In a 48-hour period last weekend, three dogs who are very close to me ended up in veterinary emergency rooms. It was a very weird aggregation of events – but each event was avoidable, and each dog’s owner has taken responsibility for their dog’s potentially deadly accident.
Beware of Wild Animals Around Your Property
The first accident happened to Daisy, my sister’s little 15-pound Jack Russell Terrier. My sister and her husband live in a rural area, where most of the homes are on lots of a half-acre or more. In addition, they live at the bottom of a steep hill, on a court with just five houses on it, and several empty lots. She sometimes allows her little dogs to potty in the empty half-acre lot next door to her house. The lot is, like her own backyard, studded with oak trees, but unlike her yard, is covered with tall grass, and the little dogs enjoy sniffing and exploring the area as they take their potty break.
On this particular day, though, what my sister failed to notice as she let the dogs wander into the lot, was a female deer apparently lounging at the back of the lot. She didn’t see the moment that two of her dogs discovered the deer – or whether the deer spotted the dogs before they spotted her. But she heard one of her dogs shrieking and as she ran in the direction of the screams, saw a large female deer rearing up and stomping down on one of her little dogs.
Like many of us, she was focused on getting to and protecting her dog, and failed to appreciate the danger to herself as she ran toward the deer. She said she was yelling, “Hey! Hey!” and about 15 feet from the deer, fully expecting the deer to spook and run from her, when it, instead, reared up and charged at HER. She screamed and waved her arms and dodged behind a tree, and fortunately, little Daisy took that opportunity to bolt away from the deer. My sister, too, turned and ran and, again, fortunately, the deer didn’t pursue either of them. I suspect that she had a baby resting nearby or some other reason to go on the offensive. My sister didn’t investigate further, as Daisy was still screaming – now in pain, rather than from fear. The deer’s hooves had made one very deep and long laceration along Daisy’s flank, and her face was bleeding, too.
A night in the ER, x-rays, pre-anesthetic bloodwork, surgery (under anesthesia) to close the laceration and insert a drain, antibiotics, and pain medication: $1,600. Nope, they don’t have pet insurance.
Don’t Leave Out Food Leftovers or Dirty Dishes
The very next morning, I received a call from a friend regarding her dog Nova, who was my favorite puppy from a litter I fostered last fall. (I used her and Nova to model for an article in WDJ not long ago, you can see them here.) She said, “I just need a little support. I am at the ER with Nova and scared!” It seems she had made barbequed ribs the night before, and had left the glass pan, covered with baked-on sauce, on the stove top, to deal with the next day. In the middle of the night, Nova had apparently knocked the pan onto the kitchen floor, where it shattered into hundreds of pieces – and she spent some time licking the sauce off of those pieces of glass! There was broken glass – and blood – all over the kitchen floor. My friend didn’t hesitate; she just put Nova into the car and drove straight to the emergency clinic.
The attending veterinarian used an endoscope (under full anesthesia) to examine Nova’s esophagus and stomach, and removed several pieces of glass – as well as several pieces of chewed-up tennis ball. She was incredibly lucky; the procedure took place quickly enough that Nova hadn’t yet vomited (which could have made the glass cause damage on the way out of the stomach and in Nova’s throat), nor had the glass hadn’t started to move through Nova’s intestines. The blood that her owner saw on the kitchen floor was definitely caused by cuts the glass made on Nova’s tongue, but none of those cuts (nor others in her esophagus) were serious enough to require surgical repair.
Total cost: $2100. Fortunately, Nova’s owner has pet health insurance. Since she had another vet visit earlier this year and has already spent the $250 deductible for 2019, she will receive a reimbursement from the insurance company for 90 percent of the most recent bill.
Nova’s owner reports: “I have learned my lesson; my counters are the cleanest in the county and there won’t ever be a mistake made like this again. Also, no more tennis balls for Nova.”
Another Counter-Surfing Case
The same afternoon that my friend was picking up Nova after her procedure, I received a text from another friend! “Ricky ate Chaco’s pain meds. We are at (a local vet clinic).”
