Emma Mitchell, 33, and her sister Seinead, 27, were looking after their dad’s dog Toby when he took ill, and following a life-threatening scare they are hoping to alert other dog owners to the dangers of everyday items to pets.

Emma told the Advertiser that Toby, a nine-year-old Lhasa Apso, had belonged to her mum Kathleen and dad Terrence Friel.

Since her mum passed away, she says the dog ‘means the world’ to the family.

She said: “This dog means the world to us. What happened is my dad was going away, so we were looking after the dog. My sister took him for a walk, then he was in the garden.” Ms Mitchell said that there was an area in her dad’s garden that was usually fenced off, but Toby had managed to get in and had eaten slug pellets, which made him very sick.

She added: “My dad had put pellets down and he had swallowed quite a lot of them – but my sister hadn’t realised.

“When we came back up to feed him, he was really ill, it just clicked with my sister that he must have eaten slug pellets. His eyes were really big, it was really scary.” Toby started having seizures, so Ms Mitchell phoned the vet and rushed the dog down to get treatment.

Following a tense afternoon of waiting for news, the vet told the sisters that they had two options - put Toby down, or take him to a vet in Glasgow which could cost thousands of pounds.

Ms Mitchell said: “We were crying because we thought that he would be okay. Our other option was to take him up to Glasgow to get treated but that could be thousands of pounds, and he might not even make it.

“I phoned my dad, and he said ‘we love that dog, so just do it’. The vet drove him up, she was fantastic.

“We were told not to come up, if we got a phone call it is to say he’s not made it.

“We never slept on Friday night. We got a call in the morning to say that he was getting a bit better, but wasn’t out of the woods yet.” However, Toby has had a lucky escape, and after a tough weekend he is now on the mend.

Ms Mitchell said: “We are just dead relieved.

“My dad never goes anywhere, and he was away for the night with his friends. He was stressing about coming home or not.

“Toby means so much to him. We are all just glad he is here.” She said vets at Lomond Veterinary Clinic where they first took Toby were ‘fantastic’.

A spokeswoman for the clinic said within an hour, Toby suffered life-threatening seizures. The sisters brought Toby, and the container for the pellets, to the vets ‘promptly’ which helped him.

She added: “We are currently running a campaign to highlight the potential household dangers that pets are exposed to and this was a timely reminder of just how important it is to be aware of these common items. “As well as slug pellets, household plants, cleaning agents, many medicines and foods such as chocolate, onions and grapes are all potentially hazardous to dogs.

“We would always recommend that people contact their veterinary surgeon in the first instance if they have any concerns.”