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| Snorp and his favorite kid friend, Ethan March 2013 |
Alright. The topic of my blog usually revolves around my lovely Blind Louie. Today we are going to talk about Louie's stepbrother, his best dog friend and seeing eye dog. Snorp.
Snorp is an amazing dog. He was my husbands dog before we met. Now he is our dog. I love him as much as I love Louie. Read all about how we met Snorp by clicking this link to an older post in our blog:
Read More About Snorp
Wednesday night, we had the scare of a lifetime. I want to share this story because I know I have a lot of readers who have dogs, and who love their dogs like they were family. I also bet that like me, a lot of you don't know about some dangers lurking right in your own back yard.
On Wednesday, I got home from work about 6pm. Snorp and Louie were inside and greeted me enthusiastically at the door like most days. I gave them both a good petting. I asked my husband Paul if he had already fed the dogs. He had. So I let them outside to go to the bathroom. A little while later they found their was next door to my parents house. My brother was there and he let the dogs in to see their puppy, Budde. Snorp found a spot on the floor to nap. About a half hour went by when Snorp stood. My brother, Hunter, looked at him to see if he needed to go out and noticed his back legs were flexed and rigid. He thought Snorp may be sick to his stomach so he walked him outside and observed. Snorp didn't try to find the grass. He just stood on wobbly legs and looked concerned.
Hunter brought Snorp back home where Paul and I were inside. When Snorp walked in, we knew something wasn't right. It was 8pm. By 8:30 there was no denying we had an emergency on our hands. Snorp could barely stand, every muscle in his body was contracted without his control. He began to drool and pant and he looked terrified. We thought maybe he had been buzzed by the electric fence we have way out back by the pig pen. This was different. Was he having a seizure? It looked a lot like that. Then I said, "Do you think he could have been poisoned." No. He's not throwing up and he doesn't have diarrhea.
I called the Animal Emergency Clinic and explained the symptoms as Paul loaded Snorp into the car. It was so hard for him to walk by now. We drove the 20 minutes the the ER and it was getting progressively worse. The nurses and doctors began to ask us questions. "Do you have Slug Bait in your garden?" No. "Does anyone in your family takes drugs for ADHD?" No. "Do you have rat poison with strychnine out?" No. "Do you have a compost pile in your yard". No, but I think our neighbors do and Snorp goes over there to visit their dogs often. What? Compost? Compost is poisonous to dogs?
Compost Poisoning in Dogs
Yes! Compost can be poisonous to dogs. I had no idea. It can be deadly. Snorp's temperature was already 105 when we arrived and he was convulsing violently. It was impossible to put and IV in for fluids so they had to sedate him first. After 4 shots of heavy tranquilizers and Paul and I holding him still, they go the IV inserted into his back leg. The vet said that he had to be sedated for a very long time. They had to monitor his temp and heart rate and keep him hydrated. If we would not have brought him in so quickly he would have certainly died. He would have continued to tremor until he cooked from the inside. Horrifying.
Snorp stayed at the ER overnight. We got back home at about 11:30pm and we were distraught. We were told we needed to pick him up at 7:30am to transfer him to our regular vet at 8 for daytime monitoring. He would not be ready to go home by morning. So we woke early and picked him up. He could not walk at all anymore. We lifted him by placing 2 towels under his belly and using them like slings to lift him. It was really hard seeing him like that.
After the long task of getting him settled at the new hospital and going over his chart with our regular vets he was hooked back up to fluids. They have him charcoal on food to help absorb any poison and sedated him. We got a call that afternoon that he would be ready to go home by time we got off of work that day. Almost 24 hours in the hospital.
This day, Thursday May 30th was something my husband and I had been looking forward to for months. It was my 20 week ultrasound appointment and we would hopefully find out if we were having a boy or a girl. So quickly it turned from a happy day to a day of worry. It was comforting to get the call that we could take Snorp home just a few minutes before walking into my doctors appointment. It made it much easier to focus on the amazing task at hand knowing we'd be seeing Snorp again just after.
When we picked Snorp up we were given some more charcoal fluid to mix with his next meal and told that he would still be stiff and sore for a few days. It is now Saturday and Snorp is still having a hard time getting around. It seems like every muscle is sore. I bet is it after having a Charley horse in your whole body for hours and hours. Poor boy. But we are lucky he is alive, and he is happy to be home.
The next morning, Friday, when he woke up from about 12 straight hours of sleep he wagged his tail gently for the first time since this all started and he licked my hand gently. Snorp was back, I think he's going to be okay.
So, I didn't know all the things that can make a dog sick. I knew the obvious, rat poison and antifreeze. But compost?
Horse poop?
Snail Bait? The more we know the better parents we can be and we have to share with each other when something like this happens. So we went and told all our neighbors with dogs and now I'm telling all of my readers.
Thanks for reading. Oh, it's a boy. :)
