Harrogate family’s beloved dog survives spine-breaking 10ft fall into river after dramatic rescue

Christine Orr, from Harrogate, watched in horror as her six-year-old Labradoodle, Monty, leapt over a wall at Linton Falls in the North Yorkshire National Park.

She feared her beloved pet was dead as she witnessed the sickening impact and scrambled down and waded into the water to try and reach him.

Miraculously, Monty survived the fall but had shattered his spine.

With the assistance of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, he was safely transported for urgent veterinary care.

Monty was initially stabilised at Kingsway Vets in Skipton before being transferred to Swift Referrals in Wetherby.

Specialists confirmed spinal damage requiring major reconstructive surgery.

The incident happened while Christine and her partner Mark were walking a loop around the limestone waterfalls at Grassington.

Christine said: “Monty just walks beside us and never jumps anything, so he was off the lead.

“But without any warning, he launched himself over the wall at the viewing platform.

“I saw him smash into the rock face and then it was a sheer drop into the water.

“I thought he was dead, and my scream was so loud a lady in a nearby house came out to see what was going on.”

Christine waded into the river and swam to reach Monty, who was paddling with his front paws.

Once on a rock, it became clear he was seriously injured.

Christine added: “When I got him onto a rock, I knew right away something was badly wrong as his back end was down and he couldn’t stand up properly.”

Mark and onlookers helped bring Monty to the riverbank, and fire crews then carefully transported him to the couple’s car for the journey to vets.

At Swift Referrals, vet Rhys Treharne assessed Monty and discovered multiple injuries, including a spinal fracture and a pelvic tendon rupture.

Rhys said: “When Monty came in, he had a number of injuries and was obviously in a lot of discomfort.

"If we hadn’t operated the fracture could have got much worse, so we went ahead with surgery and put in plates with screws to repair it.

"A few days later we carried out another surgery to fix the rupture.

"He made a really good recovery from both procedures and was quickly up and walking again.

"He was really lucky not to have done even more damage after such a nasty fall, and it’s nice to see him doing so well.”

Christine was finally able to collect Monty after about ten days and was amazed at his recovery.

She said: “He walked out wagging his tail and I couldn’t believe he looked so well.

“It was such a soul destroying thing to go through and I’ve never cried so much over an animal.

“We’re so grateful for the amazing work Swift Referrals did.

"We had to restrict Monty’s exercise at first and he still has physio and hydrotherapy every week to build him up and make sure he doesn’t get arthritis.

“But he’s pretty much fully back to his usual crazy self, although we make sure to keep him on the lead now.”