Worried that the problems may be related, we called our breeder who in turn called her vet...the same vet that did Boogie's surgery. We are so thankful for all the help they both give us anytime there is a problem of any kind.
A little later, Mike decided to take Boogie outside to potty. When he was outside the park ranger came by and told Mike to be very careful as the plant they were standing by is very poisonous. In fact, another dog who ate some here recently barely survived. Not very happy, Mike mentioned that it would be nice if they put a warning sign out as almost every camper here has one or more dogs.
This information sent shock waves through Mike, as last night Boogie came out from under the plant chewing on the leaves. Take a close look at the leaves - DON"T LET YOUR DOG EAT THESE!
We immediately called a couple local vets who both told us to call poison control. They weren't a whole lot of help at all - they just said to get to the vet immediately.
We called every vet in town but the soonest we could get in wasn't for two hours. About an hour before we were to head out, Boogie did get come out of his crate and started to move around a little - but he wasn't himself at all yet.
Mike did a lot of research on the internet and found out that oleander is highly toxic to dogs. In addition to tummy trouble the main problems (and most dangerous) are lowered blood pressure and a decreased heart rate.
We are very happy with the vet we stumbled upon. She really seemed to know a lot about oleander poisoning and knew just what to do. Her very first concern was his heart. And sure enough, she immediately found that Boogie's heart rate was much lower than it should be. She wanted to do an ECG and test his blood pressure.
Boogie's ECG showed an abnormal heartbeat and his blood pressure was low as well.
But the good news was she felt it wasn't so bad that he needed to be hospitalized. She felt as long as we kept him quiet and watched him carefully he could go home with us tonight. He's allowed to have a tiny bit of rice and yogurt to see if he can keep it down.
What a huge scare this was. If he had eaten just one more tiny piece of a leaf there could have been a much bigger outcome. We are so lucky - we really dodged a bullet. Boogie eats just about anything he finds on the ground. I'm thinking he may have to start wearing a muzzle when he goes for walks.
Most of all, I can't believe the campground doesn't have a sign up warning about this since they know it is poisonous and they know at least one dog almost died from it. I'm going to write a complaint letter - hopefully it may just save the life of another dog.
For those of you not familiar with oleander, it is not a wild plant. It is something you purchase at a nursery and actually plant in your yard. I'd say from the looks of this plant it was planted a long time ago. There are two hedges like this - each is about 100 yards long and about 15 feet high. I wonder why someone would plant so much of this stuff if it is so poisonous.
We don't know much more about poor Skatt'r. He had more seizures during the night so now they are keeping him sedated. The test results that were supposed to be back late this afternoon got delayed and won't be back until tomorrow.
It's going to be another long night.
Debbie
3/6/08
No comments:
Post a Comment