Raisins & Spice Oatmeal and The Topaz (Raisin / Grape Toxicity)

Today while my husband drove me to work, Mr. Topaz decided to help himself to a box of dry Quaker Raisins and Spice Oatmeal.

I was busy first thing when I got to work and when I got back to my desk I had 2 missed calls and a couple of missed txt messages from the hubbs saying that Topaz got into the oatmeal, which, mind you, was on the counter.

I knew he had bought 2 kinds…Apples and Cinnamon and Raisins and Spice. I asked which kind and said a small prayer that it was the Apple kind. He said apple…I asked are you sure. He went to check.

Nope…Raisins and Spice.

So I told him to call the vet immediately!

Raisins are HIGHLY toxic to dogs!!!! they can die within 48 hours of eating them. ONE, yes ONE, raisin can kill a 10 lbs dog!

Grapes/Raisin Toxicity & Dogs – Wiki
About.com - Vet Question
ASPCA - Grape & Raisin Toxicity in Dogs
Snopes - Dogs & Raisins
ASPCA - The Wrath of Grapes

If you click on the links above, or Google “raisin toxicity in dogs” you’ll find plenty of information about how grapes and raisins are bad and lethal for dogs.

Anyway, back to Topaz…so the vet says to either bring him in or watch him. Well, no way I’m taking that risk and just watch him…so my husband takes him in.

They said on the phone they were going to pump his stomach, but I believe then ended up giving him something to induce vomiting.

He threw up there until no more raisins came up, so hopefully he got rid of them all. The next 24 to 48 hours are crucial. We’ll keep an eye on him for sure.

He’s acting like nothing happened…and whew! he has some wicked GAS!! omg!!! Yuck!

Other than that and a bit of diarrhea, he seems to be fine.

Needless to say, he will have to be locked up again when we are not going to be home. This was basically the last straw and something that we shouldn’t have risked with him. It was just a matter of time before he got into something that could seriously hurt him…and this could have seriously hurt him.

I am going to up his PB tonight and hopefully he will remain seizure free after this. We’ll see, I don’t think there’s anything in the oatmeal besides the raisins that can really hurt him…other than he’s been on a no grain diet for a long time.

Never a dull moment with this dog, I swear~!~

The Many Adventures of Topaz!

Topaz is a nut…he’s a bad, bad dog. And we’re bad, bad owners…we probably need to start locking him up in his crate when we leave, so I’ll take responsibility for these past couple incidents.

We were having a problem with a cat pooping under our bed. We nipped that in the bud by putting a litterbox in our bedroom. Funnily, she stopped pooping under our bed that SAME day! lol I guess it was a litterbox location issue. Ok, getting off topic…anyways, so Topaz got into the litterbox on Monday and had a little kitty snacks from there.

He was coughing a bit that night and so we kept an eye on him and I gave him an extra 1/4 PB that night.

Well, my husband and I come home today from my job and Onyx meets us at the door…no Topaz. I call him…no Topaz. OMG where is he! I was SOOOO worried he was laying dead somewhere in the house! I check the back of the house, thinking maybe he locked himself in the bathroom and notice some movement by the 3rd bedroom’s CLOSED door.

This door is never closed, it’s rigged to stay open because that’s where we keep the rest of the litterboxes. So I open the door and out trots Topaz and two of the (baddest) boy kitties!

The opening to get into that room is 6-8 inches. Topaz is 65 lbs and not a small dog…the freezer is RIGHT by the door. How he squeezed his big ole puppa body in there, I’ll never know! But he did.

AND there was a case of chicken necks (40#) sitting on the top of the freezer…of COURSE he had gotten into those. Not sure how much of it he ate, they are still pretty frozen! The rest of the room was a disaster area!

So anyways, now he’s panting and kind of coughing again…I assume from the litter, but we’re checking him for signs of the pancreatitis coming back. In fact, i was worried about his temp and took it tonight. 101.2. He hated me too. Poor dog.

Anyways…I think I’ll have my husband bring the dogs the rest of the week when he drives me home…they do love a car ride!

Oh, and I upped his PB tonight too…I think we may have to get his cage back in use order. it’s actually in pieces right now since we took it with us to my sister’s wedding.