Penniless
Well-Known Member
Well our 8 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback, who has spent the past week going through that stage of eating everything (leather headcollars, ropes, plastic rakes, broom handles, bandages, even haylage (yes, he thinks he's a horse) finally ate something tonight he definitely shouldn't have done - a syringe of bute meant for a horse! We had made up a syringe of bute for one of the horses and had put it in the feed room, high up on the top shelf and then went into the stable to re-poultice the horse. "Red" (our RR) had already jumped up and run off with the vet wrap (had to run after him to get that) and once we'd poulticed the horse, went into the feed room to get the syringe and it wasn't there. Turned around to see the pup licking his lips, with half the syringe bitten and eaten through and no sign of any bute in it by now. (Don't ask how he got it - because we thought we'd shut the feed room door and as I said, it was on the top shelf).
So I rings my horse vet up and he says "Panic - ring your dog vet immediately". Of course it's bank holiday and have to be re-routed to the emergency vet on call. Fill them in with what make the bute powder was, how much was in the syringe, how much roughly the pup weighs etc, etc. They say they will have to ring the toxic labs in London to find out and will ring back. Phones back to say bring him to their main surgery (half an hour away) immediately.
By the time we gets there, (never having been to this place before) with me going at 100mph around bends etc, the pup has thrown up everywhere (good for him but not for my car!).
Vet standing waiting for us and weighs pup - 6 kgs more than we had guessed, so he has to look at the poisons book to work out how much dosage pup has to have.
One injection and it's straight outside to allow the pup to throw up until no more comes out. An hour later he finishes and then we get told he's to be on medication (which consists of a 101 tablets to be taken every day for 2 weeks - the second lot of tablets to be given 2 hours after the first lot), another visit to our own dog vet on Wednesday morning and here's the bill. (Amazing that with our horses the bills get sent a month later, but why is it with dogs, even in an emergency, we are expected to pay there and then). We are registered with the practice so it's not as if it's a different vets, so thankfully had grabbed the good old credit card with the car keys.
Anyway, we finally get him home with the car awash with slobber and everything else where our GSD is relieved to see his little mate back and promptly won't leave his side.
He had to have 2 tablets immediately we got back home and he's had his second lot of tablets 2 hours later and now I'm about to type up a chart so we can tick off when and what tablets he's had for the next two weeks.
And Red himself, well he's out in the yard playing quite happily now, running at 100mph around the horse walker.
A close shave maybe, but one I wouldn't want to go through again. We just hope he will be okay now and in future, any and all medicines will be made up out of his sight and come into the stable with us.
And there was we thinking "Bank Holiday and no horse emergency". Didn't think it would be a dog emergency.
So I rings my horse vet up and he says "Panic - ring your dog vet immediately". Of course it's bank holiday and have to be re-routed to the emergency vet on call. Fill them in with what make the bute powder was, how much was in the syringe, how much roughly the pup weighs etc, etc. They say they will have to ring the toxic labs in London to find out and will ring back. Phones back to say bring him to their main surgery (half an hour away) immediately.
By the time we gets there, (never having been to this place before) with me going at 100mph around bends etc, the pup has thrown up everywhere (good for him but not for my car!).
Vet standing waiting for us and weighs pup - 6 kgs more than we had guessed, so he has to look at the poisons book to work out how much dosage pup has to have.
One injection and it's straight outside to allow the pup to throw up until no more comes out. An hour later he finishes and then we get told he's to be on medication (which consists of a 101 tablets to be taken every day for 2 weeks - the second lot of tablets to be given 2 hours after the first lot), another visit to our own dog vet on Wednesday morning and here's the bill. (Amazing that with our horses the bills get sent a month later, but why is it with dogs, even in an emergency, we are expected to pay there and then). We are registered with the practice so it's not as if it's a different vets, so thankfully had grabbed the good old credit card with the car keys.
Anyway, we finally get him home with the car awash with slobber and everything else where our GSD is relieved to see his little mate back and promptly won't leave his side.
He had to have 2 tablets immediately we got back home and he's had his second lot of tablets 2 hours later and now I'm about to type up a chart so we can tick off when and what tablets he's had for the next two weeks.
And Red himself, well he's out in the yard playing quite happily now, running at 100mph around the horse walker.
A close shave maybe, but one I wouldn't want to go through again. We just hope he will be okay now and in future, any and all medicines will be made up out of his sight and come into the stable with us.
And there was we thinking "Bank Holiday and no horse emergency". Didn't think it would be a dog emergency.
