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Our Frenchie puppy Junior wound up in the veterinary hospital overnight last weekend with some kind of drug toxicity. I'm wondering whether any of you have had a similar experience. It has been very scary.
We had taken him for his walk that evening as usual. He is four months old, so everything goes in his mouth, although we didn't see him swallow anything. About an hour after his walk and his usual food for supper, he had two seizures in his sleep, with bad tremors following. He was suddenly semi-conscious, couldn't stand up, and was dribbling urine everywhere. We rushed him to the emergency vet (because of course this happens on a long weekend), and by that time he had a heart arrythmia, low respiration, low body temperature, dribbling urine, dilated pupils: all symptoms of drug toxicity. They did a urine drug test, which came back negative for marijuana but positive for barbiturates! We were shocked and very sad to have to leave him at the hospital with the IV, the cone of shame, and a lot of activated charcoal to eat. There is apparently no reversal medication for barbiturates, so the vet ran some bloodtests to be sure his organs were ok, gave him fluids, and then we just had to wait it out. We got him back home a day later, still groggy but slowly recovering. Now, a week later, he is back to what looks like normal.
We live in a mixed and busy city neighbourhood, so it's possible some careless person dropped drugs on the sidewalk for him to find during his walk. Or, maybe someone spilled some prescription medication somewhere. I've scoured the house to make sure we don't have anything here that would cause these symptoms. Nothing. Of course, now we're paranoid about taking him for walks. We also threw out all of his food and treats and bought new batches, just as a precaution. Not sure what else we could do.
I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.
Thanks,
Lisa
We had taken him for his walk that evening as usual. He is four months old, so everything goes in his mouth, although we didn't see him swallow anything. About an hour after his walk and his usual food for supper, he had two seizures in his sleep, with bad tremors following. He was suddenly semi-conscious, couldn't stand up, and was dribbling urine everywhere. We rushed him to the emergency vet (because of course this happens on a long weekend), and by that time he had a heart arrythmia, low respiration, low body temperature, dribbling urine, dilated pupils: all symptoms of drug toxicity. They did a urine drug test, which came back negative for marijuana but positive for barbiturates! We were shocked and very sad to have to leave him at the hospital with the IV, the cone of shame, and a lot of activated charcoal to eat. There is apparently no reversal medication for barbiturates, so the vet ran some bloodtests to be sure his organs were ok, gave him fluids, and then we just had to wait it out. We got him back home a day later, still groggy but slowly recovering. Now, a week later, he is back to what looks like normal.
We live in a mixed and busy city neighbourhood, so it's possible some careless person dropped drugs on the sidewalk for him to find during his walk. Or, maybe someone spilled some prescription medication somewhere. I've scoured the house to make sure we don't have anything here that would cause these symptoms. Nothing. Of course, now we're paranoid about taking him for walks. We also threw out all of his food and treats and bought new batches, just as a precaution. Not sure what else we could do.
I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.
Thanks,
Lisa
