I Do Not Have Doggy Munchousen By Proxy

 

Charlie dog

As I was getting ready to leave the house Tuesday morning (10 a.m.), I noticed my bag of macadamia nuts and my bag of dried mango on the kitchen counter. I love these two snacks and buy them from the bulk section at the grocery store. They taste great together…especially when washed down with some coconut water. Mmmmm.  

It’s like a tropical vacation in my mouth.

I made a mental note to remove the bags from the counter and put them out of Charlie’s reach.  Both of my dogs have been known to scale the couch, and hoist themselves up and over the counter top. First, I had to get Cooper situated in his crated area, then I forgot my purse in the bedroom, then I could not find my phone...etc, etc. By the time I had everything together, the thought of moving my delicious snacks had left my mind. * poof 

I got back to the house two and a half hours later and  found my bags of snacks shredded and nearly emptied. The mangos were all gone and the macadamia nuts were mostly gone. Before Charlie got to them, there was probably at least a cup of nuts in that bag.  

Charlie’s already ample belly was  now quite gigantic. Other than having a big belly, he was fine.

Or so I thought……

Around 10:00p.m., I was in the bedroom with Cooper and Dale was with Charlie in the living room. Dale came into the bedroom and told me that he did not think Charlie felt good. He said he was really lethargic.  I got up to check on him. He was on the ground, covered with a blanket. His eyes were black and still. I removed the blanket and noticed that his back limbs were twitching. My first thought was that he had slipped a disc (just as Cooper has recently done). Shit.

Then he started twitching all over and licking his mouth repeatedly. With great effort, he hoisted himself up and started to gag. I put a rag on the ground in front of him, and he proceeded to vomit onto the rag. Good aim. I could see the macadamia nuts in his vomit.  The were still mostly whole, like he didn’t chew them.

I told Dale that I was going to look online to see if either the mango or the nuts were poisonous to dogs.  I entered “macadamia nuts dogs” into google  and boom: the first page displayed links to pages that all described how macadamia nuts were toxic to dogs.

I had a small freak out.  Dale may or may not have told me “Sarah, you have to get it together. Keep in control of yourself.”

Many of the websites said the same thing about macadamia nut ingestion.  Here is an example
"When dogs eat them they get a toxic reaction called Macadamia Nut Toxicosis. Within twelve hours of eating the nuts theys start to develop symptoms such as inability to stand, ataxia (walking wobbly), depression, vomiting, muscle tremors, hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), weakness, and elevated heart rate.“

Read more: http://www.slashfood.com/2006/11/20/macadamia-nuts-toxic-to-dogs/#ixzz20KAxm5Ud

Charlie had eaten a lot of the nuts, so I knew we had to bring him into the emergency vet. Before we could do that, he began to make the noises that occur before puking. I put another rag underneath him and he hit his target for the second time. This emisis was more substantial than the last one. I folded the rag over and moved it to the side as I tended to Charlie while Dale got the car ready.

A minute later, I had a mini stroke or something because what happened next is just ridiculous. I saw the rag on the floor (the rag full of puke that I had just folded over and moved to the side) grabbed it and brought it up to my body. The contents of the rag (Charlie’s macadamia puke…which was still warm) emptied all over my leg.  Ugh. I had to leave it there until Dale came back in the room because I had Charlie and if I moved my leg, the vomit would go all over the pl

ace.

 It was pretty dang gross.

A few minutes later, Dale came back in and helped get the puke off my leg. He then took Charlie to the emergency animal hospital. This is the second time we have paid that clinic a visit within a 12 day period. Not cheap, my friends. I stayed home with Cooper and worried. Cooper whined for his brother.

At the hospital, the vet induced more vomiting, gave Charlie some charcoal, and called poison control to make sure they were giving Charlie the best treatment. After a few hours, Charlie was discharged and sent home with Dale who was given directions to take Charlie’s temperature every 2 hours. If it were to go over 103, we would have to bring him in for iv treatment.

Have you ever had to take your dogs temperature? Yeah…it goes in the butt.

Poor Charlie was still very sick when he came home. He continued to have muscle tremors throughout the night. All we could do was comfort him and wait it out.

That was on Tuesday. Today is Thursday and he is back to normal. Thank God.

If you are a dog owner, I strongly suggest you follow the link at the bottom of this post and read about the foods that dogs should never eat. It could save your furry friends life.

Foods to Avoid Feeding your Pets

***the strangest thing about this story is that the night before, I had a bad dream in which Charlie was poisoned. I woke up on Tuesday morning, still upset from the dream, and told Dale all about it. Spooky. I promise, I do not have some sort of doggy Munchousen syndrom by proxy. I'm just a little psychic, I guess. I'm going to start paying more attention to my dreams from now on.***