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Living near one of the bike paths and trails that crisscross Danville proved to be more curse than blessing for one family, as drugs believed to have been thrown into their yard sent a beloved pet to the hospital.
Renee Morgan said she noticed something wrong with her 2-year-old poodle, Saydy, on Wednesday night after she returned home from work.
“She was acting fairly strange,” she said. Minutes later, Morgan’s daughter also noticed the dog’s behavior.
“I took a closer look,” Morgan said. “She was obviously sick, lethargic and shaking.”
The family took the pet to the Concord Veterinary Emergency Center, where she was admitted. Doctors were unable to determine initially what was causing the odd behavior and the dog continued to deteriorate, heart rate and blood pressure lowering.
The dog was kept overnight and blood work was done. Morgan said she was shocked the next day to hear what doctors found.
“It came back positive for marijuana,” she stated. The doctor said it was probably in brownies since Saydy also showed signs of having ingested chocolate.
Morgan added that the doctor told her such cases are not uncommon, especially in areas near the trail system where people sometimes throw items into people’s yards or feed them directly to friendly dogs.
Emergency Center veterinarian Dr. Daryl Schawel said that cases of animals being given drugs or accidentally consuming drugs run in spurts but when the cycle is on the upswing they could see as many as 10 cases in a week.
“Since the economy has turned down, we’ve been seeing more of it,” Schewal said. He added that marijuana is becoming more and more potent so is becoming more dangerous to dogs. Also when humans give drugs to an animal, the pet’s smaller body weight means it will feel the effects to a greater degree.
In many cases, the drugs may have been baked into brownies before being given to the pet, or sometimes medical marijuana that comes in a pseudo-candy bar has been eaten mistakenly by dogs.
Common symptoms of a dog that has been dosed with marijuana are a very low heart rate, low blood pressure, lethargy, confusion and involuntary urination. Schewal said in one instance, a small breed dog’s vital signs sank to the point where it was necessary to put it on a ventilator to keep it breathing.
Schewal said cases of this sort are generally not malicious in nature. He said his experience has been situations where drugs are dumped to avoid discovery, or people holding a party may attempt to get the pet intoxicated.
Danville police said they have received no reports of dogs being poisoned or given drugs. They said any person who has experienced such an event should file a report.
The Morgans received good news and bad news Thursday. The good news was that Saydy would survive; the bad news was that the bill for the pet’s treatment would be $1,500.
This is plain stupid. The Title of this article makes it sound like the dog was going to die from ingesting pot. The chocolate will kill the dog but pot surely will not.
I agree 100% with the above comment. This is another example of biased journalism. The headline should have read “Brownies almost kill dog”. How do we know that the marijuana in the brownies didn’t help to prevent the chocolate from killing the dog???
I agree, I frequently see dogs smoking grass on the Iron Horse Trail and it doesn’t seem to do them any harm, but I’ve never seen one munching brownies and drinking milk.
The pot did the dog no harm. It was the chocolate.
What an ignorant article.
HEADLINE: Pet Poodle nearly Poops out on Path, tests Positive for Pot.
Are we sure this wasn’t supposed to be in the April 1st edition?
How do people know that the dog didn’t react to the pot instead of the chocolate. Its true that chocolate can harm dogs, but my dogs got into some chocolate, 5#’s with no ill effects. I would not take it lightly if my dog got a hold of pot. I would rush him to the vet asap. I live on the Iron Horse Trail also and am always concerned that somebody will throw something over my fence that could hurt my dog.
“Dude — where’s my hash brownie?”
Who knew so many stoners read the Danville Weekly? Or maybe it’s just one, and he keeps forgetting he’s posted? Or maybe I should check the classifieds for transactional code.
Anyway, while it is certainly true that chocolate is not good for dogs, when you consider dose and body size, I have no trouble believing that pot would be a problem. Here’s a link to a veterinary website that concurs: http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_marijuana_toxicity.html
Under “Treatment” they write:
“If less than thirty minutes have passed since the marijuana has been eaten it may be possible to induce vomiting but after symptoms have started, the nausea control properties of THC make it very difficult to induce vomiting. Further, if the patient is extremely sedated, vomiting can be dangerous as vomit can be inhaled and cause a very serious and deadly aspiration pneumonia.
