The sick dog got rid of the chronic disease – all thanks to Shania Twain

A dog struck down with a chronic cough after inhaling grass was rescued when his owners noticed he wasn’t ‘singing along’ to Shania Twain.

Five-year-old Border Collie Jax loves howling along to the country star’s hits, including “Man”! I feel like a woman and “That doesn’t really impress me.”

When the musical pup suddenly lost his bark and started coughing, owner Ellana Farrow knew something was wrong.

She took him to Linnaeus-owned North West Veterinary Specialists (NWVS) in Sutton Weaver, Cheshire.

A CT scan revealed that he had inhaled a 5cm long grass seed which had lodged in his lungs.

Vets performed a bronchoscopy procedure using a small camera at the end of a tube to remove the grass from inside Jax.

Ellena, from Preston, Lancs., suspected Jax was feeling poor when he stopped singing along to Shania Twain.

She said: “At the beginning of August, Jax suddenly started coughing a lot for no apparent reason.

“I thought it might just be a virus, but when it didn’t improve after a few weeks, I went to our local vet.”

Ellena, who is a respiratory physiotherapist, says her professional background made her the most afraid.

She said: “The vets treated him for possible lungworm, but when Jax still had symptoms weeks later, I worried it could be something worse.

“He was referred to NWVS and once a CT scan confirmed that the issue was likely to be a weed or similar, I wasn’t too worried, actually a bit relieved.

However, I was shocked at the size of the grass seed. It was 5 cm long and more like a full seed head of some tall grass.

“Jax is back to his normal self and will be running with me and chasing frisbees like nothing ever happened. Best of all he’s singing again.

“I have a camera in the living room to check on him if I’m out for a while and I often catch him singing on the radio when I check on him.

“He hadn’t done it for a long time, but then Shania Twain came on not long after his vet treatment, when we were both relaxing in the living room, and he just decided to sing.”

Veterinarian Chantal Rosa said: “Thankfully, no surgery was required as we were able to remove the troublesome seed by performing a bronchoscopy, where a thin, flexible tube with a camera, light source and miniature tools is inserted through the airways into the lungs

“This allowed us to find the grass seed and secure it safely before taking it into care.

“The seed was quite large, 5cm in size, so it’s no wonder Jax was coughing so much as it would have been a huge irritation for him.

“The whole procedure went very well and Jax recovered quickly.

“He was discharged home the same day and is doing very well and has fully recovered from his cough.”