Sick As A Dog

A few days ago, Kristi, Andrea and Julia were over for lunch. I walked into the kitchen and found on the floor a crushed pill bottle-my last stash of Diclectin (pregnancy anti-nausea pills). I weaned myself off of them a few weeks ago-I wanted to be clean when I had the baby-but I kept about 6 pills as a back-up just in case I crashed. Funnily enough, this is how I quit smoking, too.

Obviously the bottle was not crushed by human teeth and the culprits were wagging their tails at me. I decided I better call the vet and was imagining the cost of the bill in my head-some of you may be aware of the extraordinary bad luck Iain and I have with inadvertently always choosing the most expensive (medical wise) pet from the SPCA. I am embarrassed to call the vet because I feel like one of those irresponsible owners you read about in the bottom left hand corner on page 8 of the newspaper.

The vet had to call a pharmacist (apparently this does not happen to everyone) and she called me back and said I had to make the dogs throw-up (rather ironic considering what the pills are for). I had visions of shoving my arm down their throats to make this happen but she reassured me that 15 mls of peroxide will do the trick.

At first I wasn't sure how to get the peroxide in the pups but then I remembered they were half goat and eat anything (obviously) so I poured the prescribed amount on a piece of bread and they gobbled it up then we went outside. The vet said they should puke in 5 minutes and if not, to administer another dose. They trotted merrily around the yard, quite pleased that 4 people came out to watch them.

After 5 minutes and no results, I got the girls to open the dogs mouths and I just poured in the next dose. Within about 3 minutes, the vomiting began. It was rather humorous-they went from fine to heaving in about 15 seconds. They were puking all over the yard and if you know anything about dogs, especially Labs, they love to eat puke. We managed to avoid any re-eating of the pills and it was a rather exciting topic over lunch.

The dogs are fine but I am a little shaky without my stash.