Oregon Family's Great Dane Wasn't Eating, Then an X-Ray Revealed Why

Where socks go missing is a mystery for many households, but an Oregon family was able to find where 43 of its socks ended up thanks to an X-ray.

According to the Oregonian, a Portland family's Great Dane was vomiting and wouldn't eat any food. The family brought their 3-year-old pet to the vet where Dr. Ashley Magee took X-rays and saw "a lot of foreign material in his stomach."

This Feb. 2014 photo provided by DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital, shows an X-ray of a dog that consumed a number of socks in Portland, Ore. A 3-year-old Great Dane was miserable, retching and vomiting, when his owners rushed him to DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital. X-rays showed a stomach full of what was described as "a large quantity of foreign material." Nearly two hours of surgery later, Dr. Ashley Magee said the dog had consumed 43 ½ socks. (AP/DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital)

Not knowing what it was and assuming it couldn't be digested, the material was surgically removed and revealed 43 1/2 socks.

"We opened up his stomach and kept removing sock after sock of all different shapes and sizes," Magee with the Dove Lewis Animal Hospital told KGW-TV.

DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital spokeswoman Shawna Harch says it's perhaps the strangest case in the hospital's history. (AP/DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital)

Magee told the news station she has seen the dog since the surgery and he has been doing well.

"He did have a history of preference for socks," she said.

Each year Veterinary Practice News conducts an X-ray contest, and Magee knew just what to submit this year. The sock-eating Great Dane's X-rays won second place in the "They Ate WHAT?" contest.

First place went to an animal hospital in Plano, Texas, for its X-ray of a frog that ate about 30 rocks that were in its cage.