A TERRIER has cost her owners £1,200 in vet bills, after she swallowed 24 rubber gloves.

Ruby was taken to the vets after going off her food and coughing up eight blue surgical gloves. Vets performed an emergency operation after a scan revealed a huge mass in her stomach, and were astonished when they pulled out 16 more gloves.

Owner Michael Fletcher, 54, from York, has since discovered the little pooch had eaten a box of the disposable gloves he keeps in the back of his car for when he visits his allotment. Miraculously Ruby has made a full recovery, but the ordeal has left the family with a £1,200 vets bill.

Daughter Sarah, 25, a healthcare assistant, said: "I was shocked at how she'd even managed to swallow one, never mind 24 of them as she's such a tiny dog.

"My parents didn't even tell me when it first happened, then when I found out I was really worried as Ruby is like my baby."

Michael and Jean, 51, found Ruby running around on a farm as a stray and took her in around six months ago.

She vomited up the first lot of eight gloves after a journey in the car with Michael. He said: "The back of my car had some rubber gloves in that I use for work. It turned out she'd eaten half the box. If they hadn’t operated, she would have died."

The family didn't have any pet insurance so they have to foot the bill for the full cost of the vets bill but they say Ruby’s worth it.