gvox
Ghost of Love
not Bob Marley, silly...
Well I don't know if I posted about this because I've been limiting my online time...but I've got a story to tell..
But a few weeks back my 2 yr old lab X named Marley (yes, after Bob lol) got into the shed and ate RAT POISONING. I think it must've happened around a Monday or Tuesday...anyways by Wednesday he wasn't eating a thing..well he sometimes does this hunger strike thing in protest over dry dog food, so usually I just stick it out and let him get hungry enough to eat again, which *normally* works out fine. But in this case he just didn't eat for days. Then by Friday he started dry vomiting so I took him to the vet, and the vet thought he might have a stomach virus, and prescribed anti-biotics. Well that just made the problem worse, so that night I stayed up with him as long as I could and fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up he was passed out on the floor with a large pool of blood coming out of his mouth. I tried to wake him but all he could do was open his eyes and twitch his tail a bit, couldn't even lift his head up or stand up.
So I gathered him up and took him to the emergency animal hospital, where they did some tests and determined that his blood was super thin and his blood count was almost nil. In other words he was on death's door. The only thing that could be possible is poisoning, and they asked me if we had laid any rat poisoning on our property anywhere (which we had, in the shed). If anyone knows what Wayfarin does, imagine that done to your dog. Now that I've seen it first hand, I don't even believe a rat deserves that kind of death. It slowly thins the blood and then induces internal hemoragging until the animal is dead. Have you ever seen what a rat looks like that has died from it? Well by Saturday night Marley was close to that. His body was shrivelled, basically skin and bones, and his head looked like it was shrinking around his skull.
They said that if I didn't act fast, he was a goner. And it wasn't going to be a pretty death either. I had the choice to order massive blood transfusions and Vitamin K shots to try and get his blood system working again. They gave him a 40% chance of living, but if he did, a 100% chance of a full recovery. The only catch: it was gonna cost like mucho $$. College fund - style $$. It was surreal how they put it to me, like an option or something. I think I got a flash of what private health care for humans would be like. At any rate this was not a natural happening and I just couldn't bear to see him suffer or put him down for what basically amounted to our negligence, so I went ahead with the treatment. They gave him 2 transfusions and lots of Vit K. Then about 4 am he started bleeding from the mouth again. The vet wanted to give him more blood but they had run out. So one of the nurses went home and got her dog and brought it in to donate blood so that Marley could live. I couldn't believe all this was happening and how much they all became attached to Marley. It's like everyone was pulling for him.
Marley eventually pulled through, the fighter that he is. He was sent home two days later and his blood count kept rising and just yesterday I got the final test back that his coagulation has returned to normal and he is fully recovered. He still gets 4 Vit K pills per day (down from 8) and he sleeps a bit more than normal but he's bulking up again, eating like a horse, and back to his usual naughtiness.
So it's Official: Marley is better. I'm so happy, he had just turned 2 and was just leaving that whole bad puppy thing that is so typical of Labs behind (actually thats how he got into the poison, because I was giving him more freedom and hence access to the shed). I was so heartbroken that his life was going to be cut short so early but it looks like he is gonna be my pal for a good few more years to come!
Just a warning to anyone who has a rat problem: take a lesson from my stupidity: rat poison is fatal to animals, and you definately wouldn't want your kids getting at it. If you really need to kill them, use the traditional old rat trap. Believe me, a broken neck (basically an instant death) is to me far more humane than that poison.
Well I don't know if I posted about this because I've been limiting my online time...but I've got a story to tell..
But a few weeks back my 2 yr old lab X named Marley (yes, after Bob lol) got into the shed and ate RAT POISONING. I think it must've happened around a Monday or Tuesday...anyways by Wednesday he wasn't eating a thing..well he sometimes does this hunger strike thing in protest over dry dog food, so usually I just stick it out and let him get hungry enough to eat again, which *normally* works out fine. But in this case he just didn't eat for days. Then by Friday he started dry vomiting so I took him to the vet, and the vet thought he might have a stomach virus, and prescribed anti-biotics. Well that just made the problem worse, so that night I stayed up with him as long as I could and fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up he was passed out on the floor with a large pool of blood coming out of his mouth. I tried to wake him but all he could do was open his eyes and twitch his tail a bit, couldn't even lift his head up or stand up.
So I gathered him up and took him to the emergency animal hospital, where they did some tests and determined that his blood was super thin and his blood count was almost nil. In other words he was on death's door. The only thing that could be possible is poisoning, and they asked me if we had laid any rat poisoning on our property anywhere (which we had, in the shed). If anyone knows what Wayfarin does, imagine that done to your dog. Now that I've seen it first hand, I don't even believe a rat deserves that kind of death. It slowly thins the blood and then induces internal hemoragging until the animal is dead. Have you ever seen what a rat looks like that has died from it? Well by Saturday night Marley was close to that. His body was shrivelled, basically skin and bones, and his head looked like it was shrinking around his skull.
They said that if I didn't act fast, he was a goner. And it wasn't going to be a pretty death either. I had the choice to order massive blood transfusions and Vitamin K shots to try and get his blood system working again. They gave him a 40% chance of living, but if he did, a 100% chance of a full recovery. The only catch: it was gonna cost like mucho $$. College fund - style $$. It was surreal how they put it to me, like an option or something. I think I got a flash of what private health care for humans would be like. At any rate this was not a natural happening and I just couldn't bear to see him suffer or put him down for what basically amounted to our negligence, so I went ahead with the treatment. They gave him 2 transfusions and lots of Vit K. Then about 4 am he started bleeding from the mouth again. The vet wanted to give him more blood but they had run out. So one of the nurses went home and got her dog and brought it in to donate blood so that Marley could live. I couldn't believe all this was happening and how much they all became attached to Marley. It's like everyone was pulling for him.
Marley eventually pulled through, the fighter that he is. He was sent home two days later and his blood count kept rising and just yesterday I got the final test back that his coagulation has returned to normal and he is fully recovered. He still gets 4 Vit K pills per day (down from 8) and he sleeps a bit more than normal but he's bulking up again, eating like a horse, and back to his usual naughtiness.
So it's Official: Marley is better. I'm so happy, he had just turned 2 and was just leaving that whole bad puppy thing that is so typical of Labs behind (actually thats how he got into the poison, because I was giving him more freedom and hence access to the shed). I was so heartbroken that his life was going to be cut short so early but it looks like he is gonna be my pal for a good few more years to come!
Just a warning to anyone who has a rat problem: take a lesson from my stupidity: rat poison is fatal to animals, and you definately wouldn't want your kids getting at it. If you really need to kill them, use the traditional old rat trap. Believe me, a broken neck (basically an instant death) is to me far more humane than that poison.
for the vet employee and her dog.
