UK vets successfully ‘retrieve’ working AirPods from Golden Retriever's tummy

Jimmy’s abdomen was X-rayed and then quickly operated upon, after which the AirPods case was retrieved from his stomach, completely intact. The doctors were concerned about battery acid from the device leaking into his intestines.

The X-Ray of Jimmy's abdomen, where the AirPods were lodged after he swallowed them.  (Rachel Hick/Vets Now)

Apple's AirPods offer excellent integration with the company's devices, but they're certainly not designed to be consumed, as a Golden Retriever puppy recently found out when he swallowed a pair of Apple's true wireless earbuds. Luckily, vets were able to ‘retrieve' the wireless earbuds from the puppy's stomach, while the owner was surprised that they're still working.

The incident occurred on Easter Sunday, when 22-year-old Rachel Hick, who lives in Willerby, near Hull in the United Kingdom, started taking photos of her Golden Retriever puppy Jimmy, for his Instagram page. That's when she noticed that the puppy was running around in a frenzied and excited manner.

“As he jumped, he knocked my AirPods out of my pocket and they fell on the floor, and before I even realised they'd dropped on the floor, he'd eaten them whole. He looked up at me straight after and gave me a look as if to say ‘that wasn't the treat, was it?' My heart sank,” Hick told Vets Now in Hull, where she rushed her puppy for treatment.

Jimmy's abdomen was X-rayed and then quickly operated upon, after which the AirPods case was retrieved from his stomach, completely intact. The doctors were concerned about battery acid from the device leaking into his intestines. The doctor, however, was surprised to see the AirPods case was unscathed (without even a tooth mark or a scratch) while the charging light was still alive.

It appears that Apple's AirPods are hardier than the company advertises them, surviving splashes of water is one thing, while surviving after spending over an hour inside an animal's digestive system is a completely different story. We've previously covered the story of a boy from Atlanta in the United States who swallowed a pair of AirPods earlier this year, as well as another case of a Taiwanese man who swallowed an AirPod last year, only to find it working after he passed it.