The owners of a three-year-old Great Dane in Portland, Oregon rushed their dog to an emergency animal hospital recently, because he was retching and throwing up all day.

And based on some X-rays, he had a severely distended stomach, filled with a large quantity of, quote, "foreign material."

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So a vet did exploratory surgery . . . and removed 43-and-a-half SOCKS from his stomach.

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It's not clear if he ate them all in one sitting, or over the course of a few days. It's also not clear if they were clean or dirty. But there's a photo of them all lined up after the surgery, and they were certainly dirty at THAT point.

According to the vet, it was probably an anxiety thing. Because when dogs are home alone for a long time, they can get nervous and start chewing on things that smell like their owner. And, quote, "He did have a history of preference for socks."

Luckily the dog was sent home the next day, and has been back for check-ups a few times since, and he's doing fine. But it's probably safe to assume the 43-and-a-half socks had to get tossed. No word on whether or not the other half-sock ever turned up.

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