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Rimadyl Overdose


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My dog Cody is in a vet hospital. I left him inside alone for 5 mins. I had a bottle of 100mg Rimadyl sitting WAY back on my kitchen island. The NSAID is for my wife’s 11 year old NSDTR. Apparently he used his new trick, grabbing a kitchen towel, getting his paws up on the counter, and swings the towel to grab something. I kid you not. He’s big for a 24 week BC, with 14” legs. I had to call poison control, then rushed him to the closest vet hospital that would take him to induce vomiting ASAP. My vet, which is also a hospital, is 1/2 mile away. They wouldn’t take him, so I had to drive 30 mins to the next closest one. He got 8-10 100mg pills down him. Luckily I have a “barely” street legal race car, and I am an experienced track racer. Please don’t get on me about traffic rules, I don’t care that I got up to over 140 mph in a few spots. Problem was that even getting him there as fast as I could, he did NOT vomit up any Rimadyl treats at all. So, 50/50 whether or not he will develop kidney failure, and possibly have to be put down. He’s on 48 hours of IV to try and flush his kidneys, starting last night. I find out today at 5:00 what his liver functions are. Creatinine and BUN. I am sick about this, cause I feel like it’s my fault. I didn’t think he could reach the bottle, and my pet poison kit was WAAAY out of date. I may lose him because of my screwups. This is my seventh dog, but my first BC. He is extremely attached to me, and me to him. Long first post, but just wondering if anybody else has had a Rimadyl incident. 

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So sorry to hear of your dog's antics. It's amazing what they can get into.

It's too late for this advice to be of any use, but I'll throw it out for future reference and hope you never need it. If poison control tells you you need to induce vomiting (don't do it unless you know for sure; in some cases it's not a good idea) it's easy to do with a little hydrogen peroxide. You can keep a dosing syringe on hand or use something like a turkey baster in a pinch. Anything to get it in. I always make sure I have peroxide on hand in case of emergencies or in case someone gets sprayed by a skunk.

Wishing you the best for your handsome boy. Please let us know how things go.

 

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Oh my goodness, I am so sorry this happened! Wishing you and he the best. This is so scary. Keep us posted and sending good thoughts.

I have a four-month-old BC pup (almost five!) and he is big too and already a counter surfer. I'm going to move all our pills to the top of the fridge or something so he can't get to them! We have tons!

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Thank you for the “well wishes”. Great advice on the hydrogen peroxide. I actually did know that, but I couldn’t find it!!  Another screwup by me. Of course I did find it after I got home. Figures huh?  But great advise nonetheless. 

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6 minutes ago, urge to herd said:

Best wishes for his quick recovery. It's awful when they're sick or injured. And they're so dang smart and intent, these beasts. It's easier than we think to get outsmarted by them.

Let us know how he does.

Ruth & Gibbs

That’s a great way to describe them. I’ve had 4 golden’s, including one classified as “Dark Dark”. They are nuts until they hit about 2. I thought I would be prepared for Cody. Well I guess I’m not. The pain and guilt I feel is incredible. 

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Best wishes for you and your beloved dog.  I know it doesn't really do any good to say this, but I'll say it anyway - don't feel guilty.  You didn't do anything malicious or negligent.  Sure, in retrospect you feel like you should have kept your sealed bottle of pills in a locked safe that can only be accessed by a fingerprint scanner.  But really, keeping pills in a bottle on a shelf that your dog was only able to access by using a kitchen towel (theoretically, dogs aren't tool users) as a sweeper isn't something that I would expect someone to automatically recognize as a hazard.  I once had lightning strike behind my house and start a fire on a hot windy day.  When I called the fire department, I couldn't remember my house number - I had to find a piece of mail on the counter and read my address off of that.  So, yeah, you forgot about peroxide to induce vomiting because adrenaline doesn't always facilitate clear calm thinking.   I'm really sorry this happened to you, and I'm hoping for a full recovery for your dog - but you did nothing negligent or stupid  or malicious.  You just failed to be omniscient, and you have lots of company there.

