Paint Ball Warning: Canine Consumption Can Be Lethal!
So, here we are in upstate NY barely a few weeks and already we have racked-up our first $500-plus vet bill. Yup!
My husband, in a blatant act of stupidity, (I love the man, but there is no excuse for this one) left a box of paintballs on the floor. The box was closed, but not sealed with jackal-proof tape, so the Girls got into it.
Let me pause a moment here and say that the Girls can get into anything! Franki, the hound, once ingested a Starbuck's frappucino lid. Whole. Uh-huh. At the time, our vet in Miami was disturbed as she could not "palpitate her middles."
We need to nanny-cam their furry butts because we are convinced they have an efficient way of working together to accomplish whatever the goal of the day happens to be: i.e. Knock over the garbage can, walk on the kitchen counters, snooze on the dining room table, play soccer with an unused toilet paper roll, really whatever suits their fancy.
Yesterday my husband called me to tell me that the Girls got into the paintballs. I asked him who did and how many were consumed and he said he didn't know.
I advised him to check their mouths and fur, and sure enough, Halo's tongue was bright, sunshine yellow.
Jeremy read the paint ball box, which stated that the paintballs are "non-toxic and "biodegradable," however, I was not impressed. I probably should have taken her to the vet right then, but she was acting normally.
This morning I woke up to pools of sunshine. Not streaming through the windows, but apparently ones that had streamed out of. er, elsewhere.
The bright yellow urine collected on the tarps on the floor. We have put down tarps in our temporary, rental home because Franki likes to pee on anything carpeted, and the entire house is. I ran out of paper towels, while sopping the mess up, and then walked the Girls.
There is no other way to say this other than to describe Halo's behavior as that of a jonesing crack whore.
She was CrAzEd on the walk, acting like she was hot on the trail of the World's Largest Squirrel, yet there were none to be found. She did not have a bowel movement and barely peed, if at all.
I walked everyone back and looked at her eyes and her pupils seemed smaller than normal.
I called the vet and made an emergency appointment and spoke with Jeremy, who looked up paintball toxicity online and confirmed it involves hyperactivity, shakes, tremors and seizures.
Ah, lovely.
I loaded Halo into the vehicle and off we went to the Vestel Animal Clinic, where they took her in right away.
The vet explained that ingesting those colorful balls messes up their electrolytes and that Halo was going to have to be flushed out via enema (three of them) and Iv fluids.
She is going to have to spend the night.
Poor thing.
Good news is we caught it in time as the seizures, which had not started, occur during the next phase.
Here is a sample, from the internet, of what paintball toxicity looks like..
Paintball Toxicity in Dogs !!
Spring…the season for paintball games is approaching quickly. Pet owners that take part in the game should take caution. The ingredients found in paintballs (which include polyethylene glycol, glycerol, sorbitol, and others) can cause serious health problems for your four-legged friend if eaten. Ingestion of large numbers of paintballs has been associated with pH imbalances, electrolyte disorders, neurological signs (seizures and stumbling), and even death in dogs. It has been reported that dogs have eaten anywhere from 400-600 paintballs at one time and although the lethal dose of paintballs is unknown, any ingestion should be considered serious. If your pet gets into your stash of paintballs you should get to your veterinarian immediately for aggressive emergency treatment. In some cases, symptoms start within 1 hour of ingestion. So if paintball is the game for you, be sure to store them high enough so your pet cannot reach them and don’t leave them unattended while playing. For more information please visit the following website: http://www.aspca.org/site/DocServer/toxbrief1203.pdf?docID=1521
