text: A King Charles Spaniel suffered three degree burns from a pad used to keep him warm during a scan which vets had heated up in a microwave. Twelve-year-old Alfie underwent a general anaesthetic for an MRI scan at the Animal Health Trust clinic in Newmarket, Suffolk. The pet, who is also completely deaf, had the scan, last month after his owner Lynne Edwards from Huntington in Cambridgeshire, noticed a lump behind his ear. Alfie's owner Lynne Edwards, said she only realised something was wrong with the pet when he started to refuse food and found puss oozing from his back . But when Alfie returned from the clinic she realised something was wrong when he started refusing food and found puss oozing from his back. She then took him to a local vet, where staff clipped his fur and exposed the severe burns in his back. Ms Edwards, 64, then discovered that a pad used to keep her dog warm while he had the scan got too hot after it was heated in a microwave. She said: 'I just don't understand how it could have been taken from the microwave and then put directly onto Alfie without it being noticed how hot it was. King Charles Spaniel Alfie, who suffered three degree burns after vets place a heat pad on his back that had been warmed in a microwave . 'They have told me that they always warm them up in microwave but after what happened they have promised to change their practice. 'I am glad that they’ve now said they will do that but it took nearly a week for them to stop the practice.' Alfie is now on medication while his wounds heal, but could face surgery to remove some of the skin around the burns. Ms Edwards, an interfaith minister, is now calling on all vets to ensure they heat up the pads correctly and monitor them adequately. The Animal Health Trust confirmed their vets are now using an incubator to heat the pads. A spokesman said: 'We pioneered the use of MRI in animals back in the 1990s and since then we have scanned more than 20,000 animals. 'In the last five years, around 3,000 of these patients would have had heat pads to maintain their body temperature. 'To the best of our knowledge, we have never seen anything like this before in any of the AHT’s patients. 'We understand how upsetting this situation must be for Lynne Edwards and her family, and have carried out a full investigation. 'We have reviewed, and are updating, our Standard Operating Procedure for the use of heat pads. 'We are also standardising the way in which all heat pads are heated at the AHT.' Alfie, who is also deaf, is now on medication while his wounds heal, but could face surgery to remove some of the skin around the burns .
target: Spaniel Alfie had a heat pad placed on him during an MRI scan at a clinic .
  But vets had warmed it up in a microwave rather than in an incubator .
  After his owner Lynne Edwards then suspected something was wrong .
  The 12-year-old pet was then found to have suffered three degree burns .
  WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT .