i was sitting in my room listening to music about 50 minutes ago and my brother came rushing in. i asked him what what he needed and he replied "our neighbor's dog has a fish hook stuck in his mouth, and we can't get it out, can you help?" without answering i booked ass, shoving him on the floor on the way. i know how hard a fish hook is to remove, because i have stepped on fish hooks, snagged myself with fish hooks, and basically lots of bad experiences with fish hooks. so i grabbed my needlenose pliers and a bunch of metal cutting utilities and ran out the door, to find in my neighbor's yard, his girlfriend holding a small pup in her hands. i'd tell you what kind if i knew, anyways...
i ran up closer and got on my knees and got a better look at what was up. a fish lure similar to the hook above had found its way [one end] into both the dog's front feet, [and the other] into its mouth. it was a bloody mess. literally bloody.
i told the girl to hold the pup's mouth open and hold it tight. the dog began to wimper as any dog would do when in pain. two of the barbs had been lodged into the puppy's tongue, and the other into its cheek. i whipped out the needle nose pliers...
the first barb was easy, it had not gone in very far, and was removed with an easy plunk. the dog seemed to barely even feel this. i cut that entire barb off after removal, to ensure that it wouldn't snag the puppy or myself.
the second barb wasn't very difficult, but i had to be really careful. this barb had already gone all the way through the pup's little tongue. so i took a small pair of wire cutters and cut that portion of the hook off. that was that. and then there was the last barb...
the third barb was very difficult to remove. it had gone through the tongue twice and was wrapped around an artery. keep in mind there are no vets within 60 miles. me removing this hook was the only chance this puppy had for survival. i tried and tried and tried to clip the tip off this last piece, but could not. every time i tried, the dog whimpered in pain, so i had to slowly and delicately rip the hook off of its tongue. the dog's whimpers made me feel terrible, and with each millimeter of the hook out, i felt ten miles of pain.
after twenty minutes, and a shirt soaked in blood, the hook was finally removed, and the little puppy was sure to live. i was relieved. i still had to remove the other hook from its paws, but that was a million times easier than removing the hook from the tongue.
guys, please keep hooks and any other sharp objects away from your small children and animals.