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Dear Normtrum

My heart goes out to you.  The only thing you are guilty of is not having the ability to predict the future in order to stop it.  And we have all been there before.  Whether it's dogs or kids,  you do your best and then hope for the best.  I pray that both you and your beautiful Cody come through this just fine. 

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Wanted to say thank you for the kind words regarding Cody, and trying to make me feel better. I have not received any calls from the on call hospital vets today (scheduled at 5:00 PST), and the 4 calls I have made to the tech(s) have been positive. Tomorrow morning’s vet call at 6:00 I should find out if Cody’s kidney functions are normal, or if they’re plummeting. I am going to try and keep a positive attitude!  I’ll update everyone later. Thanks again!

 

UPDATE:  Blood draw scheduled at 5:00 my time (3 mins), Day vet calling me in 1 hour for Cody’s kidney function results.  This is the big one, will determine if he’s going to pull through  I thought I wouldn’t hear till tomorrow, but should know by 6ish  

Mike

Edited by normtrum
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UPDATE:  Hello to all!  I am so sorry, I thought I left a post last night, but I probably didn’t hit the “submit” tab. Cody is ok!!!  His critical bloodwork that was done on Saturday evening came back “shockingly great”. His kidney function panel was not only normal, it was MUCH better than normal! His BUN was at .6, which is Outstanding. His creatinine level was “high normal”. Think of it like a human having a real low LDL, and a real high HDL. His Saturday team is what really did it. Constant IV’s, with too many meds to mention administered. The vet was amazed he got through this so well. She was a BC owner herself, and had lots of experience in Rimadyl overdoses. He came out of it so well I do not even need to bring him back for a full month for a follow up panel. Now of course he has “ballistic Diarrhea”, but I expected that. As I am typing this he is back to his normal Mischievous self!  What a relief!  I actually lost it (again) when I got the Saturday night update, since he appeared to no longer be in danger.  ALL DOG AND HUMAN MEDS ARE NOW PUT AWAY IN A SAFE PLACE!!  We have also installed “child proof” latches on all kitchen cabinets!  He has already been outside playing 3 times this morning (it’s about 8:30 am here) and he is showing no effects at all. In fact he’s so active he’s driving me nuts!  Which is awesome!  Thanks again to all!  Tough lesson to learn, but lesson learned nonetheless. 
 

Mike

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I am SO glad to hear this!

As others have said, you couldn't have known that he would be able to get to the medication where you had it. It's good to learn an important lesson in a way that doesn't end up causing a tragedy, and I am so happy for you that Cody is fine. :D

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Just now, D'Elle said:

I am SO glad to hear this!

As others have said, you couldn't have known that he would be able to get to the medication where you had it. It's good to learn an important lesson in a way that doesn't end up causing a tragedy, and I am so happy for you that Cody is fine. :D

Thank you so much!  And many thanks to everyone for the great support!

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Another big sigh of relief from me, too!

I agree with the others that it's not really something you can blame yourself for. I would've figured the meds had been adequately out of reach. Who'd have expected a dog to be that inventive!?

So happy to hear that everything's OK.

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7 minutes ago, GentleLake said:

Another big sigh of relief from me, too!

I agree with the others that it's not really something you can blame yourself for. I would've figured the meds had been adequately out of reach. Who'd have expected a dog to be that inventive!?

So happy to hear that everything's OK.

Well I didn’t expect that!  Just to be clear, what he does is grab an occasional towel on the kitchen counter, and shakes his head violently. Like I’m sure a lot of our dogs do with toys that have a rope attached to it. It’s not like someone on a movie who’s in jail,  and tries to Lassus a rope and try to grab some keys that are lying on the floor, he just got lucky I think and connected with the pill bottle. Was he trying to do that?  I don’t know....he’s way smarter than I expected him to be. 

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