Dog lover's alert- read this about raisin toxicity

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/671263/

Above is a link to a sad story posted by a vet/ vet tech about a dog poisoned by raisins. I know there are dog lovers out there. I have never heard raisins could poison a dog, but apparently they can.

Sally, Thanks for the post. I have heard this before. And I heard also about chocolate.

My daughter worked for a vet once. This owner brought his dog back for a check up since the pills the vet gave the dog were not working, after so questioning they found out the guy was sticking the pills in chocolate candy so the dog would take the pill.

Chris

Thank you for sharing this with us Sally. It is good to know. I am sure that my dogs have eaten raisins in the past, but I will be careful from now on and make sure they don't get any to eat. I guess while on the topic of pets, I had a question. One of my doggies suffers from constipation. He has seen the Vet a couple of times about this but nothing he tried really worked. The dog is perfectly fine in all other respects, but I hate to see him strain as hard as he does sometimes.

I have been giving him olive oil in his food each morning and this has helped a bit, but he still gets plugged up from time to time. Some of his poopy is as hard and has the consistency of chalk. I know that it must hurt him. Does anyone have any suggestions to help with this problem?

Thanks for any advice.

Ruby

Ruby, Is your doggie drinking enought water? Is the food dry? May want to soak it in a bit of warm water first before giving it to him to eat.

Wonder if a stool softener would work? Consult the vet first before giving any human medication.

Chris

Rubyw: We have addressed the constipation issue here successfully. Feed 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoonful of metamucil mixed into olive oil. Canned pumpkin is high in fiber and is supposed to be excellent added to dog food, but we never ended up needing it. It seems to me I read something else that could help -- if I remember I'll let you know -- we have relied on the metamucil. We only give it every so often when we notice a problem. We also tried to find a dog food that was high in fiber -- many are intentionally low in fiber because the manufacturers think the owners want to minimize the amount of poop.

Exercise is very important.

If left untreated there can be serious consequences because, as I understand it, the bowel get extended and doesn't work properly.

See also: http://www.petcaretips.net/constipated_dogs.html
http://www.ani-med.org/dogs_and_constipation.htm

This message was edited Nov 18, 2006 12:13 PM

Thanks Happy, for the sites. I placed them in "My favorites" for safe keeping.

Sally - I want to thank you for posting this thread...if not for you I wouldn't have known to contact my vet this past Friday!! Thank goodness everything turned out ok....but again kudos to you!!

Oh my gosh, that sounds scary. So glad everything's OK.
I had heard about the chocolate thing plenty of times but never raisins, so when I read the original story, I just felt I should spread it. I feel like an old west good guy, ''twernt nuthin', ma'am."
Amazing in the original story that even that vet's office was at first stumped, if I recall correctly.

This brings to mind a day last summer when my oldest dog Lucky was found eating castor beans. Talk about freak out. It was my fault. I had set the container where there were castor beans planted down at my feet while I tended to something on the table where the pot usually sat. I heard the dog making noise at my feet and looked and it seemed that at least two of the beans were missing from their spot, and his nose had dirt on it.

Wouldn't you know it.....I called our Vet's office, a recording said they were closed for the week and gave a number to call in emergencies. The emergency number had a recording that they opened at 6 PM, it was only 2 PM. I called the veterinarian's office that I used when living in another town. The doctor was out and only the receptionist there. I got out phone book and called first vet listed.

All the time my hubby and I both were freaking out. I called the poison control center and was told the same thing that the vet's offices receptionist had told me, to try and get him to drink peroxide so that he would vomit. Now, this became almost comical at this point. It took about three tries of me holding Lucky's mouth open and my husband John pouring peroxide down his throat. He finally got a large enough dose to make him begin throwing up.

Poor fellow walked around the back yard throwing up until there was nothing left to throw up. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that we sort of soaked sliced bread in the peroxide to help get it to go down too. After that we just watched him and prayed that he would be okay.

Moral of the story.....if you own a dog such as Lucky, never...ever.....turn your back for a minute. He is always in to something.......always. And.......he was lucky once again.

Ruby

Ruby that story brought back memories, we had this little mut named Ginger, when we were a young couple. One New Years Eve we had ham steak for dinner, you know the one with the round bone in the center. Well I gave the dog the bone to chew on, which she dearly loved ham bones. She started running around the house in a panic, here the bone had slipped over her lower jaw and behind the two large teeth on either side. We had to catch her first, and had a devil of a time trying to get the bone off. We ended up using vasaline, and my husband worked it off as I was trying to hold her and clam her down. That was the last one of those bone she ever got.

What a night!

Always sumthin' with either our human babies or our furbabies eh?
Last year it was our younger Rott eating an ENTIRE chocolate sheet cake....mercy!!