Posted: 6/15/2013 8:03:58 AM EDT
|
So I got me a new pooch about a month ago, a 4 month old Rottie. He was imported from Serbia and is the son of Tito Earl Antonius, a Serbian champion, blah blah blah.
The little guy is now 5 months old, and as puppies go he is a land piranha and has to mouth everything he comes across. So in one section of the yard designated for the dogs, there is a grass area for them to do whatever they need to do, play, pee, drop dog rockets, etc. The beauty of it is they have an automatic door so that way we don't need to worry about any of the bobcats coming in or any other hungry critter looking for food, as well as it doesn't allow the cats to get outside since they don't have a sensor on their collars. Well, when I got home from work the other night I got him from his crate (GF goes to bed before I get home and we crate him to limit destruction while we sleep), so he can go outside and we can play a little. I torment him for about 20 minutes when he decides he needs to go outside to do his dog thing. Perfect, I am hungry, can grab a bite, then when he comes in I can get to sleep since I have to be up in 4 hours so I can bake in the sun all day. I hear the dog door open just as I am finishing eating. Thor comes in behind my chair and is doing something that I think is him playing with one of his chew toys. Turns out it is a chew toy, just not one of the ones we got him. It was a freaking Sonoran Toad. He didn't kill it or even puncture it's skin, but he sure did mouth it a bunch. I look at Thor and his mouth is foaming like he just ate a bar of soap. His head is cocked, ears up with a look on his face of "Dad, this sucks, but I can't stop". Crap! I toss a dish towel on the toad, grab another one and get it wet to wipe his mouth out, then outside we go to rinse his mouth with the hose. It didn't dawn on me that as we were headed out the door, he is licking my legs as if they were dog treats. His mouth still foaming, I get him outside and turn the hose on and start flushing the poison. After about a minute I bring him inside to evaluate him and to keep an eye on him. The little bastard can't stop licking my legs. Damn, it hits me I better rinse off because I wasn't in the mood to catch a buzz. I rinse off and when I come in, he is sitting up dodging imaginary UFO's and letting out a high pitched whine with each ducking of his head. I call him over to me and he was walking as steady as the town drunk on payday..... not good. His gums are still red, he is very uncomfortable, so I take him down the hill to the 24 hour emergency animal hospital to have them check him out. Once we get there I can see he is not nearly as bad off as he was when we left (about a 25 minute drive) but still wasn't taking a chance. Spoke with the receptionist and took a seat while I filled out paperwork. Of course I was grumbling under my breath at him because I know better so he should too, right? Anyway, the doctor comes out and I tell him what happened, what I did and time frames. He looked Thor over and said I did exactly what they do and that the Toad Licker (new name) will be fine but to just keep an eye on him. He explained how the toxins work, how they are acute and immediate and that if the dog is going to have a bad time of it you will know pretty quickly. The upside is the doctor told me just to fill out the paperwork and since they don't need to do anything to leave and he will save me the fees. Wow, how cool is that? Lesson learned... when letting the pup out at night, watch him to make sure he doesn't get anymore warted chew toys. I wonder what dogs see when they are tripping? Enormous flying cats? Flying flea baths? Also a huge +1 for 24 Hour Emergency Animal Clinic. I have used them before to save the life of one of my dogs and these people are solid. A rare breed of people that only see our pets when they are at their worst. The employees/Dr's are awesome people, compassionate, and love what they do, and I am grateful they are near me. They also have 4 or 5 other locations in the valley and there is ALWAYS a doctor on location. |
|
Glad the pup is OK. I'm a vet and they actually taught us in school to use a hose to rinse out the mouth just as you did. Not many people would think of that. Maybe you should go to vet school.
