A STITCH in time has saved a mum of nine after a vet removed a fish hook from the gullet of a duck in Marlborough.

Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital captured the duck from the bank of the River Kennet near Waitrose after shoppers reported seeing it tangled in fishing line.

They took the stricken bird to the Riverside Veterinary Practice in Pelham Court in London Road on Friday afternoon, where X-rays showed that a large hook was embedded in the bird's insides.

Vet Juliette Hayward decided there were two alternatives: to put the duck out of its misery or try to remove the hook surgically.

The mallard was anaesthetised and in a 15-minute operation on Friday the bird was opened up and the hook was recovered, still attached to the line.

Once the anaesthetic wore off the duck made a speedy recovery.

However it cannot be released back onto the river for a week until its stitches are removed.

It was placed in a run behind the vets and close to the river. On Sunday trainee veterinary nurse Laura Harrison-Allan was amazed to find a male mallard and nine ducklings standing outside the pen holding the recovering bird.

She said: "There were ten in total, dad and nine ducklings and they must have squeezed under the fence to get to her."

After the stitches are removed the duck will be reunited with her mate and family back on the river.

The Marlborough vets believe the offending hook and line had probably broken off after being snagged on a bush or branch.

The duck would have looked upon that as a tasty morsel and swallowed the hook and line.

If the bird's distress had not been spotted by shoppers and reported, the mallard could have suffered a lingering and painful death.

Vets and the RSPCA have implored anglers to make sure that any unwanted line is always safely disposed of and not abandoned.