Our Puppies- the Opportunists

We had to get out our bottle of hydrogen peroxide again tonight.  Was someone hurt, you ask? Oh no, our dogs needed to puke. If you are not a dog owner, or you own incredibly well behaved pups, you may not know that when a dog eats something they should not, you need to make them drink hydrogen peroxide so they will throw up the substance. Sound cruel? Maybe, but necessary when you are trying to SAVE THEIR LIFE.

This would be the second time we have had to give our dogs hydrogen peroxide.  The problem with having two opportunistic dogs is that you are never quite sure who the culprit is.  So they both have to get the treatment and throw up until their stomach is empty. After the episode tonight, I am reminded of our first experience with hydrogen peroxide….

It was a weeknight and I was making homemade pizza for dinner. My friend Beth had dropped their daughter off for a couple hours. While I was making the pizza, my phone rang and it was someone from work, so lets just say I was distracted.  When I finished making the dough, instead of putting it outside to rise like I usually do, I placed the bowl of dough on the floor in front of the patio door to rise in the warm sunlight. The dogs were no where in sight and I had covered it with seran wrap, so I was safe. HA! Halfway through my phone conversation, I heard a clinking noise – kind of like when the dogs are drinking water and their tags are hitting the dish. One problem – I was standing over the water dish and their were no dogs drinking from it. I instantly looked to the patio door, and there was Mia, head in the dough slurping up the last bits of the pizza crust.

I quickly got off the phone and asked Chris what I should do. I believe I said, “Mia just ate our dinner, what should I do?” I really didn’t think it was a problem, she just might have an upset stomach later. Then I decided that maybe I’d give the vet a quick phone call, just in case. He told us that was needed to immediately make her throw up the dough. Apparently when the dogs ingest the dough, it can rise, blocking the intestines. It also releases alcohol from the yeast which can kill them. “Is this common?” I asked the vet. “Actually, yes” he replied. Weird.

He then told us we had a window of about 30 minutes to force hydrogen peroxide down the dog’s throats. I realized we had none in the house and sent Chris running out the door to the grocery store (about a 30 min round trip). When he got home we quickly decided that we should give it to both the dogs, even though it was likely only Mia ate the dough. Once they started throwing up, it became obvious that Sophie actually ingested most of the pizza dough. Good thing we gave the peroxide to both!

Tonight, I had let the dogs out to potty and when I went to let them back in, Sophie was standing in front of the door eating a bag of pork/venesin sausage Chris had left on the porch (to keep it frozen? I’m not sure why it was out there). Mia was no where in sight, but just to be sure, we dosed them both with the peroxide. Turns out, Sophie was the only one who had gotten into it, so Mia had to barf for no reason. Sorry Mia.  What a circus we call our life!

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