It was no wonder this poor dog felt under par when a vet’s X-ray found he had five golf balls in his stomach.
Owner Rebecca Miles took Springer Spaniel-Labrador cross Louis in after months of having no appetite, vomiting and just feeling out of the swing of things.
And after seeing the scan, she realised he had been putting balls in the hole on his daily walk by a golf course near her home.
Louis needed abdominal surgery to remove them but is on the mend – and painfully aware golf balls can cause a handicap.
Rebecca, of Birmingham, West Mids, said: “The golf course is close to home so we often walk near there. Louis loves playing fetch with his ball.
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“He would find golf balls but always drop them when asked.
“We’ve no idea when he swallowed the first one, it must be months ago.
“When he got ill we changed his food. When he continued being sick, we took him to the vet.
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“They did an X-ray and found what they thought were ping-pong balls.
“I knew they would be golf balls. It’s a relief to get to the bottom of it, have them removed and see Louis making a recovery.”
Emily Moss, who did the op, said: “Louis has been incredibly lucky because swallowing one golf ball could be very dangerous, let alone five.
“They showed up on the x-ray immediately and looked like ping pong balls but we could also see they were very dense.
“When Rebecca mentioned they often walk around the golf course it suggested only one thing.
“It’s one of the most unusual cases I’ve ever seen and is on a par with a dog that I once operated on who had swallowed an entire bum bag.”
