SoloRiver Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Solo, he who will not graciously accept pills even if they taste like liver, and must have them stuffed down his throat Every Single Time (although he does swallow on command) decided to swipe the liver-flavored Rimadyl off the counter while I was at work and ate almost the entire bottle. I'd given him one or two of the tablets on previous occasions, so 30-2=28. That's a lot of Rimadyl. So, off to the vet we went for an apomorphine shot at about 4 PM (Fly had to go too just in case, although I was 99.999999% certain she hadn't eaten any). Six piles of vomit later, we feel pretty sure that Solo is clean since the upchuck also contained the lamb ear he'd eaten at 9 AM. Solo's digestive system apparently works VERY VERY slowly, which in this case is a lucky thing. For comparison, Fly's lamb ear appeared to have entirely atomized within the same span of time and all that came up was bile. Solo got a liter of saline at the vet and is on subQ fluids for the next two days, plus a liver supplement (Sam-E + milk thistle) for about a week or so, and then it's back to the vet in a week and a half for blood tests to make sure he didn't destroy his liver with this stunt. On the plus side the apomorphine made him so sedated that the vet was easily able to examine him and get a sample from his newest lump, which turned out to be another lipoma. He's acting bright and perky now and can't figure out why I haven't fed him any dinner. I'm still annoyed at him for scaring me like that, but I'm more annoyed at myself for leaving dangerous meds where he could steal and eat them. It's just, he hasn't stolen and eaten any meds in his entire life ever. I know this isn't the first Rimadyl accident that's been mentioned on these boards but it bears repeating: just because you don't think your dog will eat them doesn't mean he won't. Solo's 10 years old, and definitely becoming more of a counter-surfer and random forager with age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anda Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 OMG, Melanie, glad you caught it on time and he sounds like he's out of immediate danger. I went through the same thing almost 3 years ago with Ouzo eating an unknown quantity of aspirin tablets. Hugs to your boy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerfulgazelle Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Oy. I am glad Solo is okay. Does the Rimadyl come in "edible" packaging? When we have gotten short courses of it for either of the dogs...it comes in a blue "veterinary use only" Rx bottle with a child proof lid---same as any human Rx would...or did Solo eat the plastic bottle too?! (My DS has knocked his medication off the counter flying out the door in the morning...I've always found it before the dogs, but have wondered whether they could tooth their way into the Rx bottle if they were inclined to....) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurae Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Yikes, Melanie! So glad you found out in time for the apomorphine shot to work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz P Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 And don't underestimate your dogs either! I have a dog who is disabled to a certain degree. He often takes a few tries just to get up on my bed at night. I leave that dog loose during the day while I am at work. Last year I discovered that he can somehow get on the kitchen counters (came home and found him stuck up there ). If I had kept drugs over my kitchen sink he could have consumed them. I'm glad to hear Solo is doing well after his little adventure. I do find that a little odd that a dog who refuses to take pills ate an entire bottle of them. Sometimes you have to wonder what in the world our dogs are thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bc4ever Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 OMG! I would have freaked! Sounds like you caught it in time at least. Just another reminder I guess that no dog is 100% reliable. They usually find a way to surprise us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoloRiver Posted December 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 It came in a childproof prescription bottle, but he knows how to open those. Here's lesson in stupidity #2: you know those toss-and-treat tubes that people use to teach their dogs to target in agility? Well, when we were taking agility classes I was broke, so instead of buying the treat tube I used his old prescription bottles. Yes, that's right. I taught Solo that medication bottles = food. He's scattered prescription bottles before though, and not bothered opening them. I guess he smelled the liver tablets this time and decided to give them a try. He is prone to experimentation when he is bored, and since he is very intelligent, he is very easily bored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShoresDog Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Yikes. Glad Solo and Fly seem to have come through it OK. What a horrible scare, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pippin's person Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Glad Solo is o.k. It is amazing how, no matter how vigilant we feel we are, they can still find a way to get into stuff. Our mutt has found chocolate that we were sure was out of reach--and $$ later also emerged just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 I'm glad to hear Solo is okay. Old dogs can surprise you. At least it was a lesson learned *without* a bad outcome. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSmitty Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Oh, you naughty boy, Solo! Thank goodness he's ok, I know that was scary. I think we all have stories like this, and we all consider ourselves above average dog owners. Mine got into ant bait/trap thingies that were supposed to be in a bathroom behind closed doors. Many piles of vomit later (my first experience with inducing vomiting...fun) and a trip to the E-vet, only to find out he'd have had to eat like 90 of them to get enough poison to be dangerous. These dogs like to give us gray hair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anda Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 As for the coments about the safty of child proof bottles - that's how the aspirin that my dog ate was packaged. It's not hard for a dog to apply pressure on the bottle until the cap comes off. Heck, he can easily open coke bottles too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisK Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Thank goodness Solo is okay...as for the 10 year old dog become a counter surfer, I can attest to that as well! Jazz NEVER bothered with stuff on the counters until this past couple of months. So, I guess old dogs DO learn new tricks! Just not the ones we want. I hope Solo doesn't have any lasting effects from his 'surfing'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryP Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 I'm glad Solo is OK. One of my co-workers/friends recently (within the past month) went through this with one of her dogs. It was very touch-and-go for a while there, but luckily the dog appears to have recovered without any liver damage. About