While ALL medications should be kept in kitchen or bathroom cabinets – never on counters that dogs can reach – this is especially true of chewable medications. Most dogs won’t eat more than one nasty-tasting pill they find lying around. But the chewable kind tempts many dogs into eating the whole bottle – and that’s what Ricky did. He ate about eight Deramaxx pills, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) that can cause liver damage if an overdose is consumed.
Again, fortunately, my friend discovered the chewed-up, empty bottle right away, and drove immediately to a veterinary hospital, where they administered an injection of apomorphine, which makes dogs almost instantaneously vomit. So Ricky has (apparently) suffered no ill effects, and the bill was a quite reasonable $170 (no insurance).
We’re All Susceptible
Lest anyone think I am judging my friends: I, too, once had a dog eat a whole bottle of chewable medication meant for another dog (I wrote about that in 2013!). The experience made me VERY careful about where I put medications.
Protecting our dogs is an ongoing, complex task, and none of us can prevent every potentially fatal accident. But all of these were preventable – and my sister and friends and I all hope that these stories make you just that much more alert and able to prevent any of these accidents from befalling your dogs!
In case you want to learn about more ways to avoid a trip to the veterinary ER, here is a link to an article that veterinarian Catherine Ashe (who practiced emergency veterinary medicine for nine years) wrote for us last year.
I went on to read the article from the ER Vet and was surprised that compost could be bad. I certainly never knew that and it’s good information.
Hope all the pups are ok, scary how fast they can get into trouble.
Pet owners need to really understand responsibility. Let your dogs use someone else’s property as a bathroom is very wrong. In our Sheriffs SAR unit you always picked up after your dog even a hundred miles from occupied land. A park, preserve, or campground is for public use. The other incidents were accidents – but still due to owners negligence. Please be more responsible.
YES!! No matter where our fur babies poop it is our responsibility to pick it up!! I feel the lack of people doing this has made it impossible for those of us who do to take our dogs to more places! My husband is even known to pick up other dogs poops on our walking trails!! Because we don’t want to loose the right to take our dog there!
I feel like I dodge a disaster at least once a day with a house full of dogs (my own and foster dogs). I am currently limping after 2 of my younger foster dogs….60 pounds and 30 pounds ran into me as I was bending over picking up poop. It was morning and not too hot yet so I opened the gate between my 2 fenced in yards so the young dogs could have a good workout. They are fine…..they bumped into me and kept going……my 69 year old knee not so good. Thanks for all of the info about the deer….my husband pulls a garden cart full of seed when he is filling the bird feeders in the side yard (outside of fenced backyards)….the deer follow him very closely…I’m going to tell him to be watchful of the deer.
Dogs are our fur babies and need to be protected and treated just like our children. They get into things and are curious the same as our two legged babies. We have to remain two steps ahead of them and always keep in mind of “what if”!
Awful stories…and scary!! Good to know they’re all ok. Now…re insurance. I bought a policy for my GSD when she was 6 months old. Affordable and the same $250 deductible and 90% reimbursement for covered services. However, this year my dog is turning 3 and they increased my premiums over 52%!! Needless to say, I cancelled. I’ll be banking the payments instead of giving them to the insurance company PLUS another $30+/month. Insurance was a blessing. Being gouged on a 52% increase, not so much.
Thank you for sharing, I was considering insurance but not if that’s how it’s going to go.
Insurance usually is a poor bet. And the more needy the breed, like English bulldogs, the higher the cost. Since they are so prone to medical trouble, they might be one of the few breeds worth buying insurance for. Stuff happens…but usually not. Please check around carefully before blowing money on pet insurance.
You are SO wrong about insurance!! I have a 6 lb. Yorkie and I have purchased insurance for her every year since I got her as a puppy. Yes, the insurance has gone up, but EVERY YEAR, the emergency hospital visit amounts that have gotten reimbursed have far exceeded what I paid for the insurance. She eats ANYTHING and her last excellent adventure was eating a plate of Chinese food, complete with onions, soy sauce and hot sauce. I had moved the plate to what I thought was a safe place and ran into the bathroom for 2 minutes and when I came out she was straddling the couch and the table with her head in the plate. I immediately took her to ER hospital and they made her vomit 2 cups of undigested food. The vet could not believe how much food she packed into that little body.
