My brother called me a few days ago and said, “I have a small blog for you to write.” I tried to type the story as he told it, but he talks really fast. So this isn’t verbatim.
A few months ago, someone gave Justin and Carrie a few giant containers of meatballs and rigatoni. The containers got pushed to the back of their refrigerator and forgotten. A few days ago, Carrie decided that they probably weren’t good anymore, so she threw them away. The bag of trash made it to the door but not quite out the door before they went to dinner.
They came home to a mess and a bloated, unhappy dog. Jack had gotten into the trash bag and eaten the giant box of months-old meatballs and half the box of rigatoni. In addition to being hugely bloated, Justin said, Jack was “lackadaisical” and wanted to do nothing but cuddle.
They were concerned. There was talk of taking Jack to the vet. Before they did that, though, Justin thought they should try to make him throw up. This is where the story “goes to the Google,” as Justin says. The first recommendation he found said to put a teaspoon of salt on the back of the dog’s tongue. Jack ate the salt. He made an awful face, but he ate it.
Justin does not recommend using salt.
The next Google suggestion suggested giving the dog 2 teaspoons of 3% hydrogen peroxide — the stuff that comes in a brown bottle. The writer strongly recommended doing this outside.
Within 30 seconds, Justin said, Jack was “in the grass, puking like he’s never puked before.” He was no longer bloated, and he was back to his normal, happy self.
The moral of the story is this: If you need to make a dog throw up, use peroxide.
Poor puppy! My parents first dog, Pooh Dog, ate an entire pound of Russell Stover’s chocolates. My parents went on a similar journey as your brother. The vet told them to use yellow mustard. The dog not only consumed an entire pound of chocolates but he also ate an entire jar of mustard and was completely fine. This is also the dog who chewed gum, climbed trees and adored green peppers.
Salt does work, but not as well as peroxide. One of the cool things about being a vet is having access to stuff the average person can’t get – there’s a dissolveable tablet called apomorphine that you can put under a dog’s third eyelid to make them puke – it’s the weirdest thing!!
A tree-climbing dog? And a dog’s third eyelid?!? Seriously? Where does a dog keep a third eyelid? Do I want to know?
These comments have freaked me out.
Poor Jack! I want to know about this third eyelid, too.
i know nothing about third eyelids, but dogs are funny. they’ll eat darn near anything. ben’s dog molly ate a whole box of crayons when he (ben) was 15…she apparently had rainbow-colored poop for weeks. she’s not only still alive 15 years and many, many odd snacks later, she’s STILL trying to eat anything she can get her jaws around. there was this one time a couple years ago where she nearly chewed into a bottle of fiber pills…and the time she chewed into a bottle of ketchup and left red streaks all over ben’s mom’s carpet…or the time she ate a whole bag of hershey’s kisses, wrappers and all (that story always makes my fillings hurt)…
Shouldn’t the moral of the story be don’t let your dog eat trash? Or don’t throw away old food?
Zach’s started digging in the trash, so it’s probably only a matter of time before we have to see if the peroxide trick works on kids as well.
That’s what I thought, too, about the moral of the story. But according to Justin, the moral of the story is “Give your dog peroxide if you need to make it throw up.” And it’s his story, so he gets to pick the moral.
Fair enough. Can you ask Poppy what the moral of her story is?