***PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST TO YOUR RESPECTIVE DOG LISTS & BEYOND****
I'm not sure how I should start this off, but suffice to say that I
hope that everyone learns from it, and that it NEVER happens to them.
On Thursday this week, I came home as usual, put the 3 puppies I have
here (Trace/Hannah/ Smartie) into their puppy pen so I could let the
big dogs out to do their thing. As usual, after the big dogs were
done, they all came into the house and I let the puppies out into the
big yard to play and explore with me as I go around picking up
poopies and sticks and stones before the lawn got cut. At 5:30pm as
usual, I tell the puppies that it's supper time, and in I go to make
up their dinner and they all follow me to the gate. I quickly
answered (an OK typed) email to a prospective puppy client while the
dinner is warming up, look out to the side yard, rap on the window
and tell them to leave it (I thought it was white plastic) and come
for dinner. This was a space in time of under 10 minutes. I go out
to the gate, and as usual, Trace is sitting at the top of the stairs
waiting for me and Smartie comes along staggering and whimpering and
can't get up the stairs. I'm thinking sh*t, what is going on here,
grab the 'phone, call my veterinarian, screaming at the gals that it
was me and I was coming in, that I have a puppy crashing and putting
Smartie into one kennel and Trace (who's fine by the way) into the
other. I'm running around looking and calling for Hannah and I can't
find her and not thinking that she was in trouble, I kept thinking
she's escaped (although there is no open holes or anywhere to escape
from). My clinic fones to tell me that the 'phones are being put
onto pager, and I'm just screaming that I can't find the bitch and
ask (I think it should be I told her ) to get Gywnne, my vet tech
friend to wait by her cell and I'll 'phone when I hit the road. It
took me what seem like hours, but only minutes to find Hannah, under
the porch in a very dark place behind the lattice work and I just
ripped the lattice work off, pulled her out and put her on the bed
inside my truck, and hit the road. What usually takes me 40-45
minutes to drive, took me 16 minutes with my flashers on, high beams
blinking at t
hose stupid people that insist on driving in the passing lane, and
horn blaring.
I hit the back door of the clinic with a seizuring Hannah and Gwynne
grabbed Smartie and we (I was helper only) prepped them for IV's with
a quick assessement by my beloved veterinarian Al. This clinic is
emergency trained and there was 3 techs, 1 runner, Al, and myself
scrambling to get these puppies stablized. They were crashing and
crashing fast. Protocol warrants Valium for seizuring dogs, so after
a quick weigh on them, Valium was given to Hannah through the IV and
whatever the prescribed amount was for her weight, a lesser amount
of 0.5mgs (?) was given, and as they are working on Smartie, I'm
with Hannah & Cathy (vet tech), and IMMEDIATELY she stops seizuring
and her heartrate is going down fast and stops. Out comes the emerg
kit, she's tubed and atrophine is administerd to bring her back and
after a few minutes she comes back and appears to stabilize
again. It is a given that her stomach needs pumping however at that
moment in time it was impossible as they were trying to keep her
alive. Smartie at that moment, is still with us and then I bring
Trace in for assessment and he is fine (thank god for his food hound
attributes, cause food is his life and thanks to his sire is probably
why he is still alive)...... ..and then
......Smartie crashes..... ...
When it finally appeared that things were settling down (a matter of
minutes, not hours), Al wanted us (Gwynne & me) to go home, look for
the cause and of course, Gwynne was to monitor the other dogs vitals,
just in case. We looked around in the area where I had seen them
playing for that brief moment and found mushrooms... .Gwynne called Al.......
The pieces we found explained the small piece (the size of an eraser
on the top of your pencil) that was pumped from Hannah's stomach. At
that time, they were being monitored and appeared stable and much the
same as when we left them. Within the hour (although my sense of
timing by this time was gone), Al 'phoned and told me what was going
on and that all his training, all his experience, all his energy,
could not save these puppies and that the best thing would be to let
them go. The decision was made to let them go as they were in a coma
and being kept alive by machine and human hands. There was nothing
else that could be done......they were just 4 months old........and
so I let them go.
So, from my tragedy, I hope you learn about these mushrooms. Of
course, we can't have our dogs living in glass houses and not be
allowed to be just......dogs. .....I have almost 6 acres of property
and 1-1/2 is fenced for the dogs and the dogs DO NOT access the rest
of the property. I clean up poop daily and pick up anything that
looks or could look to be offensive to the dogs. What else can I
do? I have never, in the 24 years of living on this property with
puppies and/or adults, lost dogs to this. Of course, when poop
scooping, like all of us, we get rid of mushrooms as we find them, as
a precaution, but to have this happen is a shock.
These particular mushrooms are not prevalent in this area. There is
one school of thought that they appeared on Vancouver Island in
'98....others say there are not on the Island. There is at least 2
species from what I learned in my research and it is not certain if
these are the mushrooms I have found or not. When Gwynne and I were
searching for the cause we found more and they were taken to the
clinic for evaluation. I found 6 or 7 on the Friday, none on
Saturday, and one today (Sunday). They are not dangerous in their
button stage as juveniles as they haven't developed the spores to
reproduce, but they will kill if ingested! Mushroom fanatics have
died simply by touching them, cross contaminating them to their
edible mushrooms and cooking those.
When in the juvenile stage, they are pretty much white and level with
the ground and they hide under vegetation which makes it difficult to
find them. I have had to rake the area north to south and south to
north, then east to west and west to east morning and late afternoon
to try and find them. I have not found many more. They were in one
general area where lots of sunlight hits the ground but with some low
growing vegetation that keeps the ground moist. Every one I have
found, save one, since the incident has been in it's juvenile stage
so they won't be reproducing. Given time, they will be gone, but
they could crop up again from the adults that had spores that I did
find or that the puppies had eaten. When the Summer hits, they will
go dormant and sometimes not always, reappear in the Fall.
I have been in contact with a mushroom expert and I am awaiting his
instructions. The pictures I have sent to him appear to be of one
species and their odour is nauseating. The link I am providing
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Amanita_phalloid es is one of many. You
may cross post to any dog lists or friends that you think may benefit
from this or if any of you are involved in a dog magazine, you have
permission to use this article along with my name.
Finally, I would like to send out a HUGE THANKYOU to my clinic,
Prevost Veterinary Clinic in Duncan, B.C. Canada, specifically Dr.
Allan Longair, Cathy, Gwynne, & Erin (all 3 are Veterinary Techs) and
Karen who was a big help in trying to keep me calm. They went above
and beyond to save Hannah and Smartie.
May the shamrocks fall softly, you two......Darkenwald 's Lit'l Miss
Sunshine (Hannah) and Darkenwald's Smartie Jones (Smartie); January
4th, 2008 to May 8th, 2008, exactly 4 months and almost to the hour
when they came into this world, they left it. Someone said 'God
musta wanted Hannah & Smartie back. When I figure out the reason
why, I'll let you all know......
Leslie Anne Davey
Darkenwald Setters (1968) & K9 Clips(1988)
Ladysmith on Vancouver Island
Beautiful British Columbia, Canada setters@shaw. ca
Leslie Anne Davey
Darkenwald Setters (1968) & K9 Clips(1988)
Ladysmith on Vancouver Island
Beautiful British Columbia, Canada setters@shaw. ca
Jen
"Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." John Quincy Adams, July 4, 1837
"You are truly blessed when your friends care more about your character than your comfort!" unknown