I personally have had an experience recently with my
wonderful 1 year old standard poodle puppy, Wrigley that I wanted to
share. Especially, if you are a dog
owner.
Wrigley, our puppy, tends to get into mischief, as most
puppies do. On Saturday evening this
past weekend, his mischief almost cost him his life. My wife and I returned from a Memorial Day
get together with leftovers. The leftovers
consisted of 3 banana bars and one low carb piece of cheesecake. We had it on a plate and made sure we placed
the plate on top of the coffee maker on the counter to hopefully not allow
Wrigley to get to the food. We were
wrong, terribly wrong.
My wife found Wrigley licking the empty plate on the floor in
the kitchen. She asked me what was on
the plate and I informed her I brought home one piece of cheesecake and three banana
bars. She mentioned to me that she hoped
the cheesecake wasn’t made with that one sugar substitute that is dangerous for
dogs. My wife decided to text my
sister-in-law who made the cheesecake and found out that a half a cup of
Xylitol was used in the entire cheesecake.
Unfortunately after checking the internet, Xylitol is the sugar
substitute my wife heard is harmful to dogs.
We never knew any real detail of the dangers of Xylitol. After searching on the internet, Xylitol,
found in many sugar free gums and sugar free foods can drop your dog’s blood
sugar to dangerous levels which can cause extreme lethargy, breathing issues,
seizures and even death. In addition to
the initial low blood sugar that Xylitol can cause, it is extremely harmful to
your dog’s liver.
We then immediately called an emergency veterinarian in our
city and they advised that we attempt to make Wrigley throw up by using a
peroxide mixture. We tried, but
unfortunately Wrigley only vomited the peroxide mixture, not any of the banana
bars or the cheesecake. The emergency
veterinarian told us to call a poison control animal hotline which we
immediately did. After answering many
questions on the amount of Xylitol Wrigley ate, they advised that we take him
immediately in to the emergency veterinarian since they believe that Wrigley
had a lethal amount of Xylitol.
We loaded ourselves and our puppy Wrigley in the car and
went to the Veterinarian. My wife and I were
extremely saddened by what just happened.
We couldn’t believe that a small piece of cheesecake made with Xylitol
could harm our dog. Why is something so
harmful out there without any large warning labels? My dogs are part of my family and if some dog
food were found harmful to babies, who put everything in their mouth, would
that still be allowed to be on the market?
My assumption is no.
We arrived at the emergency Veterinarian’s office and after
anxiously waiting to see the Vet we finally went back to the examining room. Wrigley’s temperature was good and his
breathing was good. He was showing no
signs of low blood sugar, which was positive.
The Veterinarian then informed us that he wasn’t out of the woods
yet. She contacted the poison control
office that we called earlier and confirmed that Wrigley had a lethal amount of
Xylitol. It doesn’t take a large amount
of Xylitol either. Some dogs have died
from eating two pieces of sugar free gum.
Wrigley is 65 lbs and he had ingested what was equivalent to two
teaspoons. The Veterinarian believed he
had enough to cause liver damage but possibly not enough to cause liver
failure. She then took blood work to get
a base line reading on his liver. Xylitol
damage on the liver doesn’t typically show up until 24 to 48 hours after
ingestion so we needed to know a starting point on his liver function. His initial liver test result came back with
no damage but we will need to get Wrigley’s blood work done two more times
during the next two days to measure the amount of damage to his liver. The Veterinarian prescribed liver pills that will
help Wrigley’s liver function more efficiently during the next 30 days to help
reduce any liver damage. The full amount
of what damage was done to Wrigley’s liver will not be known for a couple of
days. Now we must wait.
Xylitol can kill. A
little amount can kill. If you have
animals or know somebody that has animals, please pass this story along. I didn’t know about Xylitol poisoning and I
don’t want anybody to be surprised as my wife and I were with Wrigley. I can only hope the damage isn’t too serious
going forward. Maybe Wrigley was
lucky. We need a little luck these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment