I won’t go into excruciating detail other than 1) my more mischievous husky, Oakley, raided the pantry and downed an almost full Costco-sized bag of bittersweet chocolate chips; 2) he then made a mess, ran around in a fit, tore both screens in a bedroom and went out onto the porch roof where a neighbor spotted him and called Animal Control; 3) he’s spent the majority of the last 2 days at the vet’s either being purged with liquid activated charcoal or being monitored for the subtler signs of poisoning.
This all happened while I was at work on Tuesday. My husband is currently on a business trip. He works from home, so the huskies are with him most of the time. When my husband goes on a trip we set aside $ for Oakley and his brother to go daycare while I’m at work. This time, however, we ran into a financial snag with a few things so the money was diverted. A friend came to check on them earlier in the day and all was well then.
Anyway, it’s been an ordeal. The vet had to purge him a number of times. She wanted him to go to the 24-hour animal ER for observation but we can’t afford that so Oakley came home for the night. We spent most of that night walking around the backyard until he was exhausted enough to lie down. He made messes and peed oceans because of the charcoal. He returned to the vet in the morning for one more purge. I picked him up in the late afternoon. He’s been very quiet and sleepy since.
I’m an utter wreck. I had to call out of work because I have nobody who can watch him all day. I got some crap for this from my manager, to which I countered, You know, it’s kind of like being a single mom with a small child who’s sick, you know? I now have all the sympathy in the world because, believe me, I’d LIKE to be there and earn the money but I simply can’t. I’m sorry.
Oakley’s an utter wreck too. He just wants to eat and sleep. Ordinarily right now he’d be begging me to take him for a walk. His brother is also quite tired, no doubt from canine-type worrying about both of us.
Thanks for listening. I’d like to take a nap but I’m too wired right now.
Jesus! So the crazy running around was due to the ingestion of chocolate or just being home unsupervised? Does eating chocolate make the dog go insane on top of being poisoned?
Really sorry to hear that you missed out on daycare because of money, because we all know that now that treatment is going to cost a lot more. Crap crap crap
It’s good that he did end up on the porch isn’t it? Otherwise who knows what would have happened if you didn’t get alerted to the problem on time.
Poor doggy. Poor you! But so glad to hear he is on the mend. Right…?
My vet said that kind of agitation is a sign of theobromine poisoning. He literally tore through the screen and went onto the porch roof. My neighbor thought he was going to fall. Thankfully he had enough sense to go back inside.
Ordinarily we can leave Oakley and his brother alone for a few hours here and there. They’re older dogs – Oakley is 7; Max is roughly 8 or 9. Oakley’s generally more active and “I wanna do something” than Max. Oakley tends to get into mischief if he’s bored enough but never to this extent.
In total the treatment was almost $800 :headdesk: OTOH god knows what would’ve happened otherwise.
But yeah, he’s on the mend. He’s completely spent. I’m at that point of exhaustion where I’m still too wired to nap. I think I’ve burst into tears a half dozen times since waking up this morning.
I’m so glad Oakley made it through okay! What a nightmare for all of you. I hope your manager really understands how important this is and stops being a jerk.
I’m so glad your neighbor was alert and not just thinking “What is that wacky dog doing now?” My boss has always been very understanding when I’ve had to take time off for my animals (not often, but it happens). My dogs are home alone while I’m at work, and although there have been occasional blips (A whole 5 lb bag of flour spread around the kitchen), I’ve only ever had one scary incident. The dogs got into rat poison. I’d put some down 10 years before when I first moved into the house. I didn’t know which dog of the 5 at the time might have ingested it, so I had to induce vomiting for all of them, then take them all to the vet for Vit. K shots and pills for a month. Fun times 5.
I’m so sorry, but glad that he was able to recover.
My dog poisoning story isn’t so bad, but I thought it was interesting so I’ll share it. We were fostering a greyhound fresh off the tracks (I have two) so we were teaching him house manners. Namely not to steal food off the counter tops, although we’re pretty good about not leaving stuff up there to tempt the dogs. But while we were at work one day he did get down the bag of Dasuquin chewable glucosamine tablets we give to our female. The package is one of those pathetic attempts at a zip-top bag that the manufacturer should be ashamed to even put on the market because they don’t zip closed. So I’m sure he got it because he could smell the contents.
