(near) death by chocolate

One of the vet clinic employees said that they didn't mean death by chocolate to be taken literally.  Katie and Banjo tried.  The first time I gave them free access to the house while we were gone they rummaged through a box and found a whole lot of baking chocolate that I had forgotten about.  I figure Katie ate at least 1/2 pound and Banjo had just enough to get pretty sick.  Turns out baking chocolate is the most toxic for dogs, 3 oz is enough to kill a dog Katie's size.  Lesson learned (by me, not them).

Katie was really sick when I got home from work.  There are chocolate stains all over the house as proof.  Our house smells like chocolate even though everything has been scrubbed.  Good thing the carpet is coming up.  I may never eat chocolate again.  Banjo was fine at the time, so I thought he might not have had any.

Long story short both dogs ended up at the emergency vet (first Katie, and then Banjo when we realized he was sick too).  They ended up being more worried initially about Banjo because since he didn't get sick all over the house he had probably processed more of the chocolate.  Stomach pumping, activated charcoal, iv fluids, sedatives, etc.  They spent the night at the clinic.  We were lucky, quite a few people who took their animals to the emergency vet last night lost them.  

This morning I transfered them from the emergency vet to their regular vet.  Katie wasn't doing so well, but Banjo seemed pretty good.  Katie was still sedated.  It makes me cry to see Katie sedated.  I wish this was the first time I'd seen her sedated, but it's happened before.  She slid from standing to melted to the floor in the back of the car in strange slow motion.  We got to the vet and they kept them all day for observation.

Luckily they were both much better by the end of the day and I could bring them home.  They're not supposed to drink much and are plenty hydrated from the iv fluids, but they're searching high and low for water.  I hate to deprive them, but I have my orders.  Oh, and as proof that they've not learned their lesson, Katie was already trolling in the trash can.  Crazy dogs.