had a bad scare last night

Thankfully my 7 year old daughter was on her toes.

Last night Lacie was chewing on one of her "chewy" bones (Similar to a pigs ear) and we all thought it was gone. My daughter took her to bed with her and said she was coughing and sounding like she was choking. She got up to tell us that something was wrong with Lacie. We asked her all about it and then took Lacie to our bed to keep on eye on her. Not knowing for sure if she had something stuck in her throat or putting on some sort of a game to keep my little one awake to play. Well, about 5 minutes later, Lacie starting making funny noises again and would paw at her face and throat area and then hit me on the hand and then back to her face. Like to tell me to take my hand and help her. It was then that she opened her mouth and I could see a whiteish thing in the back of her throat. I opened her mouth again and pulled out her peice of bone. It was approx. 1/2" by 1" long. A rectangle shape thing stuck in her throat. She was so happy when I pulled it out she started giving me kisses and wouldn't stop. She knew she was all better then. I was so scared to think that if my 7 year old wouldn't of told us that my Pom probably would of choked to death. I had to go in and tell her what a good job she did for telling us about Lacie acting weird and sounding funny. Told her that she probably saved Lacie's life. I was so proud of her and scared for Lacie all at the same time.

 

You have a vey smart daughter and a very smart dog. It's good to hear that she's ok and it didn't come out much worse.

Mu uncle had a similar incident (with rawhide). One of his dog amost choked on a piece when he was younger.

 

Maybe something was in the air last night, my Malit-Poo, Pokie, somehow pulled my purse down off the sofa, unzipped it and dumped it out. Including a child proof bottle of EX Strenght Vicodin, which she got open. I was outside for a minute and when I came in the house I saw these pills all over the floor!

I freaked out and screamed for my daughter to help me, we got her mouth open but I didn't see any residue. But I called the vet and of course told me to take her to the ER vet.

But knuklehead me decided to wait and keep a close eye on her and she seemed fine after a few hours. My guess she didn't like the taste of it or I caught her on time! Thank goodness she if fine now. But I learned that child proof is not puppy proof!

 

Ohhhhhhh godddddddddd, what a scare. Just envisioning that made me tear up. I'm so happy your little one took care of your even little er one. Thank god.

 

OH MY GOODNESS, YIKES!

I hope your dog is fine! I just watched an episode of emergency vet on Animal Planet 2 days ago about a Weimemer who chewed open a bottle of Ibuprophen and he didn't start showing symptoms for several days after he ate the pills.He went into kidney failure but luckily they were able to save him. I don't know if vicodin has any of the same long term effects, hopefully not.

 

Vicodin is a combination of a narcotic (hydrocodone) and acetamenaphin (Tylanol). If a small dog ingested a Vicodin intended for an adult human, you'd probably see pronounced sedation, possibly even coma, due to overdose of a narcotic. That's bad enough, but the real problem is the acetamenaphin, which is a liver toxin, especially for cats and dogs. Even if the dog survives the narcotic overdose, you could still be in for problems in a day or two.

Acetamenaphin is a very potent drug. Even in humans, overdoses are extremely dangerous. There is no antidote. If enough of the liver dies, the only thing left to do is a liver transplant. And liver transplants are not done on dogs.

If you even suspect your dog has ingested a drug containing acetamenaphin, induce vomiting ASAP. Then call your vet. You can induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide. If you don't have that available, you can use common table salt and water. Place a teaspoon full of salt on the dogs tongue and after they swallow that, give them water. They'll drink, due to the salt in their mouth. As icky as it is, examine the vomitus for fragments of the pills. But whether you find any or not, report this to the vet, and follow his advice.

Signs to be watching for are stupor, anorexia, nausea and vomiting, dark urine, and yellowing of the eyes, skin and mucous membranes. Neurological signs may also be present, such as trembling, staggering, or stumbling.

One other thing; always be aware of how many pills there are left in a bottle of medication. Then should a situation like this occur, you can count the remaining pills to determine if the dog (or a child) has actually ingested any, and how many pills they may have ingested. If you know you had ten pills left, and there are ten on the floor, you're home free. If you had ten pills and only eight are on the floor, you know you must take immediate action. This will also help your vet to determine what course of action must be taken to help your pet.

 

Thank you for that info! I am going to print that out and keep it handy. she has no signs of anything and is her old hyper self! But I will continue to watch her and plan on taking her to the vet on Monday morning. Thanks for all your help!
Pookie's Mommy