# Because it can happen to anyone



## minimomNC (Nov 5, 2010)

I was surprised when I told people what happened to our puppy, Holly, that most people had no idea how serious it could be. Well I did and it still happened to one of my dogs. No one is immune from accidents.

So last Sunday night my daughter had dinner out and brought her left over fajitas home. She set them on a tall counter and simply forgot about them. Sometime Monday night her dog Sara (25 lb Basengi/rat terrier mix) knocked it off the shelf and ate part of the contents. Well she did share because tiny Holly (3 lb 4 month old chihuahua) got her share. Tuesday morning she threw up, but was normal. Tuesday evening she had a seizure and her gums were gray and tacky. We took her to the emergency clinic where they checked her PCV which was 28(PCV stands for packed cell volume: the percentage of the volume of whole, unclotted blood occupied by the erythrocytes (red blood cells). The normal PCV reading in the dog is 37-55). When I called them in the middle of the night (love the emergency vet) it had gone up to 32. But the worst wasn't over. The next morning she had to go to our regular vet to continue treatment. So she is at the vet and during the day her PCV falls to 24 (if it got to 20 she would have to have a blood transfusion), over night she rebounded and it went up to 39. We brought her home today but she has a long way to go in the healing process. If she gets excited she actually passes out from lack of O2 but within 5 seconds she is awake again. So we have to monitor 24/7 right now. She will get better now but it will take about 2 weeks for her blood to build up her red blood cells enough so she is normal again. Onion toxins damage the red blood cells so they don't supply oxygen to the body. She was on oxygen for over 20 hours and while her levels are not 100% she is at least better.

I know most people know that chocolate is bad for dogs, some even know that grapes and raisins are bad, most people that I talked to didn't know onions were as well as sugar free candy and gum. And even with me knowing, accidents still happen. We know we have to be more careful now, it was a hard lesson and Holly is the one who is suffering for it, but we thank God that she will make it and again be our little Holly. The hard part of the lesson for us is watching how much Holly felt bad but also in paying almost $2700 for something that could have been prevented.

I just wanted to pass along Holly's story and if even just one person reads it and learns from our mistake, the whole post will be worth it.

Here is our Holly, she is so people friendly and everyone at both clinics just loved her but not nearly as much as we do.


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## Sue_C. (Nov 5, 2010)

Poor little thing!





I will definately be telling this to my husband. Although I have told him dozens of times, and he doesn't give our min pin, Baillie, anything on my "no-no" list when I am home, I am not sure what he does when I am not there. This will definately reaffirm what I have been telling him...*thank you so much* for sharing your story.


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## anoki (Nov 5, 2010)

The problem with onions, grapes, chocolate (dark chocolate btw, not so much milk chocolate), etc some dogs can eat a lot of it with no trouble, but the next dog would eat a little bit and get very very sick.

Sorry to hear about Holly and I hope she is better soon!





~kathryn


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## susanne (Nov 5, 2010)

I'm so glad Holly is on the mend. This type thing makes you feel so helpless...poor baby!

Even though I was aware of the food hazards you mentioned, including onions, it never hurts to be reminded. Added to that is the reminded that some dogs are quite capable of jumping high enough to knock food, knives, glasses, and other dangerous items off of counters.

One of my heart dogs of days gone by, a small poodle/terrier mix, was an amazing jumper and climber. I came home one time to discover she had jumped from the kitchen table onto the counter and then onto the top of the refrigerator, where she knocked off a bottle that shattered on the floor. This drove home the dangers she could expose herself to, so all food was stored in the refrigerator.


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## Sterling (Nov 5, 2010)

Oh what a sweet baby! I'm so glad she's ok now. My Cane Corso weighs probably 50 times more than your little Holly and I am always looking in her mouth for things that she can pick up. A lot of people are not aware of the dangers some foods can cause. Thank you for sharing. I hope your little girl gets back to normal very soon.


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## liltnt (Nov 5, 2010)

Just to throw another thing in here, raw carrots are very high in sugar and can cause a dog to become diabetic. Of course thats going to depend on how many they eat but.... my two pugs love carrots and green beans. Green beans are a good filler for a dietig dog but carrots unless cooked are not good...


