f r e s h s t a r t

Friday, February 25, 2005

 

Dog ownership really can be like parenting lite
Henry and I just got back from the 24 hour emergency vet over on Belmont and Clybourne.
He found and chewed on a small block of rat poison (one left over from my roommate's ill-thought out anti-mouse campaign---I pointed out at the time that we couldn't use that stuff because of the dog, and thought that I had tracked down and thrown away all of it, but apparently not). Fortunately he didn't eat the whole thing, and brought it to me to show off the new toy he had found.

After pouring hydrogen peroxide down his throat with a turkey baster (the vet's advice), we drove to the animal ER (he threw up in the car on the way), where met several dogs in similar predicaments, and one who had a hurt leg.

After taking his vitals they induced further vomiting and fed him activated charcoal, and told me that he would be fine. This particular rat poison causes the brain to swell, and I'm shaking just thinking about what might have happened if I hadn't noticed that he had eaten it quickly enough. The vet, a leathery, oddly buff older guy said that it is key to get poison out of their system within an hour.

I feel like laughing and crying at the same time, and I feel damn lucky.

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