Activated charcoal is a liquid material used in the treatment of poisoning. Activated charcoal is given orally and as it passes from one end to the other, toxins are trapped in the charcoal so that when the charcoal passes from the patient, the toxins pass, too. This technique of detoxification may be used in the treatment of marijuana toxicity.
Fluid support and keeping the patient warm may also be needed in treatment. If the patient has lost consciousness, the more intense observation and support is needed. The chance of fatality is statistically small but possible.”
There were many, many news reports among the googlage — so Dude, think of Bowser before leaving your stash around, ‘mmkay?
Hey dumbass stoners. The article is titled “Marijuana brownie almost does in dog” Do you not see “brownie” in the title also?
And were you too lazy and stoned to read the rest of the article?
1,500.00 is not all that bad, seriously, at least the dog lived. My girlfriend paid the Adobe Animal Hospital in Los Altos 600.00 to have her Chinchillas molars filed and they killed the Chinchilla! I could have done that with my dad’s pick up truck.
Attention stoners:
from now on throw all your brownies and pot into my backyard…..
I put my favourite furry friend through a similar ordeal to the little poodle in the article. I disposed of spent leaf after extracting the goodness from it (obviously not all the goodness) on a plant in the back yard. My litte mate obviously liked the buttery smell and gobbled it all up. I worked this out after quite a while when I had already admitted him to the local vet after finding him with very similar symtoms as described in the artice. Note, there was no choclate involved in this case. Once I worked out what had happened I went back embarassed to the Vet and explained what had happenend and asked for his release. He was already improving after one hour and by the time I got him home he was happy and very hungry.
Hi Dogboy,
I’m very glad that things worked out for your dog. However, I would hazard a guess that when you got him back home, he was more than hungry – I’ll bet he had a serious case of the flaming munchies!!
It amazes me how many of you refuse to see the value in this article?? are all of you stoned??
Yes.. chocolate can be lethal…but the combination is worse!!
Perhaps it is humourous to ‘play’ the story out in your head…but think of the consequences of this poor defenseless animal…or worse yet…unexpecting child consuming some ignorant stoners stash!!!
I think the article brings attention to a situation that we should be aware of…in our own backyard!!
I live near a trail…and will keep my eyes open for this…Thank you!
Thank god he took his pet to the vet and sought care. However blaming misc “people on the Iron Horse Trail” is hardly the norm. It usuallly turns out that someone in the household is less than truthful about their recreational activities!!!!!!!! So remember anything in excess can kill, be it dog or man.
I happen to know this person and her family. They do not have a ‘hidden stash’ nor would they have reported the incident to the paper…out of concern for others… if they were guilty!!Think about that??
She is an outstanding citizen in the Danville community whom just happened to have her dog and family’s privacy violated!!
Perhaps we should just be aware and know this can happen in our respectful community and to our family and pet!!
I am a vet…and have seen several cases of dogs consuming marijuana…not all from the owners..more the norm is by someone throwing their ‘stash’ away. We have had cases from Moraga to outer areas..this does happen…no dog has died(as of yet) from consuming…but it is unfair to the owner of the pet who has to watch their pet come off the drug!! Especially when they were taking the dog for a walk or in the safety of it’s own yard!!
We all need to be ‘aware’ pet owners.
I bet 20 bucks it was from their own house…how old is the daughter?…
I am always amazed by the rudeness on anonymous message boards. Teacher I would take that bet, any day of the week and twice on Sunday. And if that’s how you view other people’s children, with automatic assumptions on zero data, I sincerely hope you are not my child’s teacher.
I work in an animal ER and we actually see this more than you’d think. It’s true the combination of chocolate and pot is a bad one and can cause serious trouble for the animal. So treat your stash like the dangerous substance that it is for your animal and don’t let them get into it.
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