Dog's jaws glued shut in post mishap

A HUNGRY hound lost both his bark and his bite when a bizarre accident left his jaws glued together.

Cymbeline, a Scottish terrier, is trained to pick up the post from the doormat and hand it over to his owner Kimberly Fisher, 41.

But the faithful pet came unstuck when a high gloss finish on a fast food menu stuck his jaws closed for more than half an hour.

Ms Fisher from Colchester, an academic researcher, said Cymbeline had been trained to collect the post without chewing it.

“He hates post so I've taught him to bring it to me without damaging it and then I give him a treat.

“He brought me this menu but it had stuck his jaws together.

“It was a big, high gloss paper menu which had turned into a paste - the gum stuck it between his teeth.

“He was trying very hard to open his mouth. It was funny as well as sad.”

The Roosters fast-food menu, which ironically promises “mouth-watering results” for anyone who tries their chicken, was stuck fast and eventually Ms Fisher was forced to take Cymbeline to the vet.

She said: “I tried to get it out with a tooth pick, but it was no good. We had to wait for an emergency slot at the vets.

“They took about 40 minutes to get this stuff out. They were very good about it. It cost £28.76 - it would have been more if he had been more distressed and they had had to sedate him.”

Ms Fisher said she had tried to stop junk mail being posted through her door without luck and called for printing companies to change the gloss they use.

She said: “There's so much rubbish coming through the door I can fill my recycling up with it every two weeks.

“But it is very irritating when junk mail causes harm.

“Companies should at the very least use a type of paper which does not cause distress to animals.”

A spokesman for Roosters, the restaurant which sent out the menu, said the printer followed all the regulations.

They added: “We send leaflets quite regularly and this is the first time we have heard of this.

“If we're having this problem then every other fast food retailer is having it.”

Ben Bennett, the vet who treated Cymbeline, said: “It was really unusual, I've never seen anything like it before in 20 years so the chances of it happening again are pretty rare.”

He added: “The cardboard had gone like papier mache in his mouth, and where his canine teeth fit together closely it had got wrapped round the bottom teeth and jammed them together.

“He couldn't open his mouth. He sat there very quietly while we picked away with a fine pick until we had removed enough of the cardboard to get a bit of movement.”