Over the course of the next couple of weeks, she developed hemorrhagic gastroenteritis and pancreatitis AGAIN. All in all, this adventure cost me almost 2,000 between treatment, x-rays and tests to make sure that she didn’t have anything stuck in her stomach, like a bone.
I am now dealing with a partially torn ligament in her right hind leg that also has very bad luxating patella. I have to take her for physical therapy in the form of aqua therapy to see if her legs can be strengthened around the patellas to ward off surgery. And yes, my pet insurance will pay for all of it.
I say THANK GOD I have pet insurance every year. So, no, you are very wrong about pet insurance being a waste of money. If that is the case, then you must think that our own health insurance is a waste of money, since by your logic, “stuff happens…but usually not.”
I strongly urge everyone that has a dog to get pet insurance, because YES stuff does happen – a lot. They are dogs for God’s sake and they get into everything!
Our youngest BC used to jump onto our dining table looking for food when our backs were turned. I purchased Scat Mats, which usually are used for cats. They’re battery operated and give a small (adjustable) electric shock; about what you feel when you scuff shoes on a carpet.
I went upstairs to take a shower and heard a loud shriek! Puck has never climbed into the table since and the mats are no longer necessary. I felt that for her own safety this was a worthwhile use of a harsher form of training than I would otherwise use. While we all try to make our homes as safe as possible, it’s not always easy to control all our family members.
I had a mamma deer experience too. We saw the deer with her two tiny twins, waited about 5 min. before proceeding down the driveway, thinking the coast was clear. In fact they had not gone far and Mamma came storming out trying to stomp my little dog. She was screaming and snorting and putting on quite a show, her hooves drumming on the pavement around my terrified dog. I was somehow able to grab my little dog and head back up the hill … with the enraged mamma charging us the entire way, so enraged she was spewing foam from her muzzle. Fortunately, there were no injuries! You can bet I now give deer a very wide berth this time of year when there are apt to be youngsters hidden in the grass!
My reactive dog in a moment of inattention on my part got out and mauled the neighbors dog. I was able to separate them quickly and the neighbor’s dog ran home. The police was called by same neighbor. We don’t know if the dog is injured or not as our neighbor refuses to communicate. One moment of inattention has soured our relationship with neighbors to the right and left. ☹️😩
A friend of mine left a pan on the back of his stove after cooking a meal. He didn’t bother to clean it and put it away before going out for a couple hours although he had several prior incidents of his dog counter surfing and getting into food. Anyway, when he returned, as he approached the house he smelled gas! He opened the door, ran into the kitchen and discovered that his dog had accidentally turned on the gas while trying to get to the pan he left on it. His dog was happy to see him and suffered no ill effects (supposedly because natural gas rises and the air closer to the floor was relatively uncontaminated) but he could smell the gas throughout the house and it took a while for the air to clear. He knows how lucky he was there wasn’t an explosion/fire!
This exact thing happened to me! I left a greasy pan on the back of the stove waiting for the next dishwasher load and left the house. My son stopped by and the whole house was filled with gas also. My little Italian greyhound had jumped up and down and turned the gas knob on. We knew he had jumped many times by the multiple scratches he left in the stove’s finish. All the dogs were fine and I never ever leave dirty dishes on the stovetop.
I have a friend whose lab burned his house down that way. They lost the house but they all made it out, thankfully. After that, they put child safety covers on the burner knobs and so did we when we got our lab!
The deer attack incident was similar to a friend’s encounter last fall. Her husband had gone out to the pasture and found a deer caught in the fence by his antlers. He used bolt cutters to cut the fence and free the deer but then the deer, in its panic, turned on him, goring him in the stomach. Their dog, a GSD, went at the deer, who then turned on the dog, gored him and killed him. It was a terrible that an act of kindness could result in so much pain. Her husband recovered, but the pain of losing her dog remains.