In an Emergency, I Can Run

Today I found out that even though I am not allowed to run until the end of March, I could (sort of) do it in an emergency...

I haven't been sleeping well for a while, so this morning I was moving pretty slow. I also almost fell over when I got up because my ankle was stiff and today my LEFT knee hurt. Awesome. I finally made it downstairs, let Snickers out of her crate, and ate breakfast while job searching. About a half hour later I tried to hobble back upstairs to get dressed, etc. I noticed that Snickers wasn't in the living room like I thought she was, but figured she was just out of sight in the dining room. Until I got to the bottom of the stairs and heard the worst sound of my life: rustling. Snickers rustles a lot of things but my heart stopped because I knew right away what this was: an almost full bag of Dove dark chocolate. I screamed for her to move and got up the stairs so fast you wouldn't believe. I didn't even feel the pain.

In my bedroom I found a very happy Snickers surrounded by what seemed like thousands of empty chocolate wrappers. I screamed again and within about one minute put on sweatpants instead of pj pants, grabbed socks and shoes, and put in my contacts and ran back downstairs to find my phone. I dialed the vet while putting on my socks and shoes and they said to bring her. I grabbed my coat, keys, and wallet while putting a leash on Snickers and we ran out the door. We live close to the vet, and I'm telling you we were there in less than two minutes.

We ran inside and they took her right away. I just kept thinking that Snickers was going to die, and it was all my fault. I know that dark chocolate is absolutely the worst kind of chocolate dogs could eat. And she ate A LOT of it. This was bad. They took her right away and then took me back to a waiting room. I tried to estimate how many ounces of chocolate she ate while they tried to make her throw it up. Luckily about half of it came back up. The vet techs tried to make me feel better by joking what a waste of good chocolate. Not amusing right now guys. They weren't able to get the rest out, and the vet came in to tell me that she still had a lethal amount in her.

If you didn't know, chocolate is toxic for dogs. Dark chocolate is the worst chocolate a dog can eat. The vet told me this would be a totally different conversation if it was milk chocolate. Snickers ate about 25 1-inch pieces of Dove chocolate (5/6 of a 9.5 oz. bag), which is way more than a lethal dose for a dog her size (42 lbs. I think?). Even getting half of it out was still lethal. Chocolate also causes an increased heart rate, seizures, and a host of other problems.

As I'm writing this in the middle of the day (although I won't post until later because I haven't told my sister yet. There's no sense in worrying her when there's nothing for anyone to do and she has to teach.) Snickers has been hospitalized at the vet. They gave her something charcoal based to absorb the rest of the chocolate in her system and hooked her up to an IV. They think she will be ok, but they are monitoring her and she will be there until at least 7pm tonight.

Snickers is seriously like a child to us. She is so cute and has such a personality. She has brightened all of our lives and we just love her so much. We will be devastated if something happens to her. Say a prayer for Snickers!

UPDATE:  Snickers was doing well at the vet on IV's until she had a seizure around 3pm. She was still convulsing a bit afterward. I went back over to the vet and around 4pm they transported her to a specialist a mile down the road (they said she couldn't travel any further). I followed in my car as a truck took Snickers and a vet in the backseat, in case she seized again. They think the seizure was caused by the charcoal used to absorb the rest of the chocolate. This is apparently a reaction some dogs have. The charcoal was absorbing too much water and caused her sodium levels to rise quickly. They think this is what caused the seizure. At 6pm she was transferred to the emergency vet to be monitored overnight. We got to see her before she left and she was looking better than when I saw her carried, limp, from the truck earlier. She had a cone on her head and IV's all over. She was able to stand for a few seconds before collapsing down again. She kissed my mom and wanted to leave with us. My sister got there to see her too. The worst part of my day was having to call her to tell her what happened. My mom called the emergency vet to check in just before 10pm and they said her sodium levels were continuing to move toward normal. We will reassess everything at 7am.