Anyway, I know it was him because my two always ignore the stuff on the counter, even the Dasuquin that had lived on the counter for over a year. But he and my male had themselves a really good time snarfing down the entire bag. As a result they both got to endure about 24 hours of tummy ache and watery diarrhea and vomiting. The interesting thing is that it was my boy (not normally a chowhound) who partook, and not our female who IS a total chowhound.
(We checked it with pet poison control and knew we only needed to keep them hydrated instead of taking them to the vet.) They recovered well, but DARN IT BOYS! :mad:
My manager will eventually calm down. The issue is that we’re very short of help right now, and I’m considered “essential personnel”. Things happen, though. It’s not like I planned this.
I’m so relieved he made it through too. He’s still a bit woozy but that’s understandable. Now maybe I can start unclenching my fingers from the imaginary cliff.
OMG, rat poison :shudder: Thank god they all made it through!
We’ve only had one other poisoning incident: Back before we married, my now-husband’s border collie cross got into an Easter basket while he was at work. She chowed down an entire 16-oz. milk chocolate bunny and spent the rest of the day pooping/puking all over the apartment. After she recovered my husband thought it’d be funny to ask her, “Ember, would you like some chocolate?” She literally turned green upon hearing the word.
Sorry to hear. Our basenji once ate three caramelized onions that she knocked off the kitchen counter. Same deal: emergency vet, poison control, emetics, charcoal. The emetic wasn’t very effective, she had three doses and only brought up one tiny shred of onion (that’s how we knew we had the right dog, the other one doesn’t go into the kitchen much).
Three onions is a large dose for a 20lb dog, and even the long slow cooking hadn’t reduced the potentially dangerous compounds; onions cause hemolytic anemia in dogs, so she also had to have follow-up bloodwork a few times to make sure her RBC count was recovering. It was low for a few weeks, and gradually improved.
Hope your fella is back on his paws soon. We also added magnetic catches to our lower cabinet doors, where the trash can lives, to foil her trash-stealing ways - something you could consider?
Evidently I’ve been blessed with dogs who do not like the taste of their medicine
Oakley didn’t want to eat that particular night but I made him his dinner anyway and left it on the counter. Very early the next morning I awoke to a crash in the kitchen. He’d jumped at the counter and managed to pull not only his dish but a package of bagels off the counter. He ate all his kibble and left the bagels. That was my first indication that he’d be OK
I’m thankful that it didn’t harm them because the incident actually kind of amused me. My boy is actually really good and never gets into trouble. It was a big surprise that he joined in the little escapade!
I have a friend who discovered that her dog had been noshing on the green tomatoes in her garden. He survived after a close call with the Grim Reaper, but it caused lasting internal damage to parts of his digestive tract. For months he could barely hold anything down and for the rest of his life he needs a special diet.
Having said that, red tomatoes are okay in very small doses, which my North American Tomato Hound appreciates.
Very very glad your miscreants are going to be ok.
My mother suffered from ulcers and once when she was visiting, she brought along a box of individually wrapped Maalox antacid tablets. For some reason known only to a canine, my dog at the time decided to eat them (plastic wrapping and all). I flew into a panic and raced the dog to the vet. I asked what to expect. The vet gave me a wry smile and said “you’re in for a lot of plastic-filled poop for a few days, but with all those antacids, that plastic should slide right through”. And that’s exactly what it did.
If I’m not mistaken I believe the same compound is in raw garlic. You can sprinkle a small amount of garlic powder in their food without ill effect, though. There must be something in the process which negates the compounds…?
He’s doing much, much better, thank you. He’s nearly back to his old self, if a bit chastened (he didn’t go anywhere near the kitchen, lol). He found the chocolate chips in our pantry, which has a sliding door that fell off its track a few months ago. We prop it against the frame before leaving in the morning. Obviously I’d had a brain fart
I had an incident where my three dogs split 6 pounds of Halloween candy (yes, chocolate) between them. We had to induce vomiting, which we were able to safely do before they digested much. I still remember walking them around the yard until they got sick. The yard reeked of chocolate. I’m fairly certain the only lesson they learned is that “mom” is weird.
