A dog owner has been left devastated after her beloved puppy choked to death in her arms while playing fetch with a solid rubber ball.
Owner Louise Jackson claims the death of her cane corso Donnie has turned her in to a "totally different person" with PTSD.
The mum-of-one took Donnie out for a walk last April and threw a bouncy ball for him to catch.
But she says tragedy struck when the playful pooch caught the SportsPet high bounce rubber ball and it slid down his throat, got stuck and he started choking.
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Donnie started pawing at his throat in a desperate bid to dislodge the £3 ball, which she says was bought from Pets At Home, as she ran over to help.
The hairdresser put her hand down his throat to try and remove it but claims the rubber was too hard to squeeze and she was unable to get a firm grip on it due to saliva.
Horrified, the 37-year-old shouted for help and a good samaritan raced over and carried out the Heimlich manoeuvre and also tried to fish the ball out to no avail.
The man lifted 24-kilo Donnie upside down, while Louise desperately hit his back and pushed up into his stomach but tragically nothing worked to shift it.
Within five minutes of swallowing the ball, and attempts to revive him with CPR failed, Donnie tragically died - and the ordeal has left the mum so traumatised that she still relives the incident every night as she goes to bed.
She is now is speaking out to urge pet owners to buy balls that have holes in them so if they are accidentally swallowed, she believes there is a chance the dog will be able to breathe and survive.
Louise, from Bexley, Kent, said: "Donnie caught the ball on the bounce as it came up off the floor. He died within five minutes in my arms, it felt like an absolute lifetime.
"I see it every single night when I close my eyes to go to bed.
"It was absolutely horrific. I honestly feel like I have PTSD from what happened.
"I'm a totally different person now to what I was a year ago."
Louise was out walking Donnie and her two rescue dogs - Jack Russell, Lady, 12, and six-year-old Jack Russell-Pug cros,s Jack - in Danson Park, in Bexley, on April 28, last year.
Louise said: "I threw the ball for Donnie. It bounced off the floor, it was such a hard rubber it bounced really far and as he caught it it just got stuck.
"Straightaway I knew it was stuck because he pawed at his mouth. I ran over to him and I put my hand in his throat.
"I was screaming 'somebody help me' and this man came running over. Donnie, even though he was six-months-old, weighed 24 kilos so I couldn't lift him.
"I was a 20-minute walk from the car, I wouldn't have been able to carry him to the car and get him to the vets in time.
"But this man came over and did the Heimlich maneuver on him.
"I was hitting his back and pushing up into his stomach even while my hand was in there, we had him upside down and it still wouldn't come out.
"I feel like if it was a tennis ball I may have had a better grip and I may have been able to get it out but it was the texture of this ball that made it impossible to get out.
"The man who helped broke his hand. My hands were cut to pieces where Donnie was biting but I didn't feel any pain in my hands.
"I was just so caught up in the moment and was just so desperate to try and get this ball out.
"I was just begging this man 'please I can't lose him'. He adored me and I just loved him so much.
"I love all my dogs but there was something about Donnie, we built such a bond. He was so happy to be with us, he was just an angel.
"It was awful because when he had died and his body had relaxed, the ball came out, so then we did CPR.
"The man was pumping on his chest and I held his mouth shut and was blowing into his nose. We did that for about ten minutes and the guy said 'he's gone'.
"I knew he was going to die and I couldn't do anything about it.
"It was awful, I have never ever felt so out of control and so helpless it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to witness.
"To lose him like this is so unfair."
Kind passersby looked after Louise's two other dogs as tragedy unfolded, then the man who tried to help dislodge the ball carried Donnie back to the car.
Louise said: "The man carried Donnie back to the car because I couldn't lift him and a lady drove me to the vet.
"I then had to go to the hospital to get my hand sorted.
"It was awful. I'd just lost my dog and then I had to go to the hospital on my own, it was just horrible."
A year on and Louise is sharing her story in hopes it could save another dog's life and prevent an owner from living through the same ordeal.
Louise said: "If the ball had the holes in he would be here.
"I have always had dogs my entire life, throwing a ball is just something you do.
"Until something like this happens you don't think of the dangers.
"I will never get over this, but I just hope it brings as much awareness as possible because I don't want him dying in vain."
She shared a Facebook post on Tuesday to highlight what happened.
The post reads: "It’s almost a year to the day that my sweet, sweet boy passed away during our walk.
"I’m writing this post again to raise as much awareness as I can so that the same thing doesn’t happen to another dog.
"My Donnie choked on a ‘sports pet’ ball while we were out for a walk and he died in my arms after trying absolutely everything in our power to remove it.
"PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, use balls that have holes in them, such as the breath right balls. I wish I had.
"Also, just make sure that the ball you’re using is physically too big for it to get stuck.
"The ball we were playing with was the size of a tennis ball that I thought would never have got stuck.
"But the fact it was a hard solid rubber meant that I couldn’t squeeze the ball to remove it from Donnie's windpipe.
"We were too far from the car to get him to the vets, we tried the Heimlich manoeuvre and we tried CPR.
SportsPet and Pets At Home have been contacted for comment.
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