<p>I came into the kitchen to find the empty plastic container that had housed an entire rotisserie chicken on the floor. Not sure which dog was responsible, I had to take both dogs to the vet. x-rays showed that the small golden doodle (not the larger lab) had ingested the entire chicken, almost completely intact! This required several days in the vet hospital with an x-ray series tracking the progress of the bird through that small body.</p>
<p>Alls well that ended well, and we still can’t figure out how a small golden doodle inhaled an entire chicken practically whole.</p>
<p>VERY expensive, too, I might add.</p>
<p>The worst thing my cat has ever done is deposit a mouse carcass in between some cushions on our couch.</p>
<p>Speaking as the mother of goldens: They can (and do) eat everything. One of ours is a counter surfer. He’ll stand still when I see him. I think that he thinks that we don’t see him. Never has eaten a whole chicken whole. </p>
<p>I’m sorry but the whole xray chicken tracking system…priceless. The poop and sigh of relief…expensive.</p>
<p>I had no idea that grapes were bad for dogs until we had to take the family min pin to the doggie ER (because she ate 20 of my friend’s valium tablets that she took to help her sleep–chewed right through the hard plastic case after having climbed on a desk to get the pills). I had time to read the literature in the waiting room which talked about all of these items that were poisonous to dogs. </p>
<p>As for the valiums, the vet put a charcoal slurry into the pooch’s stomach, kept her overnight, and the dog was just fine. I told my friend that she should find a different sleeping medicine–20 pills only made my 12 pound dog a little whoozy. I can’t believe that it could help my friend get to sleep!</p>
<p>I have an aussie who is just over a year old. By the time she was four months old, she had eaten enough strings, bits of rope, mulch, and stuffing from her toys to make a big light go off in my head – this dog would eat anything! I felt compelled to buy insurance for her – first dog I’ve ever insured, but I figured she would be the one to drag us to the doggie ER and cost us huge amounts of money. By the time she was 9 months old, she had eaten three collars off of our other dog’s neck, multiple (live) lizards, swallowed whole, a couple of dead, dessicated frogs, stuffing from a throw pillow, ropes from her chew toys, and several tennis balls ripped into bite sized pieces. </p>
<p>Buying her insurance was the best thing I ever did. She hasn’t needed surgery yet, perhaps because she seems to possess a remarkable ability to pass a great deal of fiber (in the form of fiberfill and other things), and an uncanny ability to upchuck those things she cannot pass the other way. A few weeks ago, she threw up two socks, which she had apparently swallowed whole.</p>
<p>Our only visit to the ER (so far) was for a broken paw she got playing frisbee. We continue to try to keep things away from her that she shouldn’t swallow, and she has gotten a little bit better about it, but I still expect to end up in surgery one day when she swallows something unforgiving. I think she is only alive today because we have spent so much time training her and taught her to “drop it”. We always know when she has something in her mouth she’s not supposed to have, because she walks differently – kind of a guilty “slinking” walk! She is a constant challenge, but hilarious, too.</p>
<p>Another thing very bad for dogs is asthma inhalers. My mom’s German Shepherd bit into one by accident and died. We always keep inhalers far, far away from the doggie gentleman. His teeth are sharp.</p>
<p>orchid_2010: i also have an aussie/border collie mix, only my dog is just over 8 years old. She also has a remarkable capacity for “processing” various materials. When she was a puppy, we had some wooden chairs around our kitchen table. Those chairs no longer have horizontal wooden braces. None! It was as if giant termites had attacked. We would come home to find little piles of sawdust under the chairs. </p>
<p>She now will get hold of something she should not (loves paper towels and tissues and the grand baby’s dirty diapers :0 ) and bring it to me quite proudly. Or, if we get home and she has torn something up that she has gotten out of the trash (if we forgot and left the bathroom door open), she has a blast picking up all the little pieces left on the floor and giving them back to us to throw away. And at Christmas, when we are opening presents, she LOVES getting to pick up the discarded wrapping paper and put it in a garbage bag. </p>
<p>She really is better, though. Never tears up cushions or anything like that. Just the occasional sock or dish cloth that we forget to put up where she cannot get to it. </p>
<p>I have laughed until I cried reading these! </p>
<p>She’s doing better. Her blood levels are staying level so no renal effect yet (maybe not at all). At the vet today with IV"S. Should be the last day if number hold steady. They actually sent her home last night with fluids inject sub cu. So I brought home a subdued, bescraggled no longer white dog. She slept like a rock. </p>
<p>“church” mom – one day my son spotted our aussie with a dental floss canister dangling from her mouth. He told her to “drop it” and she did, but the dental floss was still in her mouth. He grabbed the floss and started to pull it, only then realizing that she had swallowed many feet of floss. He just kept gently pulling and pulling and had quite a pile of floss on the floor when he finally reached the end of the line. Thank goodness he found her before she finished the entire 150 yards of floss!</p>
<p>Fortunately, other than eating mulch, she hasn’t shown any tendency to eat our furniture. Throw rugs, however, seem to be fair game!</p>
<p>Our dog scarfed 4 large pop rock chocolate bars my D brought home from Israel, plus 1/2 a pez dispenser (yes, the plastic dispenser), and 4 sticks of pez candy that he managed to find in her suitcase. He didn’t get sick, we didn’t attempt to get him medical attention. But he did indeed “smile”. He’d eat a tin can if I allowed him to.</p>
<p>Peach pit puppy seems to have eaten a portion of a tennis ball the other day. I am on poop watch and just praying I see it soon. I really don’t think I can handle another recovery of having his belly opened. His hip surgery is scheduled for Tuesday and the surgeon said if it doesn’t pass and he doesn’t get sick, he will xray him before surgery while puppy is asleep and see if he can see anything.</p>
<p>Well whether you do or dont think that grapes are harmful, all the professionals involved did. So I took no chances. Her blood levels are fine, so we finished treatment today. I consider it an exhausting and expensive lesson. Overall considering the age of 2 of the 3 dogs, their health is good. With rare exceptions I have normal vet, meds, groomer and food bills. I consider it my annual entertainment, sanity, companionship and security fee… :)</p>
<p>I didn’t read all of the responses, so I apologize if this is repetitive, but one of the early posts asked what household product is used to induce vomiting in dogs - the answer is peroxide. For a small Snauzer a capful of peroxide is more than enough.</p>
<p>FutureActuary - Yes I was just about to post that. When one of our labs decided that she would eat all the (foil wrapped) christmas candy - I think it was a couple of pound-bags - that is what they told us to give her. The vet said they were less concerned since it was milk chocolate, and one bag was peanut butter cups. It’s the dark chocolate that is the worst.</p>
<p>We found foil all over the yard when the snow melted in the spring… ;)</p>
<p>This is slightly off track. Heck like most of my posts. When our first dog was a puppy, we had one of those two-tiered candy dishes on an end table at Christmas time. When we came home, the candy dish was balanced almost perfectly on the edge of the table and all of the candy was gone–except the peppermints and they were all over the floor with the wrappers from the other candies. She obviously didn’t like them. Maybe that’s why dogs have bad breath?</p>
<p>^^^I don’t think animals like “minty” things. Yesterday, my cat jumped up on my lap right after I had brushed my teeth with a very strong mint toothpaste. She sniffed my mouth, turned away quickly, and GAGGED! It was pretty funny.</p>