Falon’s World

Tonight we headed to Holland so that Eric could help his uncle fix their two computers. This took MUCH longer than planned. We ended up being there for two whole hours (during which he was only able to fix one of the computers) and that means the boys were left to their own devices in the truck. When we got in to leave we were unpleasantly surprised to see what Mason had done while gone (and which we deserved for leaving a five month old puppy in the truck with nothing to chew on…except Midas, and I bet that didn’t go well). Here are some photos:

The red shiny ball on the seat is a cherry…yup, a cherry. An entire bag of cherries disappeared (along with 3/4 of the plastic bag) down the dogs’ throats. I knew from working at the animal clinic (forever ago), that we should induce vomiting using either rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, I couldn’t remember which and I didn’t know the dosages. So, I call my mom, get an emergency animal hospital phone number for a place in Grand Rapids and call. I tell the girl that answers that my two dogs just ate a bag of cherries and that I know the pits are toxic. Her response? “They are?” (no one else has heard this, but Eric googled it and found out they have cyanide in them. Not a lot. But, I was pretty sure Mason ate the vast majority, if not all of the bag, and he’s a baby) UGH. Great, now I feel secure. She goes to ask one of the vets and comes back to tell me that Midas must get 8 tsp of rubbing alcohol, Mason 5 tsp and that they can each have up to three doses of this. I am writing this down in my fear that I mix up whether it’s supposed to be rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide.

We rush to Meijer, buy rubbing alcohol and go to Eric’s mom’s for the joyful task of forcing the dogs to swallow the nasty stuff. Midas just sits there, doesn’t fight and lets us poor it down his throat. I felt horrible. He would slouch away, tailed tucked, ears back and head down. Then Mason would fight like a crazy mutt. Squirming, spitting, snarling, tossing…took us forever to get it down his throat and we spilled more than I would’ve liked on the ground. But he finally took it. It got to the point where whenever I would reach for his head, he would duck and close his eyes I hated it!

40 minutes later we have nothing. Gagging, hacking, wheezing sure…no pits. I call my mom (again) and have her google for inducing vomiting to see how long we were supposed to wait (I had a vague memory of about a 15 minute wait before they were supposed to puke). She finds a TON of things saying that rubbing alcohol is also poisonous. Everything she found said that to induce vomiting (including if your dog “accidentally” swallows rubbing alcohol) said to use hydrogen peroxide. I am starting to really freak out. Midas pukes. Ahhhh, thank God! No pits in his vomit at all. I had assumed this was the case, but better safe than sorry. Mason on the other hand is puking into his mouth, fighting it, and swallowing it back down. Gross, I know, and also stubborn. So, we bite the bullet, pin him down and shove hydrogen peroxide down his throat. The site my mom read from stated that it was 1 tsp per 30 lbs of dog and that we could do it again after a ten minute wait. This is what we ended up doing and finally, FINALLY he puked. Tons of cherries in his vomit. Then we had the joy of hauling the wheezing, unhappy dogs home. We fed them half again what they usually get for dinner to help settle their stomachs and push anything else through. Mason had cherry pits in his stool. Thank God they’re both ok.