Nicotine poisoning

I almost didn't post this; I'm so ashamed. But maybe it will serve as a warning to others.

My daughter and husband are quitting smoking using those nicotine lozenges. I have lectured them on not leaving the bottles where Nell can get to them. Well at 730 tonight, she managed to pull a box down off the dresser and ate about 10 2mg pills. Fortunately my daughter caught her in the act. So I dialed the poison control hotline for animals while I located the bottle of peroxide. It seemed like forever before I got through the phone maze. Long story short, she was given 2 doses of peroxide and she vomited up her dinner (eaten an hour before the incident), cappuchino-flavored nicotine pills, peroxide mixture (along with, it seems assorted other foraged items). After sifting through coffee-scented vomit to count the pills (it looked like most of the pills came back up), I followed up with poison control and have to take her pulse every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours and look for other signs. Her breath still smells like coffee.

Not completely out of the woods yet, but getting there.

The lozenges are sweet and attractive to dogs.

Another reason to crate your house dog when you aren't home. If we didn't crate and she had done that while we weren't home we'd had a dead dog. We were lucky we didn't have a dead one tonight.

Things are going in the upper cabinets from now on. Not the dresser or counter. And more training for the dog so she doesn't think she can eat anything we don't give her.

 

Good thing you were there. Hope everything gets better quick

 

Glad to hear that everything turned out ok. Here is a site that has helped me out in the past http://www.workingdogs.com/doc0175.htm I highly recommend it!

 

Thanks Turner.
Her pulse has been a steady 112 per minute for the past 3 hours so I think she'll be ok.

I have raised 2 kids so you'd think I could do better. I try to see the world at the dog's level to envision what they could possibly get into. And still they figure out ways to sidestep you. Too smart for her own good.

 

wow..sorry to hear bout this...on the flip note, great thing yall reacted pretty quick . Keep us updated on her progress and I wish yall well.

Cutt

 

This deserves a sticky!
I knew to keep peroxide on hand but I'm going to go out and get the other stuff they recommend. Thanks!

 

I had a friend who claimed to have trained his dog not to eat anything that wasn't given to him in his food dish. Anyone here done that? If so, how did you do it?

 

When i was younger and lived with my mom she had horse's she left the tack room door open.Well my 45lb APBT climbed in there and ate a 1 pound block of rat poision "the green stuff comes in a big block" she caught him just as he was finishing up ,I was able to get him to the vet in time they pumped his stomach and he was fine the next day.Damn dogs will get into everthing.

 

P.S when that happend the peroxide didn't work ,vet said alot bulldogs will fight the vomiting cause they'er so stong willed

 

Very good point. I'm gonna check for an extra hour or so in just in case. Then I'll check her first thing when I get up at 0430.

 

Looks like she is fine ! She had no problems last night and you can't tell anything happened at all except she is a litlle shy of coming into to the area of the kitchen where I was dosing her with the peroxide.

Thanks for all your support last night! I'm going to update my first aid kit with some of the items from that website.

 

thats awesome; I did learn from this expericience also. Thanx

Cutt-

 

Good to hear she is doin alright. We all know that accidents happen. Heck, they're dogs, can't control them every second!! lol

 

Good job on a fast reaction! When I was a vet tech I saw dogs die from eating a few cigarettes. Nicotine poisoning is scary!
I have many dogs that fight peroxide, a good alternative is table salt. I have one dog in particular that the only thing that will work is salt. You get the salt box and pour it in the back of the mouth. It foams in the stomach causing them to vomit.

Use it as a learning experience you did the right thing. We can't all be perfect and this is how we learn. It looks like the forum has many of those this past week but what really makes the difference is you learn from them Happy she is ok, little trouble maker

 

NELL BELL:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I am soooo glad you posted this despite your embarassment. My 50+ pound German Shepherd just got into my Lozenges and I had NO idea that they were POISONESS. The bottle says "may...make...sick" NOT "may die."

You should have seen me trying to force feed her grass before I looked this up. I wasn't sure if by peroxide you meant hydrogen peroxide or if there was a different kind (diluted, or something). I went with the salt. The salt worked like a champ in about 5-10 minutes. My poor baby had just eaten her dinner before hand. I've never seen her throw up so much.

I'm going to keep an eye on her and make sure she's good. But seriously, I can not thank you enough. I almost didn't catch her and I don't know what would have happened if I had gone to bed not knowing what she did.

THANK THE POWERS THAT BE FOR THE INTERNET.

 

Looks like this thread served a purpose