Dog posioning or accident?

[msano]

Wondering if anyone has had anything similar happen…

Someone threw a bag full of something (appears to be cooked rice and something, in a shopping bag) into our fenced yard. Our dogs got into it and started chowing down before we realized what they were doing. Within a minute they were vomiting violently, frothing at the mouth and writhing in pain…nearly running into walls, unable to control their movements. Of course we were terrified.

It seems they vomited quickly enough that they returned to normal pretty quickly afterwards. We are keeping a close eye on them.

We’re hoping it was just a case of spoiled food, not anything malicious, but wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar?

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[grr]

I certainly would take them to a vet asap and get it checked out.. If there’s anything left from the original bag, take it and get it tested. Approx what neighborhood??

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[msano]

Hmm good question…I think we are classified as High Point? On Holden, near the Montessori school.

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[pigeonmom]

omg, that is horrifying. I hope your dogs are going to be ok.

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[grr]

hmm… well…Keep a good eye on the pups and keep us posted. 5 Corners Emergency Vets in Burien is pretty close..Been there a time or two :(

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[Mookie]

Wow that must have been really scary and upsetting – I’m so glad they are better now!

I agree with 1) keep a close eye on them and 2) collect anything left of the bag and the contents (even some of the vomit, in a separate container, if you can) and get it checked by a vet’s lab…hopefully it was just leftover food gone bad, but the dogs had quite a suspiciously severe and fast reaction to whatever it was.

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[Aim]

In addition to the above suggestions, please file a police report if you haven’t already. It’s always possible that this is part of a bigger picture, and each report helps.

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[Lena]

Spoiled food usually take awhile to make a dog sick so it seems like there was something in that bag that was a toxin.

Usually even most toxins take at least 10 minutes to an hour to start affecting a dog but it seems more likely to be that than just rotten food.

It could also be something that was caustic which would account for the fast reaction and the pain. I would check in your dogs mouths to see if there are any chemical burns or take them to the vet.

I would highly recommend taking what was in the bag in to be examined by a vet or turn it over to Seattle Animal Control.

Luckily whatever it was made your dogs vomit instead of staying in their system. The vomiting probably saved their lives.

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[Briana]

How horrifying!!! I agree with other posters that if you still have some of the contents you should get it tested. My dogs have gotten into rotten food (in the garbage) more than once and it takes a few hours before they get sick. And sometimes they don’t get sick at all, it seems dogs have much stronger stomachs than people.

I also find it suspicious that someone would throw a bag of food into a yard randomly. Do you have any neighbors who have complained about your dogs before? Or do they bark a lot? Not that they would deserve it, obviously, just wondering if maybe someone who lives close to you would have done it. I would also keep a close eye on your dogs, if it really was a poisoning then possibly the person will do it again.

Good luck and sorry that you had to go through such a horribly scary ordeal!

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[JoB]

the very idea of this makes me so angry i can barely post. i hope your dogs are ok today.

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[cathyw]

It’s happened here before and was discussed in this WSB thread:

https://westseattleblog.com/2008/08/pet-alert-west-seattle-dog-recovering-from-poison

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[guidosmom]

I am SO sorry. :( I am glad your dogs are okay. I think we live kind of close to you, and about a week ago I noticed a piece of bread stuffed through one of the bars of our fence, like someone was trying to feed it to one of our dogs. I looked at it and didn’t see anything in it (so threw it away), but really wondered if maybe someone was trying to poison our dogs. I hope this is not something that someone is trying to do. I am glad your dogs are okay!

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[homedk]

Just want to second the suggestion to report this to Animal Control. It will give them a more complete picture of what’s going on in our area (whether it’s an intended poisoning or not) & it may also help them establish or confirm a pattern.

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About 4 years ago, I witnessed someone in my neighborhood toss something toward the dog in another neighbor’s yard. The dog devoured it instantly, but fortunately whatever it was acted more like a sedative rather than poison… the dog seemed drugged afterwards, but was fine the next day.

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Besides calling the owner when this happened, I also gave a statement & talked several times with the animal control officer about the incident. He said that with regard to suspected poisonings or other suspected animal abuse, they’d rather have too much information given to them than not enough. When a pet is harmed or poisoned, many people are too grief-stricken or don’t want to believe that it was intentional…so they often don’t pursue it or report it. Because of this, it can take a long time to gather enough evidence to build a case against people that do this…

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[msano]

Wow, thank you so much everyone for all of the info! We thought we were being paranoid wondering if it was poison… very helpful (and sad) to know this isn’t a first in the area.

Right after reading this we filed a report with Animal Control, they will pick up the bag tomorrow for testing. We will also called the emergency vet and they gave us some good advice, and recommended we bring the dogs in for bloodwork but that it sounds like they should be out of the woods.

We will update again if we learn anything about the bag contents or any effects on the dogs.

Thanks again everyone. This is just one of the millions of reasons we treasure West Seattle and specifically WSB!

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[inactive]

msano –

Geez, that is so gawd awful and creepy.

Certainly am glad the pup seems to be OK. And, YES! Update here, for sure, so other dog people will see and be more alert to the whole hideous matter.

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[anonyme]

I just had a thought after looking at the recent break-in stats for Highland Park. I wonder if thieves target certain houses and then try to get rid of the dogs in advance of a robbery? What a horrible situation, I’m so glad the pups are OK.

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