recovering chocoholic

 

Someone hit rock bottom this week and is now in recovery for chocolate addiction.

 

Surprisingly, I’m not talking about myself here.

 

I’m talking about one very fuzzy puppy who gave his parents a big scare and ended up spending his first night ever {and hopefully last} in the animal hospital(!)

 

 

I’ll set up the scene for you:

It was about 11 o’clock at night last Thursday. I had laid all of my things out for the next morning and put everything in my “pharmacy bag” I would need for the next 3 days at work. This included a HUGE Lindt dark chocolate truffle bar – because stressed spells desserts backwards and those desserts become very handy when dealing with the general public and their medication needs =)

Nick had already been in bed since 9:30 since he is now waking up around 5 am for work. I was completely wired with Christmas crafts and laundry all over the master bed waiting for me to fold, so he had resorted to the guest bedroom downstairs to get some rest.

I was starting to tucker out and decided to get my shower in before bed. When I got out of the shower, I noticed some shredded up papers in our bedroom floor. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the paper shred led under the bed and to my horror, I recognized the papers as the wrapper of my candy bar, of which there wasn’t a single crumb of chocolate left.

I knew just how poisonous chocolate is to dogs, that dark chocolate is the deadliest, and that my 11 pound dog had just eaten a GIANT size bar of it. I immediately began to hyperventilate.

I ran downstairs to wake Nick up with something completely frantic and incoherent. He didn’t understand, but surprisingly, jumped up pretty quick – I didn’t spit it out clearly but HE KNEW something was very wrong.

In a panic, I tried to explain to him what happened.

He was sleepy and skeptical once he was up. I don’t think he wanted to jump to any serious conclusions and he tried to reason that the dog possibly had not actually eaten the chocolate bar. At one point he said something about it “slipping out of the wrapper and he just chewed up the papers”. He actually got down under the bed looking for the missing chocolate. To his credit, there was absolutely no sign of chocolate on Hendrix’s face when usually the evidence is written all over that furry beard of his.

On the other hand, I was completely alarmed and waiting not so patiently for him to join me in my frantic panic. I could smell the chocolate on the dog’s breath. Nick couldn’t. We’ll chalk this one up as one of the only positives of the raging female hormones =)

 

Nick started searching on the computer for info about chocolate poisoning and I ran for the peroxide to try and induce vomiting.

{This only works for pets! Don’t try this on little people!!}

 

I got a dosing syringe that I had brought home from work just in case something like this ever happened {thank goodness} and filled it with peroxide. I needed to get at least a couple of teaspoons in him, but after only 1/2 a teaspoon, Hendrix, the 11 pound dog, was putting up too big of a vicious struggle for me.

By then, Nick had convinced himself with information from the internet that this might just be an emergency and was on hold with a 24 hour emergency animal clinic. They, of course, told us to bring him right in.

While all of this was happening, I had been running around in only a robe, hair dripping wet and freezing to death. I was bawling in fear and frustration by this point and was so relieved to hear that there was an actual open clinic and that it was only a 10 minute drive away.

I threw on some clothes and continued to bawl hysterically thinking my stupid chocolate addiction was going to kill the dog. Thank God Nick was there to stay calm and drive the car!

 

By the way – the dog had never shown any signs of being sick the entire time. His tail was wagging and he was completely content after consuming a delicious chocolate bar. I’m sure he was wondering why the humans were running around like lunatics so late at night?!

 

The result: the clinic had to induce vomiting 3 times to get all of the chocolate out of his stomach. They said it was a massive amount for such a little dog. He ended up having to stay over night since he had already absorbed enough for his heart to go into tachycardia. They gave him a couple doses of activated charcoal {which absorbs toxins in the GI tract} as well as IV fluids and continued to monitor him overnight. Coming home without him was utterly painful and truly sad not knowing if he would be ok :(

 

See his tiny shaved leg with a cute purple bandage below as the painful evidence of his trip to the ER:

 

 

He’s just a little “mangey” looking in these photos – fresh out of the hospital, a charcoal stained beard, desperately in need of a bath, a gangster bandage on his front paw, and in total need of a another chocolate fix.

It’s a thug life =)

 

Sadly, I’m pretty sure he hasn't learned his lesson. I’m “anti-chocolate in the house” for the time being – especially after this last bar of chocolate cost us $500!

Happily, he’s alive and well and worth every penny and more♥

I have no idea what we would do without this little guy – he is such a joy to have in our family and has brought us too many smiles and laughs to count.

 

We’re hoping to get the both mommy and pup into “chocoholics anonymous” meetings very soon!