If you have followed my blog, you may have seen that in November my nine pigs got into strychnine laced grain stored in the neighbor's barn. As a result all of them died. My best companion and mother of a litter of puppies, Kaboodle, consumed a part of a pig and died a few days later of the resulting seizures before I could make it to the vet. In September I lost a puppy to the coyotes right at the fence line. A few weeks ago, the resident barn owl had an errant flight into the barbwire fence and died.
On Friday night, I was visiting my sister a few miles away. I got home around 10:00 pm and was greeted by anxious dogs. My puppy, Moro the daughter of Kaboodle, was acting strange. She was yelping and crying. She would panic over what appeared to be nothing a sprint through the house knocking into things and wedging herself in awkward places such as behind the toilet. I had a look around to see what was frightening her and found nothing. Then it hit me. I knew exactly what it was so I loaded her up to go to Spokane where my friend was waiting to help me treat her with activated charcoal. Spokane is nearly 2 hours from where I live and is the only place with an emergency vet clinic near me.
As I hit Spokane the seizures and panic episodes got worse. She would sporadically bounce around my truck as I drove like she was possessed. But she was still responsive. I got to my friend's place and he came out. As he was bringing what we needed to treat her, she broke my hold of her and bolted. If you know the mechanism of strychnine, you would know that the victim either dies of asphyxiation from the seizures or from exhaustion. It is not uncommon for the victim's heart to burst from the rapid heart rate. She ran and I couldn't find her. After some searching I heard a faint wimper and was able to pinpoint her wedged underneath a car buried in snow. My friend reached in to drag her out and put her in my arms and we raced back to my pickup. At this point she was no longer responsive. She was not breathing but her heart was still beating. We raced to the vet while my friend gave random chest compressions in his arms when he felt her heart stop. We got to the vet and they rushed her back and got to work. She had a temperature of 107°F and was placed into a controlled environment cage which was pretty much a little refrigeration unit. She was treated with anti-convulsants, IV fluids, and muscle relaxers.
I'm happy to say that after 24 hours and a $1300 vet bill later she was back to mostly normal... I mean as normal as a dog can be after such a traumatic experience.