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## Double T (Nov 5, 2010)

Poor toot hope she recoves fast! I've been through the wringer this year with one of my jrt's that developed Addisons. 2 weeks time, over 700 miles driven, 4 hospitilazations, and 2 vets later and we had her lined out. That was in January, she's crashed on me twice so it's a daily struggle.


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## bonloubri (Nov 5, 2010)

So happy to hear Holly is recovering. She reminded me of a chi I had years ago. Marked the same coloring which I haven't seen more than about a half dozen or so marked like that. She is adorable. Thoughts and prayers for Holly's continued recovery.


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## topnotchminis (Nov 5, 2010)

I hope your little girl has a fast recovery


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## Marty (Nov 6, 2010)

OMG thank you for posting this! You may have just prevented a lot of people here including me from getting our dogs sick. I had no idea dogs couldn't have onions and Amy is always eating McDonalds burgers that have the little chopped onions in them. I had no idea! I'll never feed them to her again. I also didn't know about the raisens and the rest of it either, I only knew about the chocolate. I'm so sad this has happened to your little Holly and hope she gets all better very soon. She looks so sweet and delicate.


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## Sonya (Nov 6, 2010)

Poor thing, hope she recovers fully. This exact same thing happened to a lady I work with. It was also left over fajitas but they were in the garbage can outside. The wind had knocked over the can and her sheit-zoo ripped open the bag and had dinner. He was in the vet hospital for a good week and he made it, but it was touch and go for a long time, it was also very expensive, almost $1,000 to save him. I do not give my dogs any people food what-so-ever (my mix gets pancreatitus very easily), but accidents do happen. My dogs have never gotten into my garbage can (in the kitchen) while I am at work, but to be safe if there is any leftovers in there I take the bag to the outside cans...just in case. Sending prayers for her full recovery.


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## LindaL (Nov 6, 2010)

Thanks so much for the heads up!! I am also one who did not know onions were bad for dogs (altho we never feed our dogs "people food", it is good to know) !!


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## CharlesFamily (Nov 6, 2010)

I am so glad your little one is on the mend! I also had no idea about the onions - I will make sure to be very careful!

Dogs are a lot like the minis - if there is something they can find to get into trouble, they will! Years ago my sister-in-law had a boxer. Her young daughter accidentally left the pantry door open before they left for work and school. The boxer got a bag of cheese puffs out of the pantry and got her head stuck in the bag. She suffocated because she couldn't get it off. Poor thing.





Barbara


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## Carriage (Nov 6, 2010)

liltnt said:


> Green beans are a good filler for a dietig dog but carrots unless cooked are not good...


Yes onion in short order can lead to extreme anemia.

Sweet corn and carrots both are high in sugar. Small to moderate amount of carrot is generally ok in the diet. Corn is both useless and in many cases detrimental. Better are the dark green veggies.

Also ALL vegetables should be cooked otherwise the animal gets very little use from them nutritionally.

The reason being, dogs like all other carnivores lack the gut enzyme to break down vegetable matter. They need the vegetable matter for nutrition but it has to be broken down or otherwise processed in order to get the nutritional benefit. In the wild this is accomplished by the prey animals gut. We accomplish the same thing by cooking. The first place a carnivore sets to dine on large downed prey is the gut if given a choice.

Lastly, only the shape of the teeth classify them as a carnivore, not the diet. They are all omnivores when you break down the individual contents of their diet. When you think about it, its more like raw roast and veggie's...

Bb, 25 years later, and still learning about and studying canine nutrition.


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## Double T (Nov 6, 2010)

Marty said:


> OMG thank you for posting this! You may have just prevented a lot of people here including me from getting our dogs sick. I had no idea dogs couldn't have onions and Amy is always eating McDonalds burgers that have the little chopped onions in them. I had no idea! I'll never feed them to her again. I also didn't know about the raisens and the rest of it either, I only knew about the chocolate. I'm so sad this has happened to your little Holly and hope she gets all better very soon. She looks so sweet and delicate.



