Damn Dogs

Ok..it's 1:43 in the morning and I'm still up. Not (as I would have liked it) returning home from a night out on the town with friends, but cleaning up after the dogs and watching for any signs of illness.

The night started out well. A rum and coke at Murphy's, a home Illini hockey game, and a late night dinner with Eric, Dave, and Andrew at the Olive Garden. Then I returned home.........
to find both boxes of chocolates I had received near Valentine's Day completely torn apart with all 25 remaining chocolates (most of which were dark chocolate) completely gone.

Let me backtrack a little-I have felt guilty recently about having to keep Oscar (my boxer) in his kennel while I'm gone, especially since that can be 8-9 hours at a time. So I've been leaving him out of his crate for periods of time over the last few days as a trial to see how he does. And as long as I put all food and trash out of reach, he's been fine. Well, I was in a hurry to meet the guys and have a pre-game drink, and had forgotten that I took the chocolates out of their storage place in the microwave without replacing them.

For those of you that don't know, chocolate in high enough doses is bad. Very bad. It can cause hyperactivity, tremors, irregular heart beats, and even death. Dark chocolate is bad, and European chocolate is worse (one of my boxes that the dogs ate was from Spain). And working for animal poison control, I tend to be a little more sensitive about dogs consuming things than the average veterinarian.

So, in looking at the mess of shredded cardboard in my living room, I try to stay rational. This is my job. I help other people via the phone that are in the same situation I was currently in. I start by evaluating both dogs...they're both as happy as can be, no signs of toxicity yet. Good. Breathe a little. Ok, calculate out the maximum dose of chocolate as if only one of the dogs had eaten it. Crap...don't know how many ounces each chocolate is. Hmm...could be a problem. Look up in emergency book that 6 oz of dark chocolate is enough to be toxic to my largest dog. Damn. Panic sets in. Do I assume the dogs shared the boxes (in which case, they would probably be ok), try to make them vomit, take them both to the emergency clinic for activated charcoal, call work and have them laugh at me because I don't know what to do, or phone a friend (in this case, Chuck or someone closer)? Damn.

I end up doing what any reasonable person would do. Call Chuck and tell him what happened. Decide to make the dogs vomit. Call another friend to panic/vent to. Go to the grocery store at midnight to buy hydrogen peroxide (very good emetic in dogs). Use the peroxide to make the dogs vomit (which was actually kinda funny-the dogs thought they were getting a special treat of milk and bread, then once they actually started feeling nauseous looked at me as if to say "What the hell did you give us?!"). Discover Oscar actually ate all the chocolate. Feel good that I made the right decision and plan to monitor him the rest of the night. Clean up the incredibly huge mess that all that made.

FYI-please don't offer me chocolate for the next couple weeks. Something about chocolate scented stomach contents just doesn't sit well with me.