Rescuers Spend 5 Hours Saving Dog Who Had Her Head Stuck in Pipe

Austin Cannon
·2 min read

A poor, sweet dog who had her head stuck in an underground pipe for more than five hours(!) is recovering nicely after rescuers worked tirelessly to cut off the offending section of pipe before sliding it off the pup's noggin.

But not only is our girl recovering—the dog, now named Piper Rose, will soon head home with the fire chief who helped save her. Woo!

Here's what happened: Around 8 a.m. Thursday, the Kennett Fire Department responded to a report of a quite stuck dog on a potato farm in Arbyrd, a small town in Missouri's bootheel. It was soon obvious rescuers would need to cut into the pipe, Fire Chief Paul Spain told KAIT.

dog with his head stuck in a pipe
dog with his head stuck in a pipe

Courtesy of Kennett Humane Department

The dog's head would still be stuck, but at least it would be in a much smaller section of pipe rather than one still running through the ground.

"We were being very careful about where we were cutting, how we were doing it, and trying to keep the animal calm was a very hard part to do," Spain told the TV station. "We successfully mitigated that. Again, the poor animal was worn out, very dehydrated, very malnourished."

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Then it was off to the veterinarian. Forgoing his day off, Everett Mobley, DVM, at the Kennett Veterinary Clinic was able to sedate Piper Rose and then use some kind of lubricant to wriggle the remaining section of pipe off the dog's head. (You can watch how he did it here.)

"She was able to wag her tail whenever they got it off, and she became more conscious, so it was a very good outcome," Spain told KAIT.

The whole process took five hours, but who knows how long Piper Rose was actually stuck. But things are very, very much turning around for her.

On Facebook, the Kennett Humane Department reported that Piper Rose—get it? Pipe-r—was eating and drinking well as she recovers. She's heartworm positive and had plenty of fleas and ticks, but she had a bath and was resting comfortably.

To top it all off, Spain posted Friday that Piper Rose was "another step closer to becoming a Spain!" We truly love to see it.