and I think they\u2019d just obviously dropped one and then not checked behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she checked Pax\u2019s mouth, Muller\u2011Ward said the hook was still visible. <\/p>\n
She saw the metal clip, swivel and nylon line attached to the hook, lodged at the back of his throat.<\/p>\n
The fish hook that was retrieved from Pax’s stomach. Photo \/ Supplied.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did try to vomit it up; he was gagging and vomiting for a short time, but then he managed to swallow the whole thing down.\u201d<\/p>\n
With no local vets able to perform the specialised endoscopic procedure to remove the hook, the family holiday was cut short.<\/p>\n
Caroline\u2019s husband, Hamish Ward, drove Pax directly to Auckland, the nearest treatment centre.<\/p>\n
After they arrived at the emergency clinic, an X-ray confirmed the hook had reached Pax\u2019s stomach.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, she said, timing was on their side.<\/p>\n
The hook had not lodged in his throat or reached his intestines, where it could have caused serious damage.<\/p>\n
A specialist had arrived at 7pm, and the procedure continued until 2am on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n
They removed the hook in stages, first cutting it from the attached metal clip before retrieving the remaining pieces.<\/p>\n
X-ray of the fishhook lodged in Pax’s stomach. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Muller\u2011Ward said that without the specialist, Pax would have faced major surgery.<\/p>\n
The hook would have required removal by cutting directly into his stomach, leaving a significant wound and weeks of recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just walked in, went to sleep, had a bad dream, and walked back out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ordeal split the family over Easter, with Ward staying overnight in Auckland while Muller-Ward stayed in Waih\u012b with their children.<\/p>\n
She said waking up on Easter Sunday without half the family underscored how serious the situation had been.<\/p>\n
Pax is now fully recovered and back to his normal self.<\/p>\n
Although the experience highlighted for Muller-Ward how dangerous discarded fishing gear can be, not only for pets, but also for wildlife and children.<\/p>\n
She said she saw a bird recently with a hook and nylon hanging from its mouth, tangled in dried seaweed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be able to feed, and it\u2019s going to die a horrible death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muller\u2011Ward urges fishermen to take responsibility for their equipment, especially when using longlines with multiple hooks.<\/p>\n
She hopes that by sharing their story, it will encourage greater care on beaches to help prevent similar incidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease check carefully that you remove all of your equipment and rubbish when you leave. Lives depend on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zoe Blake is a multimedia journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the family returned a few hours later, the fishermen had left, and Pax was no longer leashed.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54104,9213,15974,97757,197631,111,43,139,69,48047,61,1455],"class_list":{"0":"post-379801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-54104","9":"tag-dogs","10":"tag-emergency","11":"tag-fishers","12":"tag-fishhook","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-prompts","18":"tag-to","19":"tag-warning"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}