The weekend was a busy one for all of us, but not stressful busy, good busy. For the most part. That’s why I will need more than one post for it. So let’s rewind to Friday.
I got home from work and did some things around the house. We had a lot planned the next day so I wanted to make sure certain things got done. After feeding everybody I headed over to my parent’s house to check out some wedding décor my mom had picked up. Little did I know that while I was talking table numbers and candles, my Pit Bull was at home actually living up to his name.
When I got home Chaos was laying in his crate. His blue harness was still on like usual but it just wasn’t sitting right. As soon as he stood up I figured out why.
The little monster had somehow gotten his mouth under the chest strap and chewed it clean apart. I took it off completely to examine it and realized the metal and plastic pieces used to adjust the strap were missing. And there wasn’t enough nylon still attached to connect everything. Before I panicked I checked around and very gladly found both the metal and plastic piece in his bedding. But the rest of the blue nylon was nowhere to be found.
I had not been gone for too long so I knew the nylon pieces would still be in fatboy’s belly. Nylon doesn’t digest but depending on the amount, it is something a dog could possibly pass through. Chaos wasn’t acting strangely but I knew if everything made its way into his intestines there would be a chance it could get stuck and cause a blockage. That would make him sick and require surgery to remove. So instead I of taking the chance, I made him vomit.
Sure that sounds terrible at first. But if I could get the nylon out of his stomach there wouldn’t be any worry about it getting stuck inside him. I was sure he would prefer that option too so I got out a syringe and some good old hydrogen peroxide you can buy from just about anywhere. We’ve come to discover many amazing uses for hydrogen peroxide, one of which is inducing vomiting in a dog or cat.
The dosage guide I follow is 5 cc/ml per every 10lbs of body weight. Chaos is 60 lbs so he would need 30 mls of hydrogen peroxide. While Chaos is used to taking medicine orally and is pretty easy going about it, I didn’t foresee it going well if I tried to give him 2 and a half syringes full of icky tasting liquid. I knew he’d love some vanilla ice cream though. I scooped some in his food bowl, melted it a little and squirted in the peroxide. He licked the bowl clean. Of course that was the easy part.
I am not formally recommending this procedure unless you’ve spoken to your vet but it wasn’t our first go round so I didn’t wait to consult an after-hours vet. I knew that Chaos should vomit within 15 minutes of ingesting the peroxide and that I should try to keep him moving around. We played a little bit and it took exactly 12 minutes for him to stop and give me that look before puking up his dinner on his dog bed. I know, watching a dog puke isn’t the best story to tell but when he heaved again and up came all the blue nylon pieces, I was so relieved I didn’t care about all the mess.
I began cleaning up, taking the cover off the bed to wash and soaking the pillow underneath with magic solution and some baking soda. And then I heard it again. This time it was on an old pillow we have just for the dogs. Okay, no big deal. And then again. But this time on the rug. And then again, on my jacket. And then my relief gave way to a slightly melodramatic reaction that included me whining to no one in particular about my living room being covered in puke. But I pushed through and finished the job and made sure to pet my harness eater and let him know I was not mad at him.
Since Chris missed all the fun while he was at work, I was sure to recount the gory details to him the next day. Now Chris mostly seems to have an ironclad stomach. I’m almost sure he could eat metal and digest it without a problem. The guy can eat or drink just about anything and never have I seen him get sick. But even mention puke to him and he’ll probably start to gag. Good thing mom was the one home for that little episode or I could have been cleaning up both dog and human puke.
After spitting back up the nylon Chaos was fine but exhausted and snuggled into his bed for the night. I’m still not sure what possessed him to eat through his harness after wearing it every day for nearly a year, but the important thing is that he was okay. And really how could I be mad at this face?
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