007Kevin I'm not sure where you went but the only cause of hives I can think of is an allergic reaction, by definition it's an allergic response. |
|
Quoted:
Glad the pup is OK. I'm a vet and they actually taught us in school to use a hose to rinse out the mouth just as you did. Not many people would think of that. Maybe you should go to vet school. 007Kevin I'm not sure where you went but the only cause of hives I can think of is an allergic reaction, by definition it's an allergic response. Exactly! |
|
Quoted: Also a huge +1 for 24 Hour Emergency Animal Clinic. I have used them before to save the life of one of my dogs and these people are solid. A rare breed of people that only see our pets when they are at their worst. The employees/Dr's are awesome people, compassionate, and love what they do, and I am grateful they are near me. They also have 4 or 5 other locations in the valley and there is ALWAYS a doctor on location. +1. Have been to the EAC in Gilbert twice and both times the staff was very good and prices quite reasonable. |
| Damn rotties. LOL. Glad to hear he's OK. I've owned rotties since I was a kid and I absolutely love the breed, but damn, they chew on everything when they are pups. My first rottie dug up the vinyl tile in my entry way while I was gone for only 20 minutes. She dug through all THREE layers (I had no idea the condo's previous owners had tiled over it twice). Then there was the hole she ate in the drywall, the carpet board AND tacks, and the tennis ball...yeah, the whole ball. |
|
Quoted:
Hilarious and scary at the same time. What location did you go to, vet's name? We had a less than stellar experience with the 24hr vet we had to use - 2 trips in one night because they didn't believe the hives were from an allergic reaction. It was Emergency Animal Clinic in Avondale. They are amazing. Saved my Boxers life, but when she finally moved on they allowed me to bring her down. Treated her with dignity and compassion and they made a mold of her paw for us. I love this place, just hate the fact they are needed if you know what I mean. |
|
Quoted:
Glad the pup is OK. I'm a vet and they actually taught us in school to use a hose to rinse out the mouth just as you did. Not many people would think of that. Maybe you should go to vet school. 007Kevin I'm not sure where you went but the only cause of hives I can think of is an allergic reaction, by definition it's an allergic response. I can't handle the medical side of it. Anyone in that profession be it for animals or people are special people. My "special" is in a short white bus kind of way. |
I never thought of the toads.
|
Quoted:
Damn rotties. LOL. Glad to hear he's OK. I've owned rotties since I was a kid and I absolutely love the breed, but damn, they chew on everything when they are pups. My first rottie dug up the vinyl tile in my entry way while I was gone for only 20 minutes. She dug through all THREE layers (I had no idea the condo's previous owners had tiled over it twice). Then there was the hole she ate in the drywall, the carpet board AND tacks, and the tennis ball...yeah, the whole ball. My first Rottie, Zeus, loved to eat tennis balls. Only he would strip the green felt stuff off first. He also like to chew on aluminum cans....... so his dog rockets had a bling about them. 
|
|
Funny you should mention this...
Memorial day weekend, I heard my JRT outside whining... Go look out the dog door and see her standing up, legs stiff, nose into the ground. I ran outside, and yelled for my bro next door... He hopped over, and it looked like Thena (the jack russel) was having a seizure... never had one before. He held her, and we rinsed out her mouth, because it was full of dirt, and I was looking up seizures, which she had all the symtoms. I look up, and see something moving by the wall, I shine my flashlight at it, and it is a big ass toad... two and two came together, and I looked up desert toad dog... And find out it is bad Juju.. Rinse out her mouth for about ten minutes, and call the emergency vet. They told us to bring her in... god damn it. So we hop in the car, and by this time, she has calmed down, but is looking at everything in a new light.... Tripping balls! Get to the vet, and they rinse her mouth some more, and gave her some fluids, but not much else... she was pretty much back to normal, with the exception of being high as a kite. On the way home, every tail light that would go by was super interesting to her.... as was the full moon. |
|
Mmmmm....ritual intoxicants..... Anthropologists have long speculated that ancient peoples of Mesoameria used a toad, Bufo marinus, as a ritual intoxicant. This hypothesis rests on many iconographic and mythological representations of toads and on a number of speculative ethnographic reports. The authors reject B. marinus as a candidate for such use because of the toxicity of its venom. A more likely candidate is the Sonoran desert toad, Bufo alvarius, which secretes large amounts of the potent known hallucinogen, 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT). The authors demonstrate that the venom of B. alvarius, although known to be toxic when consumed orally, may be safely smoked and is powerfully psychoactive by that route of administration. These experiments are the first documentation of an hallucinogenic agent from the animal kingdom, and they provide clear evidence of a psychoactive toad that could have been employed by Precolumbian peoples of the New World.  |