Grape Poisoning...

Yeah. It turns out that grapes are poisonous to dogs.

Last night Myr cleaned a big bunch of grapes and was snacking on them, but then left the bowl sitting on the bed when she got up to do something. Around nine she walks into my room asking if I had done something with the grapes. A quick check proved that Sadie had eaten them. All of them. I told Myr not to worry and yelled at the dog. Then I did a quick check on the Internet just to prove that we had nothing to worry about.

Boy, was I wrong. It seems that grapes (and raisins) cause renal failure in dogs. They don't know why and there is really nothing they can do once that happens. Survival rate is... very low. So not good. However, quick treatment can save them.

So, there was an trip to the Emergency Vets in Kronnenwetter. It turns out that grape poisoning requires getting the grapes out of the dog (which, thankfully, they said could wait until we get down there and we didn't have to have a vomiting dog in the car on the way down there), giving her charcoal, keeping her on IV fluids for 48 hours and doing blood tests every day to check for renal failure.

Gads.

Talked to the vet this morning and all is well right now. She is up and active and is very, very jealous whenever they pay attention to another dog. As Myr said, "That's our Sadie". We have to move her to our vets at eight this morning to continue the IV (Emergency Vets is only open 5 pm to 8 am and 24 hours on weekends and holidays). My folks are going to do that for us so Wil won't have to take off work.

No, we don't really have the money to deal with this. But we can't not do it either. Not only is Sadie an important part of the family but Myria would never forgive herself if Sadie died because of this. We always tell her not to leave food where Sadie can get at it and yet, being a kid, she did. She was very close to hysterical the entire trip down.

Still don't know if there is any long term damage, but keep your fingers crossed.

Not the way to start off the new school year.

Sadie Update

Sadie has been moved to the local animal hospital and it doing great. She shows no signs of being sick and is doing a marvelous job of getting out of her "cone" collar, much to the vets confusion. It seems cone collars are supposed to be impossible to get off.

It had been thought that we would have to take Sadie back to the emergency vets tonight so she could continue on IV. Keep in mind, Kronenwetter (which is only a village and not really a city) is 40 some miles from my house. However, the vet thinks that Sadie is doing well enough to come home for the night and then go back for another day of "flushing out her system". I like this plan. It sounds much less expensive and much more hopeful.

The biggest problem is that no one knows much of anything about "grape poisoning" except that it can cause renal failure in some dogs. No one knows why or even if it happens to all dogs. Mind you, the stupid beast ate more than a pound of them, so it was a bad thing, but she's eaten some grapes before with out any problems.

We're to keep an eye on her and make sure she's doing good and take her down to the Emergency Vets tonight if she seems to be sick, but she can be home otherwise. Which is good because I'm sure the stress of being in the vets will make her sick, anyhow. She's such a baby.

So goes the saga.