Happy Ending for Labrador Who Got Her Head Stuck in a Bench: 'Terrified'

A veterinarian performed an out-of-office rescue after a dog found herself in a tight situation.

Veterinarian Surgeon Tomas Pinto Basto received a call on May 29 from a "very distressed owner" who explained her Labrador retriever, Holly, got her head stuck on the railings of a bench. Holly saw bread left on the beach and tried to reach it by sticking her head through the railings, he told Newsweek.

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About to go into surgery with an animal under anesthesia, he asked the owner to contact other vets or call the fire department. But when he called back to see if the problem had been sorted, he learned Holly was still stuck.

"Since the place where Holly was stuck was 5 minutes away from the practice, I then decided to take my nurse Billie and check on Holly," he said. "When I got there, Holly was surrounded by the fire brigade and the very distressed owners."

He could visibly see Holly exhausted. The dog had been stuck for two hours.

"I gently tried to manipulate her head to try to find the right angle to get her head out, but due to the adrenaline in her body and the fact she was very distressed, this was an impossible mission," he said.

The firefighters also suggested sawing the bench, but there was concern about the dog's safety. Since the bench was tight around her neck, the vet thought cutting the bench would injure her.

He finally suggested using anesthesia and outlined the potential risks to the owner.

There are risks involved any time a dog is given drugs that will help put them under before surgery. Some dogs, however, have a higher anesthetic risk due to their breed, size, health or age, according to the American Kennel Club.

The risks can range from minor issues such as mild vomiting after recovery to life-threatening problems like cardiac arrest or stroke.

"I did explain when you anesthetize an animal, ideally you want to place a tube down their throat to help breathing, but since Holly's body position didn't allow it, the risk was higher than normal," the veterinarian said. "Since there was no other option and Holly had to get out, we then decided to go ahead with anesthetizing her."

Holly received a common anesthetic agent he uses in general practice. The vet was then able to manipulate her neck into the correct angle to free her. She received some oxygen and recovered.

"The owners were super grateful and happy with the happy ending and I was thrilled with the fact things went quite smoothly as this could have been much worse," he said.

She's fully recovered and "is doing super well." Holly even stopped into the practice a few days later to give her thanks and leave a card and a box of chocolates.

Viewer Reactions

The intense rescue amassed over 4.5 million views, 62,800 likes and 1,254 comments on TikTok as of Monday.

"Glad she's ok bless her," wrote a viewer, while another said: "Glad to hear she was ok, poor thing what a drama for everyone."

A third person commented: "Poor pup she is probably terrified."

Others weren't surprised by this dog's behavior, with one person writing: "Labs are always doing something."

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