Thursday 20 August 2009

I Know We Are, We Are The Lucky Ones, Dear

I took the puppies to my parents' house last weekend to let them run around the backyard.

The pups started chowing down on this plant. They could not get enough of it. It was hilarious.

Hilarious ... until we got home and the pups started vomiting. A lot.

A frantic phone call to my dad to find out the name of the plant and a frenzied google search later, I found this website.

I searched for the plant name (iris) and read that the worst symptom the pups could have was vomiting and/or diarrhoea. Considering that some plants can cause seizures or coma or kidney failure or death (eep!) it was like winning the fucking lottery.

I feel so stupid. I watched my pups eating the plant and didn't stop them. The situation was completely avoidable but because of my stupidity, my pups suffered through an afternoon of gastrointestinal distress.

The pups recovered 100% by the next morning but my anxiety level remains high. I can't watch my pups all the time or control every single thing that goes in their mouth, but I have learnt my lesson. If we ever manage to get out of our condo and into a house, I will be tearing up every plant on our property and replacing it with puppy-friendly foliage.

13 comments:

  1. Shoot, girl - don't beat yourself up. It's not like you KNEW the plants were poisonous and you let them chow down anyway. But I know how you feel. I let Tootsie drink a bowl of milk once (did you know that fucking CATS are fucking LACTOSE INTOLERANT?! CATS! I blame cartoons for my mistake, because aren't cats ALWAYS FUCKING DRINKING MILK IN CARTOONS?!), and she spent 3 hours barfing in the boiling hot sunroom where I had to quarantine her. Sad face.

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  2. I'm beginning to think having a dog is probably the best birth control ever.

    And seriously, don't beat yourself up about it. How were you suppose to know?

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  3. So scary! Glad the puppies are okay.

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  4. Luke loves chewing on grass. And I'm always torn between enjoying the show and wanting to stop him from possibly puking all over the rug later.

    Choices...

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  5. you poor thing (and poor dogs!) but omg not your fault. dogs eat ANYTHING they can find; some of it is bound to be not good for them. now that you know about irises you can prevent it, but otherwise you'd have to basically muzzle them to prevent them from ingesting anything you hadn't yet thoroughly researched. my cats are the same way. you think they'd have some sort of instinct to stop them from eating stuff that will poison them....

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  6. I love that song! It's amazing how different Bif Naked can sound from her appearance. :)


    What Alice said, regarding the pups.

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  7. Poor pups. Glad they are ok!

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  8. STOP beating yourself up. They had a lot of fun, and were cute in the process. They weren't seriously hurt by it, and now you know to watch out when they are chomping on iris'.
    The pups aren't mad at you for letting them eat the plant, so please igve yourself a break!

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  9. EEK! Scary! I'm so glad that they're okay! One morning I fed my rat a piece of super hard toast, and 2 seconds later he was choking on it in the corner of his cage. I freaked out and called my step mom (ex veterinary technician) at 7am asking 'is he going to die?!?!!' Turns out he just ate it too fast.

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  10. oh yikes, glad they're okay now.

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  11. Some dogs will eat plants / grass in order to cleanse their system (i.e., make them vomit). Our dog does it from time to time and I just trust she knows which grasses and greenery are going to do the trick.

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