Our dog almost kicked the bucket

[Broken_Hero]

Friday night/Saturday morning, I was up late on DU(of course) and my wife let our dog spotamus prime out into the living room, and he was bouncing around as usual. As time goes by, I notice from the corner of my eye, that he is laying on the couch, and I basically ignore him. About half an hour later, I get up for a bathroom break, and when I come back into the living room, I notice that our dog is laying on the clean clothes I just folded(that I left on the couch).

So, as I get closer to Spot, I notice that his flea/tick collar is stuck in his mouth, and he has chew 99% through the collar, but pieces of it are resting in his mouth. I take the collar off, and he just rolls over, almost lifeless....

I grab him by the scruff of his neck and pick him up, and he doesn't even whine, or move, his eyes are barely open. I set him on the floor, he stands for barely a second, and he just flops over on his side. This is around...hmmm, 5am saturday morning, so I wake up my wife, to see what she thinks, and I quickly grab a flea/tick collar and read the warning on the back. The warning states that in cases of ingestion, you have to induce vomiting, because the chemicals can be fatal. So, the question is...how the hell do you make a dog throw up?

Our dog is fincky with his food...he has thrown up turkey before, thats how sensitive his stomach is, but my wife and I are stumped, as to what to use as a vomit inducer. Luckily, my mother is a veternarian assistant...so, I call my mother at 2am Alaska time, and she tells us to give spot 1/3 a cup of hydrogen perioxide, and that will induce vomiting pretty quickly.

My wife and I pour a 1/3 cup of hydrogen perioxide down our dogs throat, and by god, that got his ass moving around pretty quickly. He started upchucking about five minutes later, and after a day and a half now, he is almost back to normal.

Moral of this story....if spot wasn't laying on our clean clothes, I would have went to bed and left him there, and he would have died. Little miracles I suppose...:hi:

[LaurenG]

1. Thank goodness you noticed him

That would have been just devastating. Whew I'm glad it worked out OK.:scared: :hug:

[zonkers]

2. Yay Mom in Law! Yay Spot! No more flea collars for Spot. This story

should be posted at a pet site -- I bet this happens more than we think.

Hope you punished Spot when it was all over for lying on those clean clothes.

[Broken_Hero]

3. nah

I figured forcing hydrogen perioxide down his gullet was punishment enough. About the flea/tick collars, just make sure they are snug/tight. My wife left this one a bit loose, and he got it over his lower jaw into his mouth. This is the first time I have ever seen him do this with the flea/tick collar.

[Flaxbee]

8. Advantage or Frontline are a good alternative to collars...

Also reduces your exposure to nasty collars, too...

Glad Spot's OK!

[Broken_Hero]

10. The ones we use

are Virbac flea/tick collars. My mom gets them for us via her discount at her vet clinic. I have seen frontline at the vet here, and they are spendy....whew. In truth, our dog is an inside dog, but fleas/ticks do come in the house usually catching a ride on my wife and I. God, I hate ticks, they are the worst pest so far. I hate them more than snakes.

[Flaxbee]

21. ticks give me the serious heebie-jeebies. More so than any

other creepy crawler. I'll take spiders outside, don't mind snakes, but ticks? Serious freak-out time for me.

That being said, I buy Advantage for my cats from these guys: https://www.vetshoponline.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/site.splash/

Really pretty cheap, and unless you live in the southeast, you probably don't need to use either Advantage or Frontline year round, just during the summer.

My sister is a vet, and she recommends either product above a flea collar (that can have the problems you mentioned - high toxicity if bitten or gnawed on) and aren't really good for all-body coverage.

Anyway, just my $.02

[China_cat]

16. Newer flea collars have higher

levels of pesticides in them than ones did 10 years ago. And they don't protect the whole dog from parasites.

Advantage or Frontline protects the whole dog and isn't likely to kill the animal.

Edited to add that we live in a bad flea area and we only have to apply Frontline twice a year. It also takes care of ticks. It's worth the price.

[driver8]

4. Wow -- what a story!

Glad to hear that your pooch is doing ok.

I am going to remember that hydrogen peroxide info...could come in handy!!