a year ago, another co-worker went through this with her geriatric dog and that dog almost didn't survive either. Again, I'm glad Solo came through OK. Rimadyl is scary stuff. I'm kind of surprised that vets don't emphasize the importance of storing it where a dog can't get to it. Whenever I've received Rimadyl, they just hand me the bottle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcnewe2 Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 So glad Solo's ok. Maybe he was trying to save you the work of stuffing them down his throat in the future. Or show you he could do it himself. I will definately learn from your lessons. I have my old girls meds on the counter. We have no counter surffers that I know of. But like your family, things can change. They aren't even in child proof containers, just bottles with screw lids. Really gald this story has such a good ending, what a scare you must have been through. Darned old dogs...can't live with them and would never dream of living without them. Off to find a good place for all the doggy meds we've been on lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IPSY Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Solo , you bad boy ! You might benefit from some coal in your Xmas stocking ! And for Solo's mom, I feel for you. That must have been terribly stressful for you. We have all had similiar situations and know just how many years those times add to our lives. I'm so glad Solo and Fly came thru it unscathed. Just makes us more thankful this season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nancy in AZ Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Hopefully others will learn from your experience. This was a lesson I learned not long ago when Jill got hold of Boo's prescription antihistimines from the kitchen counter. She decided they didn't taste intriguing enough to eat, but were a blast to play with, so I found them strewn about the living room floor. ...not so with the Halloween chocolates, though. All scrips (and chocolate)are housed inside drawers now. Glad that Solo and Fly appear to be fine. Hope you will be too once the panic subsides ETA She also retrieved and opened both the bottle of vitamin E and fish oil caps from the kitchen counter one day (she jumps a baby gate to get in there). Every last one was consumed. So beware of where you keep supplements too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoloRiver Posted December 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 Thanks for the well wishes. Solo is acting totally normal for now, no GI upset, and we'll have to wait to find out if he has any permanent ill effects on his liver. As he isn't a good candidate for hospitalization and IV fluids, I've been giving him some water with chicken broth every couple of hours to keep him well flushed and he'll get a half liter of subq fluids this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon. He's pretty psyched about the water with broth. They do surprising things when they get old. In addition to counter-surfing, Solo's also decided to go prick-eared when he's always been half-flop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maralynn Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 They do surprising things when they get old. In addition to counter-surfing, Solo's also decided to go prick-eared when he's always been half-flop. I'm glad he's doing well after his escapade. Sheesh, talk about knocking years off your life! Missy turned 10 in March and has started getting into the trash this past year. She has never done that before. I'm not sure if it is her age or the effects of increased competition from the other two dogs as she has also started taking kibble as treats and really schmoozing for attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airbear Posted December 10, 2009 Report Share Posted December 10, 2009 They do surprising things when they get old. In addition to counter-surfing, Solo's also decided to go prick-eared when he's always been half-flop. Glad to hear Solo looks like he's going to escape unscathed. And that's awesome that he's decided to be prick-eared! Bear has decided that he is going to be a moderate-coated aussie so he is literally molting. Huge hunks of downy mass just fall off him (and yes, he does get brushed regularly). Maybe as a finale, he will stand his ears up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise Wall Posted December 11, 2009 Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 Wow, glad things seem okay at this point. I can't believe Solo can open child proof bottles when I can't even do it. Never a dull moment with these dogs... As an aside, my old Molly's flop ears pricked more and more as she aged. My husband told me it makes sense because as we age cartilage calcifies and so gets stiffer. Sadly, we lost her last spring to old age a couple of months before she turned 17. I think if she'd lived another year she'd have been completely prick eared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rave Posted December 11, 2009 Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 Rimadyl is scary stuff. I'm kind of surprised that vets don't emphasize the importance of storing it where a dog can't get to it. Whenever I've received Rimadyl, they just hand me the bottle. I've always been warned. That stuff is like candy to dogs. Glad Solo will be ok! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journey Posted December 11, 2009 Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 Glad he's doing well! Maybe it's all the fluids that are causing his ears to go up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy V Posted December 11, 2009 Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 Timely topic. Last month, my dog, Dexter, decided to eat ~ 75 100mg Deramaxx tablets that were on a table. Both he and my old dog, Ellie (who was also loose), were whisked off to MSU vet hospital for throw-up drugs, IV saline, etc. Dexter spent 3 days in the hosptial but so far shows no signs of kidney damage. Expensive lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoloRiver Posted December 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 Luckily Solo is eating and drinking normally. I don't know how long it was between when he ate the Rimadyl and when I got home. I think it all came up, but it was very well-chewed as Solo is a very careful chewer so I'm sure he absorbed quite a bit. It would have been really hard to put him in the hospital on IV fluids (he would have to be sedated the entire time) and he seemed to be feeling fine, so they sent us home with subq fluids instead, but I haven't administered them since he's been drinking plenty of water. He is really digging this water + chicken broth (organic, free-range, low-sodium of course) regimen. Yesterday he took such a long pee that he actually had to switch legs mid-pee. I figure we'll keep up this schedule (water every two hours) throughout the weekend and it'll be almost as good as the IV fluids would have been. My husband is a doctor and says it's always preferable to hydrate patients through their gut anyway. Hopefully whatever Rimadyl that Solo did absorb before we got it out of him will be flushed away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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