Sunday, November 9, 2014

Dogs - Ya Love Em But Hate What They Get Into

We have five dogs in our house although today, for most of the day, we will be minus one. There I sat, on my duff this morning, loading my 7 day pill box with my meds for the week and the urge hit me to run. It hit bad too so what could I do but get up and run to the throne. Just made it. Got the dirty deed done and went back to the pill box and there was Abby, one of our three Chihuahuas, looking all sorts of guilty and heading for the stairs. The pill box was on the floor and a few pills were strewn about, all the others had vanished.

That meant only one thing - she had to go to the emergency vet. On first glance, I figured that while I was indisposed, she had scoffed down 4 to 5 each of: Synthroid 100 mcg, hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg, Nexium 40 mg and Vitamin D3 1,000 units. Right to the vet we went - well about 15 minutes after it happened and after I had searched online for an emergency vet nearby because I could not remember the address of the one we used last.

The wife got home as I was searching and she had the address somewhere and gave it to me and then Abby and I were off. At the vet they had me call Pet Poison Control (a $65.00 call) who then would not tell me what to do but would only speak to the vet. The vet said she needed to go on intravenous for fluids because of the hydrochlorothiazide and that all of the other things were not to worry about. While that was going on, somewhere in there I called the better half and had had look for pills on the floor, she found none. I also had her count each type of pill of those that remained once I had realized Abby had eaten some. My estimate was pretty close on what she had sucked down because she had eaten 5 of the hydrochlorothiazide and four of each of the others. So now she is under observation and getting fluids via an IV and it is only going to cost me about $700 (plus the $65 for the call to Pet Poison Control).

I love the dog but I hate the fact that she is an absolutely opportunistic porker and will eat anything. I also kicked myself in the ass for having left the pills where she could reach them. I am usually very good about not doing that but nature's call got the better of me today.

Hopefully she will be as good as new when I pick her up tonight and she will not still be whizzing due to eating the 5 water pills. I am also hopeful she won't have the runs from the Nexium she ate which wound up being one pill less than we had thought; when I got home I found one still on the floor. As per the doc and some things I read online, there is very little to no concern over the Synthroid she ate. I had that pegged for the worst of what she ate but it does not effect dogs as much as humans and they require much larger doses proportionately to humans. So, it takes a lot for them to OD. The hydrochlorothiazide though is another story an they wanted to assure to keep her fluids up and her electrolyte levels normal to avoid problems caused by this water pill. As for me, they said there was nothing they could do.

Oh well, live and learn at least for me - I am sure Abby will have learned nothing and her stomach will rule as usual.

All the best,
Glenn B