The reason we tell other people to do things...because we have been there!!

At work (veterinary hospital) we tell our clients all the time to watch out where they put medications, how some medications attract dogs to the point of sniffing them out and eating the whole prescription, and how overdosing harms the dog. So, here is exactly why we, in the veterinary profession, tell you, the general public, this important piece of information:

A little background...my dachshund, Scarlett, is a little terror who gets into everything, has to chew things up to fully understand what they do, has an amazing sense of smell, and is very food/treat motivated. On the other hand, my cat, Cena, is also very food motivated (which is how I get her into the house), but when she is done eating, she would very much like to leave the house. So much so, that she has learned how to slide our screen door to the backyard open with a claw. Ingenious cat really, however, this "trick" and a young, inquisitive, and very naughty dog are not a good mix.

One day, in a small town very nearby, I left to go to work and, unbeknownst to me, I left the above mentioned animals at a potential for disaster. I had left Cena inside and had left the door to the room open and the sliding door open, so that there was only the screen door between Cena and the dogs. Silly me, I never thought she would dare open the screen door with dogs on the other side!

I happened to go home for lunch, on a whim, really. I realized that I had no errands to run and leftovers at home, it would be nice to go home and have some peace and quiet for lunch! Yeah, right! The minute I walked in the door I saw it, the kitchen was a disaster! The trash can was knocked over and there was chewed up stuff all over the floor. At first I thought, "damn cat!" But then I saw... the chewed up pill bottles on the floor. No way the cat did that! Then I saw the way she could have gotten on the table. The medications were some we give Angelik for her arthritis. She is about 8 times bigger than Scarlett, the dose she gets alone is 4 times the strength needed for Scarlett. And there had been at least 5 pills in the bottle, so if Scarlett really ate those pills that meant she had eaten at least 20 times what she could have needed. That is actually enough to put a dog into kidney failure! By this time I was certain it had been my little devil, because her belly was also much more distended than I had ever seen it without being completely obvious right away. So much for peace and quiet!

After my detective work, I had no choice put to pack up the dogs and take them back to work and hope that only one of them had eaten the tablets, but needing to make them both throw up to make sure. It took less than a minute after the injection for Scarlett to start puking and, fortunately, some pills came out whole, so she really just gobbled them up, which probably helped us all out in the long run. So after emptying her stomach I put her on fluids to help protect those little kidneys. I did bloodwork about three days later and all her levels looked good, so we were really lucky. Poor Angelik spent the afternoon drooling, but I am so glad that she had not done any of the damage (it's nice to have at least one well behaved dog!).

So make sure you put any of your pets medications somewhere they can't reach, and truly can't reach because they will use chairs and tables to get up high. Because they can poison themselves, because they can hurt themselves, because they may not have a good prognosis if you don't catch it quickly, and because it is going to be really expensive! On the financial note, the injection we give to make them vomit is about $175 per injection. Liquid gold! Seriously, that doesn't take into account any hospitalization, bloodwork, and medications, which are part of the treatment plan in these cases. Save yourself the large bill and just think about a safe place you could put such medications, or be lazy (like I was) and keep us in business! =)