A Warning about Raisins and Dogs
A Message from BeeGee's Mum
I feel awful as I'm writing this, like I'm such a bad Mum.
On Thursday I came home from work to discover that BeeGee had consumed a bag of mixed dried fruit that I had forgotten to put away. I actually thought it was funny at first, That naughty BeeGee, he's such a piglet.
Thats night he had diahorea, which I had anticipated, having eaten all that fruit, and the next morning he vomited. I was a little concerned but not overly. I thought he was just suffering the effects of being a piglet.
On Friday evening something didnt feel right. I was actually worried about the peanuts that had been in the mix. So I logged onto Bichon.ca/forum and searched 'peanuts', discovering that I shouldnt be too worried, although best not feed our fluffs peanuts as they dont digest them. But something else caught my eye. To my horror I read about raisin/sultana/grape toxicity, and that it can kill. I just turned cold inside. My poor baby! I really thought I was going to lose him. If I had realised I would have rced him off to the vet on the Thursday, as he must have had a window of about 4 hours in which to consume them, and they could have made him vomit.
However, 24 hours later, its too late for that kind of treatment. So I phoned the afterhours vet. She confimred that it was serious. That they didnt really know how much needed to be consumed to cause a problem, that it was different for every dog (BeeGee had at least a handful). That there is no antidote. And that I needed to watch out for him to be off his food, and for lethargy and pain.
Needless to say I didnt sleep last night. BeeGee was up vomiting again in the middle of the night and I knew the vet was open this morning for a few hours (Its saturday here) so I took him in to get the vet to assess him (the only help they can provide is a saline drip and meds to help stop vomiting and diahorea). We told her that apart from the vomiting BeeGee seemed ok. He still has an appetite, and he still has plenty of energy, seems to be behaving pretty much like the usual BeeGee.
She took his temperature (much to his disgust) which was fine. Said he didnt look dehydrated (she pinched his skin and it bounced back nicely) and then took him off for a blood test. I think she checked his renal function. She said it was at the lower end of the normal scale, so still ok. And that she couldnt see any signs of toxicity. She said that in acute renal failure (which is what happens) she would have expected to see him very sick, very fast. certainly within the first 24 hours of having consumed them.
She said that if he is still ok by Monday, then we can assumed that we've been very lucky and learned an important lesson. She also prescribed him something to coat his tummy lining as a preventative, because apparently renal failure causes ulcers (or something like that).
I guess thats why I'm writing this. I know we have lots of new Bichon Moms and Dads and they may not know of the danger.
The other thing is... I actually did know...I had read it before on this forum...but I didnt really take it in I guess.
I just know that I could bear to be without my BeeGee :cry: and I wanted to warn others to be careful about leaving food around that our babies can scoff into.
Oh...the other thing the vet told me was that they have had other cases of dogs dying from this toxin, so its really not that rare, and definately something we should all be aware of.
Sorry for rambling. I think thats all I wanted to say.
I feel awful as I'm writing this, like I'm such a bad Mum.
On Thursday I came home from work to discover that BeeGee had consumed a bag of mixed dried fruit that I had forgotten to put away. I actually thought it was funny at first, That naughty BeeGee, he's such a piglet.
Thats night he had diahorea, which I had anticipated, having eaten all that fruit, and the next morning he vomited. I was a little concerned but not overly. I thought he was just suffering the effects of being a piglet.
On Friday evening something didnt feel right. I was actually worried about the peanuts that had been in the mix. So I logged onto Bichon.ca/forum and searched 'peanuts', discovering that I shouldnt be too worried, although best not feed our fluffs peanuts as they dont digest them. But something else caught my eye. To my horror I read about raisin/sultana/grape toxicity, and that it can kill. I just turned cold inside. My poor baby! I really thought I was going to lose him. If I had realised I would have rced him off to the vet on the Thursday, as he must have had a window of about 4 hours in which to consume them, and they could have made him vomit.
However, 24 hours later, its too late for that kind of treatment. So I phoned the afterhours vet. She confimred that it was serious. That they didnt really know how much needed to be consumed to cause a problem, that it was different for every dog (BeeGee had at least a handful). That there is no antidote. And that I needed to watch out for him to be off his food, and for lethargy and pain.
Needless to say I didnt sleep last night. BeeGee was up vomiting again in the middle of the night and I knew the vet was open this morning for a few hours (Its saturday here) so I took him in to get the vet to assess him (the only help they can provide is a saline drip and meds to help stop vomiting and diahorea). We told her that apart from the vomiting BeeGee seemed ok. He still has an appetite, and he still has plenty of energy, seems to be behaving pretty much like the usual BeeGee.
She took his temperature (much to his disgust) which was fine. Said he didnt look dehydrated (she pinched his skin and it bounced back nicely) and then took him off for a blood test. I think she checked his renal function. She said it was at the lower end of the normal scale, so still ok. And that she couldnt see any signs of toxicity. She said that in acute renal failure (which is what happens) she would have expected to see him very sick, very fast. certainly within the first 24 hours of having consumed them.
She said that if he is still ok by Monday, then we can assumed that we've been very lucky and learned an important lesson. She also prescribed him something to coat his tummy lining as a preventative, because apparently renal failure causes ulcers (or something like that).
I guess thats why I'm writing this. I know we have lots of new Bichon Moms and Dads and they may not know of the danger.
The other thing is... I actually did know...I had read it before on this forum...but I didnt really take it in I guess.
I just know that I could bear to be without my BeeGee :cry: and I wanted to warn others to be careful about leaving food around that our babies can scoff into.
Oh...the other thing the vet told me was that they have had other cases of dogs dying from this toxin, so its really not that rare, and definately something we should all be aware of.
Sorry for rambling. I think thats all I wanted to say.
