Poisonings at Christmas - Mince pies

Darcey, the 15 month old Cocker Spaniel, lives in a busy, affectionate bundle of 2 other dogs, 6 cats and their humans, Lynne & Darren.  Whilst very lovable, Darcey needs to be watched all the time.  She is lively, inquisitive and constantly on the alert for whatever is happening now.  She also has a very high jump.

When, 3 weeks ago, Lynne and Darren went to bed, having carefully placed the sealed packet of mince pies, next to the packet of doughnuts, on top of the cake tin, on top of the kitchen counter, they thought it would be safe to leave.  However, Darcey decided to do a spot of high-jump practice.

In the morning, Darren came down to find an empty packet of mince pies on the floor, and 3 satisfied dogs, one of whom was feeling especially pleased with herself.

Grapes contain tartaric acid which is believed to be the culprit in causing some dogs to have kidney failure, or even die, after consumption.   Sometimes there are no symptoms until the dog becomes very ill, very suddenly.

Knowing the dangers of grapes and their products to dogs, Darren and Lynne immediately rang the vets and got an emergency appointment.  The vet made all 3 dogs sick, finding Darcey had clearly eaten 7 raisins, Lady, the 14 year old Springalier, had eaten 2, and Ava, the King Charles Spaniel appeared to have missed out on the fun with none! 

As Lady has a 14 year history of eating everything, with no ill effects, she and Ava were sent home with a precautionary charcoal treatment.  This is a paste given to the dogs to draw any toxins out of the body, and they were absolutely fine.  Darcey, however, was kept in the veterinary hospital for 2 nights of monitoring and repeated blood tests looking for changes to the kidney output.  Darcey came home on the 3^rd day, had another blood test on the 4^th, but was, thankfully, pronounced all clear.

Darcey arrived from her breeder with Agria’s 5 weeks free insurance, and Darren and Lynne extended the policy to lifetime cover.  Darren says insuring your dog is really important, especially for the first few years, as you never know what might happen.  How very true. 

Dora lives with 6 other Beagles, 5 chickens, bees and her humans, with regular visits from their children and grandchildren.  Whilst it’s a full and busy household, they have 5 securely fenced acres to play in, so there’s really no excuse for mischief-making.

However, owner Becky says, if they’re feeling a lack of attention, 9/10 times, they’ll find a naughty way to get it.

Becky used to breed Beagles which is how they ended up with so many.  Although highly food-oriented, as hounds they are very well scented which tends to interfere with training, although their recall is good, especially for food.  Super intelligent, they don’t miss a trick: all Becky’s kitchen cupboards have child locks on them except for the pantry cupboard, after entering the kitchen to find sugar, cocoa powder, marmite and gravy granules all over the floor, Becky and her husband were driven to putting a lock with a key on that one.

In the run up to last Christmas Becky’s daughter and new grandson were staying, so Becky was a little distracted.  Early Saturday evening, 8 year old Dora scaled a 4ft high child’s play kitchen to get to the recess behind where a closed bread bin was on top of the shelf of cookery books.  Inside the bread bin were 4 mince pies which Dora merrily consumed.

Knowing how seriously dogs can react to grape products, Becky took Dora to the emergency vet, her usual vet having closed for the weekend.  Dora may not have felt quite so clever then, after the vet gave her an emetic to make her sick and kept her on a drip overnight to monitor her renal function.

Fortunately, Dora was fine and allowed home on the Sunday with one more blood test on the Monday to make sure all was well.

A previous dog had a slipped disc in his neck with an operation costing almost £5,000, so Becky is fully aware of the value of good insurance, especially as vets can do so much these days, with oncology treatments such as chemotherapy etc. “Lifetime helps as you never know what may happen. Agria back you and support you.  You want an insurer who’s not going to quibble.  That’s why I’ve recommended Agria and sent all our puppies off with their insurance.”  As Dora has demonstrated, you can never be too careful.

Gully, the flat coated retriever, was just over four months old when he had his first unscheduled visit to the vet.  Sam, his owner, had quickly realised he was at the opposite end of the flat coat spectrum from her last one who had been gentle, quiet, submissive and sensitive.  Gully was short on attention, wanting to be everywhere yesterday, barging his way through, picking up and mouthing anything, edible or not, human too if one was silly enough to let him.  The family was under constant reminder not to leave anything within 2 meters’ reach of Gully.

Whilst most of the family swooned over the cute, affectionate, fizzy streak of liquorice, Junior the cat, did not.  Junior is an accomplished and random thief.  The family is by now well trained in the discipline of not leaving anything within access of the cat.  However, in the run-up to Christmas Sam couldn’t keep the food bank donation box in the car any longer because her husband needed it for ‘proper’ things.  So she put it in the front room, shutting the door. 

Returning from a walk with Gully, Sam realised he hadn’t followed her into the kitchen.  She called but he didn’t come and she discovered him in the front room gobbling up a mince pie he had found on the floor.  Junior had let himself into the room, opened the cardboard box, lifted out the sealed box of mince pies, opened that and hooked one out.  No-one knows if this was a pre-meditated attack on the dog, or if Junior just didn’t fancy it after all.  Either way, Gully was delighted to clear it up for him.

Sam immediately rang her vet who advised that as all grape products are poisonous to dogs, she should bring Gully into the surgery as soon as possible. Twenty minutes later Gully was in the vets being made to vomit.  Some dogs have a severe reaction to grapes, raisins, sultanas etc, and it isn’t dose-dependent either, if a dog is sensitive to it, it can take just one raisin to have an effect, leading to kidney failure or even death.  Gully wasn’t smiling then.  And neither was Sam.  In fact, the house is now a grape & raisin-free zone.  At least until Gully can be trusted…so maybe forever!