Mishap #3 - raisins!
Do not let your dog eat raisins!
Cray had been with us 8 years and was firmly established as a member of the family, much loved, who knew the rules. Then one day we broke our routine...
Mike went off on the Dun Run, an overnight cycle ride from London to Dunwich on the coast. Nutter! So I said goodbye in the early evening, opened a bottle of wine and settled in for an evening, just me and Cray.
I spent some time at my desk, before I decided at 3am that, a bottle of wine later, I should go to bed. I went to get Cray outside, and found him lying in bed in the lounge surrounded by piles of raisins! Oh no! Mike had bought a half kilo of raisins for energy, then left them on the dining room table. Someone furry had helped himself when I wasn't looking... and now he'd thrown them up!
I started clearing up, when something chimed in the back of my head. Hang on... raisins are toxic to dogs... I went online and calculated that Cray needed to have eaten a few hundred grams. I weighed his vomited raisins (yes, really!) and realised that there were lots unaccounted for. Worse, I couldnt be sure when he'd eaten them and how long they'd been in his stomach. (Cray was nothing if not sneaky. He could eye up something for hours, before only sneaking to steal it silently while I was at my desk or perhaps answering the doorbell...)
I rang Goddards, the 24 vet hospital which is fortunately only about a mile from my house. I was expecting them to say "well, it's up to you" but they were quite certain "I would bring him in". They weren't just saying that for the income (in any case, Cray was insured) but because they believed it was necessary.
I'd had a bottle of wine. No way was I driving - even for one mile down a straight road. I don't take risks. So I called out the Vet Ambulance, which turned out to be a lovely man with a van containing different sized cages. He charged £60 to come from Clapton and take me and Cray to hospital. (He assisted the vet and took me home again afterwards, so it was worth what I paid. But I digress.)
The vet inspected the vomited raisins which I had so thoughtfully brought to her, and concluded they had been in his stomach a while. She weighed them. It was decided that Cray needed to go on a drip for 48 hours to help his kidneys while he processed the raisin toxins. Poor chap!
Click here for a pic of Cray in his kennel at the vets.
I visited every day, spending an hour in his kennel at a time. He was relaxed enough (though I was told he had passed multiple raisins from both ends...) and his blood results slowly improved. I could take him home after 48 hours.
Poor Cray. He wouldn't have learned his lesson, but we did - NEVER let a dog access raisins!
This page last updated: 01 September 2022
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