Adventures in Emesis
One of our clients brought in her dog because he chewed open a bottle of anti-histamine and may have eaten some unknown quantity. Luckily, it wasn't the kind with pseudoephedrine in it (which can cause a fatal arrhythmia in a dog, frankly people probably shouldn't take it either) but we decided to make him vomit anyway just to be sure.
The little maltese got some lovely apomorphine and surely surely, started puking away. His stomach contents were FULL of rice, plastic, and ... BACON!!!! WTF????
No pills were seen.
Bacon?!?! I have to say, it still smelled good.
I walk out to the owner and say, "So, I don't see any pills, but I do see lots of bacon pieces. Did you give him bacon?"
She sheepishly grins and says, "Yes."
I say, "Not a good idea. At ALL. You will be in here spending a $1000 to fix pancreatitis. Stick to dog food."
"Oh, okay."
Whatever, I know you went right home and gave him more bacon.
...............
A woman calls (never before seen client) and in broken english says her dogs have been poisoned by a neighbor. She and her friend, sister? rush in with two little dogs.
It turns out the dogs may have eaten rat poison. This is a bad thing, a very, very bad thing. The ladies are furious that their neighbor apparently tried to poison their dogs.
We give them an estimate for emesis, charcoal, Vit K etc.
They can't afford any of it and want to take the dogs home and "teach their neighbor a lesson."
We make the dogs puke anyway. Apomorphine to the rescue!
One of them vomits up the characteristic bright green pellets of rat poison. The other one doesn't.
Since that's all we can do based on finances, I write a script for Vitamin K tablets (This is a cofactor in the coagulation cascade and is needed for blood to clot. Many rodenticides cause depletion of clotting mechanisms - the rat (or dog) bleeds out).
They took the script and the dogs, who were actually very sweet, and left still threatening their neighbor.
They called about a half hour later to ask what the pills were for and did they really have to get them. Sigh.
YES! WHAT DIDN'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT DEATH! RAT BAIT! DEATH! Ugh.
...............
Lots of candy is around over the holidays. A client calls and tells us her dachshund somehow managed to get on to the dining room table and broke into a bag of individually wrapped chocolate covered almonds.
Her chart tells the whole story: virtually every visit has been some kind of candy ingestion.
The owner is a heavy drinker. She thinks it is a secret, but everyone knows.
As it turned out we didn't actually make the dog vomit. What I wanted to know was... how did the DACHSHUND get on the dining room table?
Life's mysteries.
All names and identifying details have been changed, and any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
The little maltese got some lovely apomorphine and surely surely, started puking away. His stomach contents were FULL of rice, plastic, and ... BACON!!!! WTF????
No pills were seen.
Bacon?!?! I have to say, it still smelled good.
I walk out to the owner and say, "So, I don't see any pills, but I do see lots of bacon pieces. Did you give him bacon?"
She sheepishly grins and says, "Yes."
I say, "Not a good idea. At ALL. You will be in here spending a $1000 to fix pancreatitis. Stick to dog food."
"Oh, okay."
Whatever, I know you went right home and gave him more bacon.
...............
A woman calls (never before seen client) and in broken english says her dogs have been poisoned by a neighbor. She and her friend, sister? rush in with two little dogs.
It turns out the dogs may have eaten rat poison. This is a bad thing, a very, very bad thing. The ladies are furious that their neighbor apparently tried to poison their dogs.
We give them an estimate for emesis, charcoal, Vit K etc.
They can't afford any of it and want to take the dogs home and "teach their neighbor a lesson."
We make the dogs puke anyway. Apomorphine to the rescue!
One of them vomits up the characteristic bright green pellets of rat poison. The other one doesn't.
Since that's all we can do based on finances, I write a script for Vitamin K tablets (This is a cofactor in the coagulation cascade and is needed for blood to clot. Many rodenticides cause depletion of clotting mechanisms - the rat (or dog) bleeds out).
They took the script and the dogs, who were actually very sweet, and left still threatening their neighbor.
They called about a half hour later to ask what the pills were for and did they really have to get them. Sigh.
YES! WHAT DIDN'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT DEATH! RAT BAIT! DEATH! Ugh.
...............
Lots of candy is around over the holidays. A client calls and tells us her dachshund somehow managed to get on to the dining room table and broke into a bag of individually wrapped chocolate covered almonds.
Her chart tells the whole story: virtually every visit has been some kind of candy ingestion.
The owner is a heavy drinker. She thinks it is a secret, but everyone knows.
As it turned out we didn't actually make the dog vomit. What I wanted to know was... how did the DACHSHUND get on the dining room table?
Life's mysteries.
All names and identifying details have been changed, and any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
Too funny! And I'm sure frustrating. You just can't make up the things you see at a vet clnic...
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