PSA: Raisins are toxic to dogs

[divingbiker]

Since many people don't know this, I thought I'd share. Don't let your dog eat raisins! How do I know this? My dog is in the emergency clinic on a IV in hopes that he doesn't go into kidney failure.

My 1.5 year old cocker spaniel Sammy got my pet sitter's raisins off the counter and ate some before she caught him. They were the little boxes, and based on how many were left, she estimated that he ate 16.

She called the vet, and they told her to give him a tbsp of peroxide to induce vomiting. That didn't work, so she got him to drink and then tried the peroxide again. That still didn't work, so she took him to the vet.

16 raisins is about half the toxic dose for a dog Sammy's size, but apparently the reaction to raisins varies from dog to dog so they recommended treatment since it causes kidney failure.

The vet got him to vomit, but no raisins came up. So they put him on an IV and gave him activated charcoal. Because my vet isn't staffed 24 hours, he was taken to the emergency vet to be on the IV until tomorrow. The kidney damage will show up in 48 hours.

So I wait. I'm visiting a friend out of town, but fly home tonight so I can pick him up tomorrow. He was having such a good time with the pet sitter, going to a dog park for the first time. He'll be crazy after two days in a cage.

The silver lining is that I have pet insurance for Sammy. This escapade will be over $2000 I'm guessing, so we'll see if the insurance premium was worth it.

This has been quite a week. I just had to euthanize my older dog AJ on Monday. He had a tumor on his ear that wouldn't stop bleeding, and he couldn't have surgery because of his heart disease. :-( I'm ready for a bit of peace.

[ClockworkOrange]

Am so sorry to hear about Sammy, special hugs to him and hope he will soon be up and about wagging his tail.

BTW I never knew about raisins being harmful/toxic to dogs, I am going to make sure I tell any of my friends who have dogs about this.

What a sad week for you, so hugs to you too.

Clock

[OakLeaf]

(((((divingbiker & Sammy)))))

I'm so sorry for your loss of AJ. Hope Sammy is feeling much better soon, and thanks for the heads up!

[7rider]

Oh, no....
So sorry to hear about Sammy. He is such a rascal. I hope he's okay.
And I didn't know about AJ. That's too bad. You did so much for him.
(((Hugs)))

[Bike Chick]

Oh, Diving, you've had an awful week! So sorry about AJ AND Sammy. Hope he gets better and you get him home.

[DebSP]

So sorry about AJ. Hope Sammy comes through this fine! Hugs to you. And thank you so much for the warning. I think my husband has fed our dogs the odd raisin that has fallen on the floor. Probably not enough to harm a 45 lb. dog but I will give him the heads up!

[bmccasland]

((((((Divingbiker))))))
Hope Sammy pulls through. Please keep us posted. Sorry about AJ.

[shootingstar]

Wow, may Sammy pull through.

Didn't know about the raisins, chocolate, grapes, onions as highly toxic to doggies.

[Roadtrip]

Chocolate is not as toxic to your critters as something like raisins, but keep in mind another VERY toxic item for your pets is sugar free gum, in particular Zylitol which is the artificial sweeter. It can cause massive liver damage in as little as half a pack of gum for a 70-80lb doggie. I've heard some of the little guys only eaten a few sticks of the stuff and was enough to be fatal.

Please keep your gum up and away from your furry family members.\

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/xylitol.asp

Shannon

[Eden]

I hope Sammy is OK.

Don't forget that all of these items are toxic to cats too - and they generally weigh less, so in smaller amounts.

[NbyNW]

Hope Sammy comes out of this okay!

[nancielle]

Sorry to hear you've had such a difficult week with your dogs .

I hope that Sammy (and you!) pull through this ordeal ok.

Lots of things, I've learned since becoming a pet owner, can be toxic to our animals. Here are a couple of links that list some of the more common items:

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals...s_to_pets.html

http://www.peteducation.com/article....+1659&aid=1030

[emily_in_nc]

divingbiker,

Will be sending healing thoughts Sammy's way -- hope he'll make a full recovery, but I know how stressful and scary these kinds of things are.

I feel bad because for several years I had no idea that raisins were toxic to dogs, and fed our first Boston Terrier, Pepper, her phenobarbital dose twice daily hidden in a raisin. I wonder if the two raisins a day she got for several years until I was alerted by a caring friend to their toxicity might have contributed to her demise -- she had kidney problems and incontinence later in life, but still lived til 3 months shy of her 15th birthday.

So sorry for your loss of AJ, too. What a horrible week you're having. Please keep this thread updated about Sammy....

[lph]

Yoicks! Best of luck to Sammy and may you have some peaceful days soon!

This was an eye-opener, 'cause I just discovered twenty minutes ago that Lyra likes chocolate... she had jumped on the table and pinched a square, and was headed outside in a hurry. (She's not a very savvy chocolate eater, though, so she got most of the square stuck up in the roof of her mouth between her teeth and was quite stressed and put out by the time I caught her and prised her mouth open to help work it out... )
So I did the math for cats from one of those links above, and came up with that 2 small squares (about an inch across?) of milk chocolate could give mild symptoms, and 4-5 squares could give severe symptoms.
I'll have to keep a close eye on the chocolate from now on, and not just because of longfingered youngsters.

[JennK13]

Out of curiosity, what symtoms did Sammy exhibit after eating the raisins?

Our golden retriever ate an ENTIRE chocolate cake off the counter while we were out. She's 65 lbs. I looked online and called the vet (Like you, I had been at the vet the day before to put my 17 year old cat down), and I did not want to have to go back to the vet. What they told me was that, while chocolate is toxic to dogs, it's not necessarily the chocolate that would make her sick. The SUGAR from eating an entire cake was far worse for her and could cause her to go into pancreatic shock. Since I didn't want to go back to the vet, I told them I saw I could enduce vomitting with H2O2 and asked how much to give her. I had a large, plastic "syringe" from a bar (some sort of shot came in it), and I pulled up about 1/2 cup of peroxide and shot it in the back of her throat to make sure she got it down. It didn't take long! Not 5 minutes later she was threw up CHUNCKS of the cake - I literally could have arranged the pieces back into the original cake!!! She doesn't really chew anything and just bit off pieces small enough for her to swallow whole (about the size of a fist each). We just kept an eye on her and she was fine - no stomach or anything; but we were fortunate enough to catch it in less that 2 hours after ingestion and were able to get her to vomit.

Unfortunately, she will eat anything, and the kitten thinks it's funny to watch her and knocks stuff off the counter for her to get (so now we have to keep it in the pantry and cabinets). She ate about a dozen chocolate chip cookies once without any issues (that amount of chocolate wasn't enough for a dog her size), but after the cake and knowing about how sugar can affect them, we probably should have done something then, too.