Dog survives poisoning

By [ntapp] nicola tapp herald reporter

A THREE-YEAR-OLD chocolate Labrador has won an award after surviving slug bait poisoning.

Max has been nominated with the latest Braveheart award by the Veterinary Hospital at Estover.

His owner, dental nurse Emma Barrett, found Max, a 'typical big, jolly' Labrador, unconscious on the floor at his home in Plymstock having a seizure or fit.

Emma, aged 31, had taken Max for a walk in the local woods a few hours before. He had run off and when he returned she noticed he kept licking his lips, but could not find what he had eaten.

She went home and left him in the kitchen, only to find him 90 minutes later staring and frothing at the mouth.

"It was awful; I was nearly five months pregnant at the time," said Emma, married to police officer Olly, 29, and mum to their son Stuart, aged 12.

"When I found him it was quite emotional and I asked my neighbour to help me. We carried him to the car and took him to the hospital."

The family has had Max since he was a puppy and bought him just after Emma's mum died of cancer three years ago.

Emma describes him as 'one of the gang, so protective, a lovely gentle dog that wouldn't hurt a fly, and soppy'.

At the Veterinary Hospital, vet Jasmine Malm admitted him for emergency treatment and emergency vet Amanda Rock took control. Initially he was given fluids into a vein and anticonvulsant drugs to stop the seizures.

At that stage no-one knew what had caused the seizures, but then he started to vomit thick blue fluid and pass blue diarrhoea, which, with these symptoms, made a diagnosis of slug bait poisoning highly likely.

The Barretts were perplexed, as they had not used slug bait in their garden, but thought perhaps Max had scavenged it while walking earlier in the day.

Max showed improvement in the day following his treatment, though he was still on continuous fluid and anticonvulsant therapy.

After two days he was able to stand up, though very wobbly, but it took three days and nights of intensive care in the hospital ward for him to be well enough to go home. It was a further 10 days before his owners felt tha Max was back to his normal self.

"Amanda, the vet, was absolutely amazing," said Emma.

"He was sedated for days because he was fitting and she prepared us for the worst. They were as amazed as we were that he pulled through, and told us that 99 per cent of the dogs with that kind of poisoning don't.

"We're just so lucky to still have him."