A dog's life has been saved by having his own blood recycled during life-threatening surgery.

The cell-salvaging machine has been used to help people in the NHS but this is the first time the procedure has been carried out on a canine in Scotland.

In May this year it was found that Merlin, a ten-stone Great Dane, was losing blood because of a life-threatening twist in his intestine.

After performing an operation to fix it, he was in routine post-operative care when they found he had an internal bleed.

The four-year-old dog lost three-and-a-half litres of blood during the second operation, and with not enough dog donor supplies, the only option was to recycle his red blood cells.

By salvaging and cleaning the cells which had leaked into his abdomen, the machine recovered more than half of what was lost.

The vet who performed the treatment said had it not been for the machine, he does not believe the Great Dane would have survived.

Vet Dan Lewis said: "Because of his size and the amount of blood he had lost, I think I can probably say quite categorically, I don't think he would've made it had it not been for this machine."

Merlin's owner, Graeme McClain from Saltcoats, praised the hospital staff for saving his dog's life and said he feared he would lose Merlin as his condition worsened.

"There was a high risk of losing him at that point," he said.

"Two operations back to back and being knocked out twice with general anaesthetic is not good for any dog.

"We were devastated, just at the point of not knowing - your whole world just gets flipped upside down."

He added: "He's a big part of the family, to lose him at four years old would've been a huge loss to ourselves.

"We were over the moon to have him home and he was over the moon- he was more relaxed being in his own environment and his own surroundings.

"He's our big baby - we've still got our dog because of that treatment."