I love all of the pictures of your beautiful pets
. Here is an interesting piece of information I got and thought I would pass it along to the pet lovers:
Written by:
>Laurinda Morris, DVM
>Danville Veterinary Clinic
>Danville , Ohio
>
>This week I had the first case in history of raisin toxicity ever seen
at MedVet. My patient was a 56-pound, 5 yr old male neutered lab mix
that ate half a canister of raisins sometime between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM
on Tuesday. He started with vomiting, diarrhea and shaking about 1AM on
Wednesday but the owner didn't call my emergency service until 7AM.
>
>I had heard somewhere about raisins AND grapes causing acute Renal
failure but hadn't seen any formal paper on the subject. We had her
bring the dog in immediately. In the meantime, I called the ER service
at MedVet, and the doctor there was like me - had heard something about
it, but.... Anyway, we contacted the ASPCA National Animal Poison
Control Center and they said to give IV fluids at 1 1/2 times
maintenance and watch the kidney values for the next 48-72 hours.
>
>The dog's BUN (blood urea nitrogen level) was already at 32 (normal
less than 27) and creatinine over 5 (1.9 is the high end of normal).
Both are monitors of kidney function in the bloodstream. We placed an
IV
catheter and started the fluids. Rechecked the renal values at 5 PM and
the BUN was over 40 and creatinine over 7 with no urine production after
a liter of fluids. At th e point I felt the dog was in acute renal
failure and sent him on to MedVet for a urinary catheter to monitor
urine output overnight as well as overnight c are.
>
>He started vomiting again overnight at MedVet and his renal values have
continued to incr ease daily. He produced urine when given lasix as a
diuretic. He was on 3 different anti-vomiting medications and they still
couldn't control his vomiting. Today his urine output decreased again,
his BUN was over 120, his creatinine was at 10, his phosphorus was very
elevated and his blood pressure, which had been staying around 150,
skyrocketed to 220.. He continued to vomit and the owners elected to
euthanize.
>
>This is a very sad case - great dog, great owners who had no idea
raisins could be a toxin. Please alert everyone you know who has a dog
of this very serious risk. Poison control said as few a s 7 raisins or
grapes could be toxic. Many people I know give
>their dogs grapes or raisins as treats including our ex-handler's. Any
exposure should give rise to imm ediate concern.
>
>Even if you don't have a dog, you might have friends who do. This is
worth passing on to them.
>
>
>Confirmation from Snopes about the above...
>
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/raisins.asp
It was taken by a professional pet photograper a few years back right around the 4th of July.
