A woman claims that a brain tumour transformed her beloved family dog from the "'world's perfect" pet into an "aggressive" beast that tore half her nose off.
Korinne Mortensen was consoling her four-year-old dog, Niko at their home when he suddenly clamped his jaw onto her nose, ripping a chunk out of her face. Shocking images reveal the 30 year old's face drenched in blood with a "gaping" hole in her nose in November 2022.
The mum-of-two was immediately taken to Lone Peak Hospital in Utah, US, where a doctor confirmed her nose was broken and there was a "quarter coin-sized" piece missing.
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Korinne revealed that their family dog had been experiencing ongoing seizures but had never shown aggression before, so she was initially "shocked" by the attack.
It was only after a neurological veterinary specialist diagnosed Niko with an "aggressive" brain tumour that they believed likely triggered the unexpected attack and behavioural change.
As their dog's health worsened, the stay-at-home mum felt it was best to have him put down to prevent him from attacking anyone else and to end his suffering.
Nearly two years have passed since the incident, and while Korinne does not blame her dog for the unprovoked attack, she has been left with a permanent scar on her nose.
Korinne said: "We'd had Niko for four years and he was the world's perfect dog and had never done anything wrong.
"He was having a few health issues and he'd had a couple of seizures but at this point he hadn't been aggressive.
"We were planning on taking him to the vets but his appointment wasn't for another few weeks.
"We were just relaxing as a family and he [the dog] had had one of these weird little episodes so I got down to make sure he was okay and just out of nowhere I saw his face come at mine.
"It was half a second. It was so fast and one bite. It all happened so fast and I was in shock as I never imagined my sweet little dog would do this.
"I remember I ran to the bathroom and all I saw was blood. I knew it was bad but I hadn't felt the pain yet as I was in shock."
She added: "My nose looked horrible and I hated it. The bone in my nose had been completely broken in half and then he [my dog] had bitten a chunk underneath.
"It was deformed and you could see a chunk out of it from the side. I was really self-conscious about it. I found it hard to look in the mirror at myself."
Korinne and her family adopted the pointer-cattle dog mix from a rescue centre when he was just a pup.
Korinne revealed: "After the injury, we first thought that we were going to have to take our dog to the vets and get it put down as we couldn't have it in the house when we had children.
"But after we calmed down, we then thought that maybe there is something wrong with him and we could find out what and get our dog back.
"Before we rushed to conclusions we gave him the benefit of the doubt and took him to the vets to see if he could be fixed.
"In the meantime we muzzle trained him and anytime he was out he wore a muzzle.
"We then took him to a veterinary neurological specialist. He was getting worse at this point and was having more seizures.
"He then started getting aggressive with our other dog and we had to have him in a muzzle 24/7 and we felt so bad about this.
"We went and spoke to the specialist and they confidently said that they believed him to have an aggressive brain tumour that was making him behave this way.
"How fast he was going down hill, there wasn't a lot they could do for him so we decided to put him down as this was the best option as it wasn't fair on him."
Korinne underwent plastic surgery to correct a dent in her face.
Despite the traumatic incident, Korinne harbours no resentment towards her pet, choosing instead to remember the happier times.
She said: "For us, I'm really glad we got that closure because every time I would have looked at my nose, there would have been this anger there and thinking all these horrible things.
"But we got closure and can now remember the good memories and the four years of the perfect dog we had."
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