Puppy saves man’s life by chewing off his toe while he slept

They thought he was bad to the bone, but he was actually being a good boy.

A UK man was horrified after discovering that his dog nearly chewed off his toe — only to find later that his am-pet-ation might’ve saved his life.

“He’s done me a favor by chewing my toe,” David Lindsay, 64, told SWNS of the accidental diagnosis, which occurred while he was asleep on the couch with his bulldog Harley nearby.

The Cambridge native’s nap was cut short after he heard his wife emit a bloodcurdling scream.

“I was asleep on the couch when my wife walked in and shouted, ‘Dave, the puppy’s chewing your toe!’ ” recalled Lindsay, who woke up to see a bloody stump where his big toe had been.

As it turned out, his 7-month-year-old pup gnawed his tootsie so badly that he’d fractured it, and left a nail hanging off like a human chew toy.

“My puppy had near-enough chewed my big toe off!” exclaimed the aghast father of five. “It chewed down to the bone and cracked it.”

The couple couldn’t believe that the so-called man’s best friend had treated Lindsay’s toe like a “tootsie” pop.

Lindsay’s wife quickly bandaged the digit, before transporting her now stubby hubby to the hospital, where he learned that he had an infection due to the bite.

The Brit was forced to remain there for nine days while doctors administered intravenous antibiotics to stop it from spreading to his bone.

Despite the grueling ordeal, the bite turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it led to a shocking diagnosis.

“Because of all this, I discovered that my foot is completely numb, I can’t feel anything,” exclaimed the patient, who suffers from diabetes.

Subsequent CT scans revealed that the Brit had suffered two blocked arteries, putting him in danger of requiring a leg amputation due to the lack of blood flow to the region.

Thanks to Harley’s Rex-ploratory incision, Lindsay is currently being assessed for stents, which would open up the arteries and restore circulation to his limbs.

In other words, losing a toe paradoxically might have prevented him from losing a leg.

Lindsay has since learned to see the funny side of the situation. “You’ve got to laugh about it,” mused the owner, who has no plans to give away the dog who nipped his problem to the nub.

“I’m waiting to find out if they can put stents in,” Lindsay said. “I’ll be keeping the dog.”

He added, “I’ll try to keep my toe, too, but if not, I told the doctor to cut it off, and I can take it home for him!”

It’s unlikely that Harley actually sensed his owner was in peril, however, canines have displayed an uncanny potential to detect disease.

In her book “Doctor Dogs: How Our Best Friends Are Becoming Our Best Medicine,” Maria Goodavage details how Fido can sniff out a number of medical issues, ranging from malaria to early-stage cancer.

Meanwhile, last year, several US states deployed virus-sniffing dogs to identify COVID-19 in schools and other facilities.