Pet owners worry after dogs believed to be poisoned by illicit drugs in New West park

Dog owners in New Westminster are warning others after a number of dogs became sick from ingesting what is believed to be opioids left on the ground in and around a popular park.

Resident Diane Gratton said she had to drive her panicked neighbour to the vet the day after Halloween because the dog had fallen ill after a walk through Port Royal Park.

She said after treatment for possible drug poisoning, the dog recovered.

“Our dogs were playing together,” Gratton said. “Suddenly, her dog had a full seizure and started shaking and couldn’t move at all.”

“Another dog also had similar (symptoms), but he was a bigger dog and had tremors, I believe, and the same sort of loss of control over their body.”

Gratton said it has happened in previous years around Halloween, often affecting puppies in the neighbourhood.

She added that now her neighbour is very paranoid when taking her dog out.

“We’re walking and she’s checking everything on the ground because of it. And the dog’s not known to be picking up things so this is why we worry.”

0:50 North Vancouver RCMP investigating 2 suspected incidents of dog poisoning

Rex Bai lives near Port Royal Park and said last Friday his dog became really sick.

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“He had pretty bad bouts of diarrhoea,” he said. “We were taking him out every three hours and we didn’t know what happened or where he was. We never left him alone or anything like that.”

Bai is still not sure if his dog consumed opioids but he has heard of other cases in the area as well.

Hannah Weitzenfeld, senior manager for animal health for the BCSPCA, told Global News there are not any statistics on how often this is happening but they have been seeing more and more cases of dogs being poisoned.

“We have a B.C. housing pilot program where we basically work to keep pets and people safe in B.C. housing buildings and we’ve actually seen it in about 11 of the buildings that we work with. So … it’s definitely not uncommon to see this now.”

1:58 Dog poisoned by cannabis and possibly cocaine in Metro Vancouver

Weitzenfeld said dog owners should just keep an eye on what their dog is doing and smelling, even if they are off-leash.

If someone suspects their dog may have ingested opiates, she said the first thing to watch for could be drowsiness or wobbliness.

“You’ll want to keep an eye out for any drowsiness, difficulty standing or walking or lack of responsiveness to commands. If your dog normally responds to commands, of course, but basically behaving in abnormal ways to what they would normally do in situations and slow or absent breathing is another thing to watch for.”

Weitzenfeld added that naloxone, which is used to treat opioid overdoses in humans, can also be used on dogs and it has been used in the past.

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