Lester, the Border Collie belongs to Breda Dallimore of Woking. He suffered a nasty injury caused by a stick in in November 2000.   

Breda takes up the story....

Lester"It was my own fault and I am so ashamed.  I used to choose light twigs for him to chase but only in the heather so that he would bounce through the foliage and then forage around for the stick!  

However, on this occasion, we had just got out of the car and he looked longingly at this particular stick. I threw it for him, but he got there quicker than I thought he would and it bounced long ways into his mouth.  The yelp he gave was just heart-rendering.
I looked in his mouth and although there was no  bleeding, as such,  I could see a red patch at the back of his throat. I thought I should take him to the vet just to make sure there were no splinters loitering in his throat.     

Jo, my vet, initially did not think it was too serious but suggested that I bring him back later on so that she could sedate him and make a more detailed examination. It was about 10am and she asked me to come back at 12.30.  

The next two hours seemed endless.  Lester was clearly in shock and just sat by the patio doors staring out into the garden.   He did not want to have anything to do with me, it was as if he thought I had deliberately hurt him!    

When I returned with him to the surgery at 12.30 he did not hesitate to go with the vet, which said a lot!  I then had to wait a further three hours before hearing anything, during which time, of course, I convinced myself that he had died under the anaesthetic!       
When I collected Lester in the evening Jo told me that she'd found a large haematoma at the back of his throat which had required draining and suturing but she was pleased with how the surgery went and was confident that Lester would make a full and quick recovery.

He did recovery quickly and I put the whole bad incident behind me.

BUT, almost a month to the day afterwards,  we witnessed Lester's  first epileptic seizure. It was some time later, after the various investigative procedures - a brain scan, blood tests, spinal tap etc etc showed nothing untoward, I was asked if he had received any traumas, and of course he had.

So now I am paying a very high price in guilt because whenever he has a seizure I am reminded of that one second of stupid irresponsibility that has reduced the quality of Lester's life."