Dr. Don Harris said he couldn't figure out why an X-ray of a tortoise seemed to show the picture of another tortoise inside its stomach.
We've all eaten something we regret, but these pets really take the cake.
Read: 12-Week-Old Puppy Swallows 8-Inch Knife and Survives - See the Shocking X-Ray
Last month, veterinarians around the United States submitted their most jaw-dropping X-rays to Veterinary Practice News for the publication’s 12th annual "They Ate What?! X-ray contest."
Among them was a tortoise with an X-ray that seemed to show the image of another tortoise.
“I looked at the screen and said, ‘All right, who’s got the turtle necklace?’” said veterinarian Dr. Don Harris of Avian & Exotic AMC in Miami. “I picked up Lola, checked her all around, and made sure they didn’t tape anything on her belly.”
Lola, a 15-pound tortoise, had come in with an intestinal blockage, and veterinarians eventually discovered that she had swallowed a metal pendant that was coincidently shaped like a turtle.
“[The owners] didn’t know where the pendant came from – that’s what makes it more mysterious,” Harris said. “They were as shocked as I was – especially [because of the] coincidence of a tortoise eating a turtle. Go figure.”
After trying to have Lola pass it naturally using fiber supplements and laxatives, Harris said his team eventually decided to operate.
Months after the turtle pendant was removed, Harris said the reptile recovered quickly.
“She had grown, put on weight, was moving a little quicker and the shell had healed nicely,” he said.
The future is bright for Ben, a 9-year-old Labrador-mix, after the poor pup swallowed dozens of tea lights.
“The biggest problem was all the wax,” Dr. Laura Wallach of Danada Veterinary Hospital in Wheaton, Ill. told InsideEdition.com. “The wax from the candles was actually blocking the exit from the stomach so he had a functional blockage from all the wax.”
Wallach said the dog came in with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, and his owners knew he got into a new bag of 42 tea lights.
When she performed the surgery, her biggest goal was removing the melted wax. She also ended up removing 38 metal discs that held up the candle’s wick. She said she hardly found any of the cups that held up the candle and assumed he had digested them.
“He did great after surgery,” Wallach said. “Five days after surgery, he was wagging his tail and looking for something else to eat.”
Read: Doctors Surgically Remove Diamond From Woman Who Allegedly Swallowed it During Heist
Also included in the list of finalists was an alligator that swallowed a drain plug while he was taking a nap, and a Rottweiler that swallowed a watch, which continued to beep inside her stomach to alert her diabetic owner to self-administer insulin.
This year’s winner, a Massachusetts veterinarian who discovered two rib bones in an English bulldog’s stomach he had swallowed whole, walked away with $500 cash and a one-year subscription to medical imaging technology worth up to $2,400, courtesy of IDEXX Laboratories Inc.
Watch: Veterinarian Reveals the Weirdest and Most Dangerous Things He's Removed From a Dog's Stomach
