Important Reading For Dog Lovers

I gotta tell you that I am very skeptical about a lot of these things that come around in emails. There are all kinds of dire warnings as well as searching for lost children, etc etc that come around and when I check them out of Snopes, they are all "Hoax" or "False". I get so tired of people sending that 'crap' to me and wasting my precious time. Check it out at Snopes before you send it on to all your friends, folks!! Many of these things say Snopes said it's real or true, and they have a Snopes address link. People just accept that this means it's true and they don't have to check it out because someone else already did. I've found that some of these links don't even lead to the story in question, and when you actually check out that specific email, it's a Hoax.

Anyway, this evening I got one from a friend that I am going to share with you here. I checked it out with Snopes and it is actually true, and the link they give really does go to this story on Snopes. So, if you have a dog, you will find this very interesting. If you want to kill someone else's dog, you might also find it very interesting... but then, if you want to poison someones dog, you may need professional help.

It's funny that this comes out just now, as just the other day a friend told me that grapes are poisonous for dogs. You might want to pass this on to your friends, or send them to my blog to read it.

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Written by:
Laurinda Morris, DVM
Danville Veterinary Clinic
Danville, Ohio

This week I had the first case in history of raisin toxicity ever seen at MedVet. My patient was a 56-pound, 5 yr old male neutered lab mix that ate half a canister of raisins sometime between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Tuesday. He started with vomiting, diarrhea and shaking about 1AM on Wednesday but the owner didn't call my emergency service until 7AM.

I had heard somewhere about raisins AND grapes causing acute Renal failure but hadn't seen any formal paper on the subject. We had her bring the dog in immediately. In the meantime, I called the ER service at MedVet, and the doctor there was like me - had heard something about it, but.... Anyway, we contacted the ASPCA National Animal Poison Control Center and they said to give IV fluids at 1 1/2 times maintenance and watch the kidney values for the next 48-72 hours.

The dog's BUN (blood urea nitrogen level) was already at 32 (normal less than 27) and creatinine! Over 5 ( 1.9 is the high end of normal). Both are monitors of kidney function in the bloodstream. We placed an IV catheter and started the fluids. Rechecked the renal values at 5 PM and the BUN was over 40 and creatinine over 7 with no urine production after a liter of fluids. At the point I felt the dog was in acute renal failure and sent him on to MedVet for a urinary catheter to monitor urine output overnight as well as overnight care.

He started vomiting again overnight at MedVet and his renal values have continued to increase daily. He produced urine when given lasix as a diuretic. He was on 3 different anti-vomiting medications and they still couldn't control his vomiting. Today his urine output decreased again, his BUN was over 120, his creatinine was at 10, his phosphorus was very elevated and his blood pressure, which had been staying around 150, skyrocketed to 220.. He continued to vomit and the owners elected to Euthanize.

This is a very sad case - great dog, great owners who had no idea raisins could be a toxin. Please alert everyone you know who has a dog of this very serious risk. Poison control said as few as 7 raisins or grapes could be toxic. Many people I know give their dogs grapes or raisins as treats including our ex-handler's. Any exposure should give rise to immediate concern.

Onions, chocolate, cocoa and macadamia nuts can be fatal, too.

Even if you don't have a dog, you might have friends who do. This is worth passing on to them.
Confirmation from Snopes about the above...
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/raisins.asp