Poison scare with pet is a scary reminder about childproofing
We rid our house this week of yogurt-covered raisins.
The seemingly benign snack, an on-and-off favorite of my three-year-old son’s, almost killed our beagle, Chico.
Late one night this week, Chico managed to get into my son’s diaper bag, pull out a sealed Ziploc bag of yogurt raisins and chew a hole through it. When my husband stumbled upon him feasting on top of our bed, it was hard to tell if Chico had eaten two or twenty.
What happened next could be best described as pet pandemonium: My husband panicked, remembering a passing conversation with a friend years ago that raisins, grapes and chocolate can be toxic for dogs. He searched the Internet and read that as little as seven raisins can be lethal.
We had to do something. Little did I know it would involve making my dog throw up (by giving him 3 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide) and sifting through the vomit to count just how many raisins he may have eaten. Those were the instructions of the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, which, by the way, also charged my credit card $60 for the advice.
The final score for the three-hour ordeal: 49 raisins! (Beagles are known for their insatiable appetite.)
The next morning we took Chico to the vet to run some tests to make sure he wasn’t showing signs of renal failure. They came back clean.
We dodged a bullet on this one. Our dog is a member of our family, my son’s brother, as he calls him. But the scare served as a good wake-up call: We’re re-checking our childproof locks and making sure the cabinets are kept securely closed.
And we’ve said goodbye to yogurt raisins.
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