A growing number of reports about pets being poisoned at Kelowna, B.C., dog parks and walking trails is causing needless hysteria, according to a local veterinarian.
“It’s creating a lot of chaos and it’s unreasonable,” Dr. Jennifer Watt, the managing doctor at Fairfield Animal Hospital, said.
“(Poisonings) are extremely rare. I have been working emergency for a decade and I have never seen a poisoning.”
To date, there have been three public complaints in Kelowna and police have been notified in at least two. The results of investigations have yet to materialize.
While malicious poisonings are rare, there are a number of edible dangers dogs do tend to get into when out and about.
“We see dogs eating compost, we see dogs eating dead mice and other dead things off the ground,” Watt said.
“We see a lot of marijuana toxicity, with dogs eating things people have thrown out.”
Watt said most of these things cause an upset stomach and a variety of symptoms that at times need medical intervention and the most common culprit is marijuana ingestion.
Get daily National news
“On a typical night, I will see two to three dogs getting into marijuana,” she said, adding that dogs are very drawn to the smell.
It’s something that one Kelowna woman learned the hard way.
Shelley Wood said she keeps a vigilant watch of her pet when out in public spaces after her six-year-old cocker spaniel Joey became sick multiple times after picking up and eating roaches, the end of a cannabis cigarette.
“On two occasions he must have ingested more than the butt of a joint because he had quite a severe reaction,” Wood said in an SPCA press release.
“Vomiting, losing control of his legs, stumbling, and having what seemed like tiny involuntary seizures.”
Karen Beckmann’s chocolate Labrador puppy, Daisy, had her first incident with cannabis at 10 weeks old. She rushed her little one to the vet, where they confirmed the poisoning with a urine test.
“My husband thought she was having a stroke. She was wobbling, her eyes were red and could not walk straight,” she said.
If a dog is exposed to cannabis – by ingesting it or inhaling secondhand smoke – they may display these symptoms:
- lethargy
- dilated pupils or glassed-over eyes
- loss of balance
- whining
- breathing problems
- agitated behaviour
- excessive drooling
- vomiting
- urinary incontinence
- changes in blood pressure
- abnormal heart rhythm
- tremors
- body temperature too high or low
- seizures
- coma
Signs of possible toxicity show up anywhere between five minutes to 12 hours after exposure. Depending on the amount of marijuana the dog has been exposed to, symptoms of poisoning can last from 30 minutes to multiple days.
Size plays a major role in how exposure to marijuana affects your dog, with smaller dogs being at greatest risk because of their faster metabolism.
Comments