Sara Bell had taken her two-year-old husky Nilak to the North 40 Park Reserve in Delta, B.C., when he picked up a napkin off the ground.
“He just swallowed it whole,” said Bell. “So, I wasn’t able to get it out of him.”
He had done this before so she didn’t think much of it, until he started acting strangely. Nilak has a condition called Portosystemic Shunt which affects how his liver functions, so Bell rushed him to a veterinarian. Tests revealed Nilak had ingested and overdosed on cocaine. After some fluids were pumped into his system, he was okay.
“I was mostly in disbelief and shock and really, really scared for my dog,” said Bell.
She posted about it on Facebook, and couldn’t believe how many people said their dogs had also overdosed on drugs they picked up off the street.
“To have something like that happen. And have it happen in that many places, it makes you really scared to take them out for walks,” said Bell.
Mia Riback knows what that’s like.
A few years ago her previous dog found hashish at a campground in Squamish, B.C., and rushed her to the emergency vet nearby.
“I remember thinking, I can’t lose my dog, and I was crying the whole way,” said Riback.
Two days and $3,000 later, she learned her dog had ingested THC, but would be okay.
“Nobody should have to go though that,” she said.
Years ago, Melissa White also had a similar experience with a previous dog at the North 40. He was rushed to the vet and had apparently ingested cannabis. He’s since passed away from natural causes.
She’s now extra careful when she takes her current dogs out but knows anything can happen.
“You take your chances, I guess. The ER vet told me that this happens. He sees it fairly frequently,” said White.
The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association doesn’t collect data on dog overdoses.
Dr. Tracy Fisher, the CVMA’s president and also a small animal veterinarian in Regina, Sask., says she’s seen an increase in cases in dog overdoses in her practice. She says her colleagues say they have too.
“It’s a North America issue,” said Dr. Fisher. “It’s really almost everywhere where people are using illicit substances”.
She explains that the quicker you can get your dog to see a vet, the better it is. Especially if they’ve ingested an opioid like fentanyl.
“If they arrive in the clinic alive, we have probably a very good chance of saving them because we’re able to administer, you know, the naloxone right away. We’re able to support breathing. We’re able to manage those things, manage the seizures,” said Fisher.
She says owners always know when their pets are not acting like themselves, and they should be particularly concerned if they’ve been out for a walk or outside. They should also alert the vet if their dog has ingested prescription medicine or illicit drugs they had in their home.
“Please tell us,” she said.
The Society of B.C. Veterinarians says vets are seeing more dogs with multiple drugs in their system.
“In my earlier years, I would see just straight up marijuana or occasionally something else. Now we’ll get the ones that are on amphetamines plus an opioid, maybe marijuana mixed in, things like that,” says Dr. Heather James, vet and Society of B.C. Veterinarians board member.
James says that’s in part because some dogs are eating human feces that are contaminated, particularly in urban areas.
If you think your dog has ingested something, vets say some signs to look out for can include if your dog is unbalanced or isn’t able to walk, if they are twitching, vomiting or dribbling urine.
“Dogs have way different amounts of receptors in their brains than we do, especially for things like the cannabinoids. So they will get way, way more affected than we will just off of a very small amount,” said James.
She says vets use human drug tests to determine what the dog has ingested.
“It is quite helpful because some of these drugs can be given an antidote. We can reverse them just like we can in people,” she said.