Marty google toxic foods for dogs, you'd def be surprised what can hurt them! Garlic is a big thing that people like to include in a dogs diet as it deterrs fleas and ticks but you have to be soooo careful cause it can have the same effects that onions can. My dogs as a rule don't get any human food, they are on a good quality dog food and we stick to that, unless I find some good raw bones for them an that is their treat, other than my Addisons girl, gets wienie pieces so she'll take her pills, BUT they are awful high in salt for a normal dog, Addisonian dogs run on the low side for needed salt so it even outs and won't hurt her, but normal dogs def dont' need them.


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## Double T (Nov 6, 2010)

CharlesFamily said:


> I am so glad your little one is on the mend! I also had no idea about the onions - I will make sure to be very careful!
> 
> Dogs are a lot like the minis - if there is something they can find to get into trouble, they will! Years ago my sister-in-law had a boxer. Her young daughter accidentally left the pantry door open before they left for work and school. The boxer got a bag of cheese puffs out of the pantry and got her head stuck in the bag. She suffocated because she couldn't get it off. Poor thing.
> 
> ...


that is Sad! I had a Jack Russell pup literally choke on a calf fry one time, they'd branded some small babies and we brought the too little to save calf fries home to and gave each dog one, this goober swallowed it whole while his other litter mates chewed their. I had to stick my finger down his throat to clear his airway.


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## hobbyhorse23 (Nov 6, 2010)

Double T said:


> I had a Jack Russell pup literally choke on a calf fry one time, they'd branded some small babies and we brought the too little to save calf fries home to and gave each dog one, this goober swallowed it whole while his other litter mates chewed their. I had to stick my finger down his throat to clear his airway.


Calf...fries...??



Do I want to know? It sounds suspiciously like Rocky Mountain Oysters!

Leia


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## Sue_C. (Nov 6, 2010)

> Calf...fries...?? Do I want to know? It sounds suspiciously like Rocky Mountain Oysters!


I've got a feeling............


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## Double T (Nov 6, 2010)

hobbyhorse23 said:


> Calf...fries...??
> 
> 
> 
> ...



lol that's another name for them.


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## CZP1 (Nov 6, 2010)

Thanks Karen for the heads-up. Sorry that the puppy is so sick but hope the recovery is quick!

Chris


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## sedeh (Nov 7, 2010)

I'm glad to hear your dog is getting better!! Thanks for the heads up. I had heard about grapes/raisens, chocolate and the sugar free gum etc but never onions!


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## minimomNC (Nov 8, 2010)

We count ourselves as lucky. Holly came home Friday and was doing ok but still shaky and tired. She would eat some but was having seizures and throwing up. We just held her and tried to keep her from hurting herself and had to just take a wait and see approach. Well as of this afternoon she has gone almost 60 hours without vomiting and almost 24 hours without having a seizure. Yesterday if I put her down she just sat down, today she ran out into the sunshine and starting chasing bugs, she laid out in the sunshine, grabbed a piece of hoof to chew on (she still didn't learn of course) I took it away. But she is brighter and more alert. I think we are guardedly optomistic now, we know things could change again but I think we are past the worst part (well except getting past the bills). Thanks so much for everyones well wishes and prayers, I know that helped so much in her healing process. I know we keep a closer eye on everyone now, sometimes you just can't stop something from happening, but we can take more precautions so it doesn't happen again.


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## Barbie (Nov 8, 2010)

Karen, so glad Holly seems to be over the worst of it. I've certainly learned a lot from the prior posts. Foxy doesn't usually get table food, but we do slip once in a while. Will be doubly careful now.

Barbie


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## wingnut (Nov 8, 2010)

{{{{ hugs to you all }}}}

My "other" four-footed fur kids are so much a part of our family that I dread the thought of losing them for any reason. Thanks for this tough reminder that we can never be too vigilant in our care of them!


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## StarRidgeAcres (Nov 9, 2010)

Karen,

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I'm so sorry little Holly is going through this, but I for one had NO idea about onions, so maybe Holly's story will save another dog from having to go through the same difficulties she is experiencing.

I hope your precious little baby continues to improve. It's such an easy thing to do - leave a leftover out on the counter. Something so innocent and yet so bad for our little friends.

Hugs for little Holly. Keep us posted on her progress.


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