Wednesday, May 19, 2010

On the Wall


Sometime after I left for the gym and before Chris left for work this morning, Heidi found herself a little treat.  Carelessly left in a plastic grocery bag on the kitchen floor from yesterday's trip, our little old lady discovered a bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels, which I planned to throw into a loaf of banana bread I'm making for my co-workers.

When I got home from work this afternoon I became immediately concerned that Heidi didn't greet me at the door.  When I saw her laying on the rug in the living room, clearly seeing I was home and seemingly unable to stand, a little bit of panic began to fester.  I noticed a yellow piece of chewed plastic bag as I knelt beside her and scanned the kitchen floor as I stroked her head and scruff.  She burped as I gently scratched her, and what would normally knock me back in a gag of terrible death breath floated up to my nose in a cloud of chocolate warmth.  This dog was sick - still is.  I found the partially consumed bag of said morsels on the counter, so there was slight relief in the realization that at least Chris had discovered this mishap and removed the offending chocolate.  I carried her outside whenever she made the effort to wobble toward the door, but besides that, she's pretty much just been sleeping, which is probably best.

Chris got home from work while I was on the phone, venturing up the stairs where I still had yet to go.  When I hung up and he asked me if I'd seen, I hadn't a clue what he was talking about, but assumed I would soon find a royal heap of chocolate mess when I followed.  What I found was worse.  Not only had she littered the upstairs hall with brown paw prints from stepping through her own sloppy pile of mess, she had somehow managed to splatter chocolate sick, most likely from her tail end by the look of it, all over the wall at the landing between floors.  On the wall.  How?  How does an eleven pound dog achieve the height she achieved with some of that organic graffiti?  The angle she must have had to take...I just don't understand.  How?  And will I be able to scrub it off without repainting?  I cannot believe I left this poison in her reach, and won't allow myself to imagine the possibility of it causing the kind of permanent damage that would take her away from me.  So we'll watch her tonight and not fuss when she gets sick further, because really, it's my fault and I feel awful.

As for now, we've got quite a mess to mop up, so that's where I'll be until American Idol starts, at which point I will be sitting still for a whole hour without thinking.    

2 comments:

  1. Oh man Lindsey. This is SO not your week. I suggest just curling up with the dog tomorrow and staying inside! Not like the weather is worth going out for anyway.

    Dogs don't handle theobromine - the ingredient in chocolate - well at all. They can't metabolize it. Good news is that most American chocolate isn't really chocolate in that it doesn't have as much of the theobromine as the "real" good stuff.

    However - yeah - she is a small dog. And might she have gotten some of the plastic bag too? The poop and vomit are good but...if she isn't feeling better this really IS something to take her to the vet for. She is small and ate a lot. They would give her fluids. And watch for the plastic bag - can't see it on X-rays but can see signs of complications from it.

    Sorry, it's the vet in me. Don't want to scare you. MOST of the time rest and time are okay. Just do go in - there is an emergency place in Stuttgart - if you worry. Just because she IS so small and did seem to get so much.

    But DON'T beat yourself up over it. These things happen. You love her. You do your best. Can't ask for better than that!

    Take care - and do let me know how she is.

    Christine

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  2. Call me! You'll want to hold off on food a bit too - water only if she is able to hold it down. Does she lick icecubes? ANd then SLOWLY introduce a bland diet over the next couple of days. Rice. Sorry. I sound like Gma vet over here. But we might as well use the 8 years of education that I am otherwise wasting!

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