Dogs and Chocolate

If you have a dog, then you are probably aware the dogs and chocolate are NOT good together. In fact, chocolate can be lethal to a dog (depending on the variety and amount eaten).

We have four dogs -

Here is my father in law with 2 of them. He comes to visit every Sunday, and all my animals just adore him. :)

So....here's the story. We went out to dinner Friday night. Came home to some empty baggies on the living room floor. One had contained tortilla chips. One had contained chocolate chip morsels - semi-sweet, the kind used for baking. The pantry door was open. It is ALWAYS shut. Who opened it?? We were very worried - but with 4 dogs, how did we know who had eaten what? How many chocolate chips were still in the bag? I know there were enough to kill my littlest dog -

So what do you do at 9pm on a Friday? There IS an excellent urgent care facility for animals. But do we take them all in? Everybody seemed fine.....

The following day, our biggest dog - Buster - was hyper. Not that unusual, he's often hyper. Sunday - he also seemed OK. So did all the others. .........

Monday morning - 4:30AM - hubby woke me up. Buster's not OK. He is panting, and almost hyperventilating, and whining. UH OH. OH NO. We watched him for a bit - then it was apparent - he had to go to the hospital. Hubby took him.

They examined him, watched him for a few hours, did blood tests. Everything seemed pretty normal. They were baffled. They sent him home. But they wanted him kept quiet. They sent him home with a sedative. More like anaesthesia. He could barely walk. And he was thirsty - I offered him water every time he got up - and bit by bit - he seemed better.

In the meantime, I called my vet. They told me what they would do for him - a bit different than just sedating him. If he hadn't been a LOT better by this morning, I would have taken him in and gotten their medicine. (if I hadn't already spent $400 on the hospital visit....)

But - Buster is Better.

So relieved.

We love this crazy dog.
:)