Vets in the house???

Factual Questions
1

OK, well, about four days ago I dropped a bottle of medication (Lortab, pretty rough stuff, painkiller) and I frantically hit the floor scrambling to pick up the pills because we have a very small dog (a little chihuahua) who likes to steal things and hide them, not even necessarily eat them, just hide them.(Right now he’s taking the remote…hold on)

Because I have to keep track of how many pills I take and it was a relatively new prescription, I was 99% sure I’d gotten all of them, but I still vaccummed <-- sp? and swept up just to be sure.

In those four days, the pup has managed to steal napkins and puffs of cotton, bits of newspaper, and paper towels and tear them up into little papitkes all over the floor. My hubby and I were lounging today and looked over and saw our little thief batting something white around in the other room.

Before I could get it from him he’d swallowed it. I assumed it was just his regular paper, lint bits or a piece of food.

Hubby said “Hope it wasn’t a pill”.

I am 99% sure it was not a pill, but it’s been in my head all night. It’s 9:30 here now and he’s absolutely fine. He’s eaten a full meal plus treats, played some fetch, went for a long walk, peed and pooped and is currently taking the latest issue of Cottage Living off of the coffee table.

I called the Emergency vet because I was being nagged and she basically read me the riot act saying I shouldn’t “leave drugs out for the dog” as if I give them as treats or leave them in candy dishes…and that if I was “really worried about him” I’d have called five hours ago.

The point is, I’m not that worried about him, but I want to know if anything was going to happen, would it have happened by now? Is it too late to induce vomiting? Would he have passed out, gone loopy, or worse?

I’m stuck at home without a car until 11:00pm…so I can’t run him to the vet…any thoughts until then?

2

IANAV but it appears that this same medication (Lortab= hydrocodone + acetaminophen) is also used for dogs so it is not inherently poisonous. The main issue is the dosage relative to the dog’s body weight and you haven’t said what the dosage is of the pill he ate.

3

I would certainly think you would have seen some effects by now if the dog had been harmed. The symptoms should watch for are unusual sleepiness, diziness, refusal to eat, vomiting, diarreah, and traces of blood in either. After five hours, though, if he hasn’t shown any adverse effects, it probably wasn’t a pill he ate. Continue to watch him, but if he acts normally, he’s fine.

Yes, it’s much too late to induce vomiting-- it would have long ago been absorbed into his system. As I understand, you have about a ten to fifteen minute window before the pill is dissolved and starts to be absorbed.

4

[QUOTE=Lissa]
I would certainly think you would have seen some effects by now if the dog had been harmed.

[QUOTE]

Li’l guy seems perfectly fine today. Slept like a log and got up and stole one of my bras and tore it up, just like usual. Ate voraciously and did his business like normal.

Like I said, I’m 99% sure it wasn’t a pill, but what can I say, I’m America’s Finest Worrywart.

5

In a similar future event it would be wise to keep an emetic handy. Hydrogen Peroxide works great for this purpose. Unless the substance ingested is something that should not be treated as such, just give about a tablespoon of 3% H2O2 every minute (orally) until vomitting begins.

If the lortab had been ingested, sedation would have been seen within 30 minutes.

6

[hijack] I’m always amused when I see a poster with 1000s of posts and I don’t remember having seen their name before. (Even more amused when it’s a fun name like tiny ham.) Just sayin. :slight_smile: [/hijack]