Long night so far, long night to go [N/A]...kinda gross

[SkyHog]

Tonight I had a few friends over for poker night, and while we were playing, Piper (my dog) decided to start licking the dirt outside. I tried to get him to stop, but gave up, figuring its only dirt, no problem.

A few minutes later, he puked all over my floor. I inspected and it was all dirt, so I figured he just ate too much dirt. A few minutes after that, he puked about 2 cups of dog food.

As soon as I finished cleaning that, he starts dry heaving for a bit, and then throws up a bunch more dog food, about 2 cups more. He goes and drinks a bunch of water, and I called the emergency vet (this was about 9:30) who told me to take away his food and water to see if he gets better, then a few hours later to give him water and see if he pukes some more.

Right afterwards, Piper lets it go again, this time he looks pained and is gagging a bit longer than normal and a giant white thing comes out. I freaked out and ran over to the pile and pulled out a gigantic chunk of rawhide. I'm serious, it was huge, it looked like a stick of celery.

He continued dry heaving for another few hours, and when I told the vet about the rawhide, he told me that is what caused it, and that rawhide is bad for puppies (and actually dogs of all ages). I feel so horrible knowing that I have caused the pain that my dog is in right now. After a few hours, I gave him back his water and he was able to hold it down, but he's beat, so he's passed out on my feet as I write this story.

Ugh. Talk about a helpless feeling, watching my dog suffer like that. The worst part is that I caused the entire thing. Poor Piper. At least he's sleeping, only waking up to dry heave a bit and then go back to sleep.

 

[ScottM]

I hope he gets better real soon! Watching a sick animal is like watching a sick child, helpless we are.

 

[silver-eagle]

I hope Piper will feel better. They tend to spring back a lot faster than us. You're likely to be tramatized for weeks!
As weird as it sounds, eating dirt might be just something Piper will always do when he's not feeling well. My dog, Lucky, eats grass; not lawn grass but that tall weedy grass. When that's not available, he eats pine needles. Then tosses it all back and off and going he goes.
Watch his behavior as he grows. You might see a pattern.
Poor puppy.
Poor Nick.

 

[Brian Austin]

And yet my dogs have always had rawhides (generally 'flips' but sometimes the bones, too) and, aside from the occasional one caught in the throat, seem to have done fine (which elicits 5-10 seconds of hacking). In fact, my VET actually gave my current dog her first rawhide flip!

Don't worry about it too much, Nick. The worst part is over and you just learned something. Dogs are pretty resilient and don't apply blame the way people do. It happens, they overcome it and they move on. People could learn a lot from dogs.

 

[rmciottijr]

Nick,

I had Dogs all my life and we gave them rawhide without a problem but I never gave them when they were puppies. Also two other things you should look out for are onions yes onions (just found out about that my self) and we all know about chocolate but Coco mulch will also kill a dog I attached an email below I got from my sister.

Yea it is hard to see the pups suffer mine came back in the house one day with blood coming out of her leg. I took her to the 24hr emergency vet, it was a holiday and my vet was closed $178.00 later she had 4 staples in her knee. A couple months later she started to limp, after the vet looked at her we found out it was a torn ACL and $800.00+ dollars later we were going home. When we got home she was running around the house and caught a squirrel and brought it to my wife that was screaming lol unlike humans they don’t wine about things. Piper will be jumping around by the end of the day and will not remember any of this until next time.

Who knows if this is true....

Over the weekend the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa
Mulch from Target to use in their garden. They loved the way it smelled
and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog
Calypso, decided that the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured
a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats
something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom
woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk. Half way through the
walk, she had a seizure and died instantly.

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further
investigation on the companies web site, this product is HIGHLY toxic to
dogs.

Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim that "It is
true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch
can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each
individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it."

True information about the mulch can be found here -
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoa.htm This site gives the
following information:

Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and
other Garden supply stores, contains a lethal ingredient called "Theo
bromine".

It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really
attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths
already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks. Just a word of caution ? check
what you are using in your gardens and be aware of what your gardeners
are using in your gardens.

Theo bromine is the ingredient that is used to make all chocolate ?
especially dark or baker's chocolate ? which is toxic to dogs.

Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a
xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog
that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean
shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of
the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the
presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.

Please email the manufacturer at michellemessick@hersheys.com and
request that accurate information about this product be posted on the
packaging to avoid further tragedy.

PLEASE GIVE THIS WIDEST DISTRIBUTION

 

[fgcason]

There is nothing more pitiful in the world than a sick puppy.

The good news is 10 minutes after he gets over being sick, he'll be running around like nothing ever happened.

 

[judypilot]

Cocoa mulch? Why would someone want their garden to smell like chocolate?

I'm amazed they don't have warnings. If this is true, then it really should have a warning.

Nick, the pup will be fine, most likely, but if he keeps vomiting, I'd take him in to the vet. By the time he barfed up two pieces, he should quit barfing. I'd worry about any remaining pieces causing a blockage.

Judy

P.S. I didn't know this about rawhide, either, esp. for pups. I have had dogs barf up pieces of rawhide, but only once (not repetitive heaving) and without eating dirt or grass. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

almost anything taken orally can make a dog sick or die, sadly these are the facts.
Water in too great a quantity can and has killed. (google "water intoxication")
Ordinary dog food, in certain situations has killed. (google "GDV")

Rawhides and the latest fad, "Greenies" have been known to cause illness and death via obstructions and lacerations etc.

What to do?
The answer is similar to that which we use to answer a similar question regarding risk of aviation:
Choose according to the risk level you are comfortable with. You could deny your dog access to all things that carry risk (except the food and water above!) but the downside is s/he will never enjoy that part of a dog's life, such as chewing bones/rawhides/greenies. No one can tell you "Never _____" because it is a personal decision. I don't know what is right. The risk levels are extremely low but they are present.
There are some animals that are prone to GI upset with this product or that product so naturally they should stay away from it. If a dog has had a problem with Xxxxx product, I can't imagine anyone trying it again and again.

When I was trying to explain to my wife why I partake of aviation, skydiving (once) and now motorcycling, it came down to "I refuse to be locked up in a plexiglass case for the duration", and I think she understood that I was willing to accept some risk because it gave me what I want out of life.