Poison and Panties

I have learned 2 very important lessons this week, my dogs are my children and I can wear big girl panties when I need to.

Last night when I got home from work I saw that my dogs had gotten into a Target bag and eaten a pack of gum. I promptly cleaned up what was left of the gum and headed outside to mow the lawn. I didn't think much about the gum at first until I was back inside. I am a very paranoid person when it comes to my dogs eating things they shouldn't but I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. That is when I remembered reading something about gum being potentially toxic to dogs when I was looking up something else they had gotten into a few months back. I grabbed the chewed wrapper from the trash and that was when I knew we were in trouble. They chewed up Orbit sugar-free gum. Dammit, sugar-free gum is lethal.

Sugar-free gum contains a chemical called Xylitol. It is an artificial sweetener used in gum to add the sugar flavor without the real thing. I immediately got online trying not to panic and run to the emergency vet. I was going to do some quick research since the dogs were acting normal. My dogs are also pretty large and usually that is a good thing when talking about potential poisoning. However, the more I read, the more scared I got. Xylitol causes a drastic drop in blood sugar triggering a large amount of insulin to be pumped into the system eventually leading to severe liver damage. Shit! I called the Animal Poison Control and was informed that the call may be charged to my credit card to a tune of $65. So, after hanging up with them, I just called the Emergency Vet. I was not about to spend $65 for them to tell me to go to the Vet. Of course, the Vet said to bring him in. So that is what I did - no questions asked.

I loaded up the dogs in a complete panic and headed out. I called my mother-in-law who is local to tell her what was going on. I let her know that I was on my way to the Vet and I would let her know the outcome when I know anything. Good girl, you held it together on the phone... then she called back to make sure I was OK. I lost it. It is difficult to drive a million miles and hour when you are sobbing like a girl that just fell off her bike and saw blood. I got calmed down and walked into the Vet.

Since I was unsure of which dog ate the gum, they both had to be put through the wringer. Just to be seen by the Vet it was $90 per dog. Fantastic. Both dogs showed normal vitals but I was instructed to let them induce vomiting. Proceed. Then both dogs had their stomachs pumped with charcoal. When I spoke to the Vet, she said that none of them threw up the gum which meant that it was already in their GI tract. She said in a perfect world she would run blood work on both dogs, but that it would be $250 per dog. I asked her what an imperfect world looked like. She said that I could wait until the morning and take the dogs to my vet to have the blood drawn. I asked if there as a concern with waiting and she said not really since they were not showing signs of toxicity. I paid my $440 and took the dogs home.

This morning the dogs and I piled into the car to see my vet. She took both of their blood since I still did not know which dog was the culprit. After an agonizing 30 minutes waiting on the results, we knew which dog was guilty. Tucker, my 80lb Lab. He had elevated levels of liver enzymes, low levels of potassium and some blood and protein in his urine. She was not overly concerned with the levels other than that they were different from his last exam. She prescribed me some antibiotics in case he had a bladder infection as a result and also a medication meant to help repair damaged liver cells. She is very optimistic that when we check him again in 30 days that he will be back to normal. I paid my $360 and was on my way.

Did I mention that my husband is in Hong Kong and was not here at all to help with any of this or help me make decisions with the life and death of his dog? No, Oh I must have blocked that out.

So what did I learn? I learned that I will do pretty much whatever I need to do to make sure that my dogs are alive and well. I did not bat an eye to drop $800 on them because looking back on it, I would not have changed a thing. I did the right thing and I can sleep well at night knowing what I did everything I could to make sure that my dogs were OK.

What else did I learn? I learned that I can pull up those big girl panties and make hard decisions that affect the welfare of others on my own. Pat myself on the back? I don't mind if I do.