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ScubaLatt · #1 08-04-2010, 08:24 AM

Dog chews off owner's toe -- and may have saved his life

Katy Batdorff | The Grand Rapids Press
Jerry and Rosie Douthette play with their terrier, Kiko, at their home in Rockford, Mich., on Sunday.

Melissa Dahl writes: We've done stories before on dogs sniffing out diseases their owners didn't even know they had. Now a little terrier named Kiko has one-upped all of them: He went ahead and performed surgery. Kind of.
According to a bizarre story reported in The Grand Rapids Press, Kiko smelled an infection in his owner's right big toe and set about "amputating" it. Which in doggie terms, of course, means he ate it. All the while, Kiko's owner, Jerry Douthett of Rockford, Mich., lay passed-out drunk in his bed. (We told you it was bizarre.)
Douthett awoke to find a bloody stump where his big toe used to be, and he and his wife rushed to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Mich. There, they discovered Douthett actually had type 2 diabetes and was suffering from a dangerous infection in his big toe. Doctors finished the job Kiko had started, and amputated what was left of his toe.
Douthett's wife, Rosee, a registered nurse, had actually suspected her husband had diabetes and insisted he get checked out. But before he did so, he had a few beers. And then a few margaritas. After that, he went home, passed out, and Kiko got to work. Weird story, but Bruce Rossman, a media relations manager at Spectrum Health, confirms that it's true.