[Broken_Hero]

5. yeah

my first thought was vinegar actually, but we didn't have any...I didn't know what to do, besides sticking my finger down his throat and doing it the hard way.

[Beausoir]

6. Oh yeah. That hydrogen peroxide works very well.

We sincerely believed our puppy had eaten the batteries out of our remote.

Called the Vet and he said hyrdogen peroxide in a turkey baster right down the gullet.

Poor POOR dog was so freaking sick. She threw up and threw up...but no batteries.

We found them later that day, she had taken them into her dog kennel.

Feel badly about it to this day.

Glad your fella is OK! Bet he gets a few extra pats on the head today.

[Broken_Hero]

7. well, its the thought

that counts right? Man, I had to stifle a little chuckle reading your battery story...:) :hi: And yes, I have been feeding him "my" slices of honey ham today...no dry food for him for a few days. Mother also says to keep him off dry dog food for a few days because its harder to digest, since his gut has been tested greatly the past day and a half...so ham/rice for him, until tuesday...just to be safe...:)

[Maestro]

9. Incredible

We just did the same with our dog who we found she had eaten one of those ant traps, the ones where they enter, get the poison and take it back to the mound. Anyhow, we found her just as she was finishing off the trap. We immediately called poison control who put us in contact with a Animal Poison Control. They told us to do the same, hydrogen peroxide. Within five minutes all the poison was up. She is just fine too. Glad things worked out for Spot.

[Broken_Hero]

12. must be "that"

time of year for our dogs to eat poison huh? :) Glad your dog made it through, the last time he did something like this was when he ate some wood splinters this last winter. We have to be very careful about the wood splinters, because spot is just drawn to them, and he must eat them! We use a wood stove during the winter, so we split kindling inside the house, and sometimes, we don't pick up the left overs like we should...

[Critters2]

13. The beagle has tried to eat those before

They're sweet-smelling, to attract ants. It attracts beagles, too. Another thing I don't allow to come into the house.

[Maestro]

14. We aren't using them again.

Live and learn. We are very wary of poison and our dogs. We had a beautiful Husky, German Shepherd mix that was poisoned by anti-freeze; not mine, she got it somewhere else.

[Critters2]

11. I'm glad Spot is okay!!

For future reference, my vet told me to keep syrup of ipecac on hand for just such instances.

The beagle once chewed open a bottle of 5htp, and swallowed a bunch of pills while I was at a meeting at church. It very nearly killed her--our wonderful vet sat up with her all night. She's fine now, but you don't forget a scare like this.

Again, glad Spotamus is well!

Critters
who doesn't keep 5htp around the house anymore

[Maestro]

15. We couldn't find our ipecac but that was the vet's first

choice; then the hydrogen peroxide. I literally had to sit on my dog so she would take it. Blech!

[China_cat]

17. My I just interject a word about poisons

One of the absolute worst is antifreeze...ethylene glycol. It's sweet and animals love the taste and it only takes a couple licks to kill. But there IS a pet safe antifreeze. http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/pets/1205

Not just this brand, but others. Look for propylene glycol. Animals can still get sick if they drink a lot of it but it is unlikely to kill and the taste of it is not as attractive to animals as the other.

[Beausoir]

20. My in-laws little shit-zu went blind in one day.

They refuse to believe it was glycol.

They had taken her to the groomers. The groomer lets the pups dry in her garage. When they picked up their dog, she was weak and convulsive.

She is totally blind now. They refuse to believe that it was antifreeze. How sad.

[Haole Girl]

18. I'm so glad he's OK!

And you were up late and noticed what he'd gotten into!!

:hi:

[xchrom]

19. oh-ho spotamus! poor baby --

well you are your dog's hero!

and are to be roundly congratulated:applause:

[lavenderdiva]

22. oh dear, petersond: thank goodness spotamus is OK..

AND that he lay on the clean laundry to get your attention. Something tells me that your spotamus was doing this on purpose to get your attention, and help him. He probably knew he wasn't supposed to be on the clean laundry, but did it anyway, because he couldn't tell you he needed help.

Thank goodness that you saw him and noticed his condition. And that your MIL was available to help get you through this episode. I am so glad that spot is doing better today!! Whew!