Don’t Make the Treatment Worst Than the Disease
Too Much Salt is Toxic
This is a true story about a dog that ate some chocolate and how his well-intentioned owners nearly killed him by their response. The dog was a young Doberman Pincher who got into some chocolate on the kitchen table. The owners were not quick enough to stop the dog, but knew that chocolate could be toxic to dogs. It turns out that the amount of chocolate that the dog ate was not enough to have caused the dog of that size any problems. The owners did not know that at the time and decided they would make the dog vomit by force-feeding it a very large amount of salt.
Unfortunately, the amount of salt given to the dog was toxic to the dog. The dog did not vomit but began to seizure shortly after it ingested the salt. The owners then rushed the dog to a veterinary hospital where it was treated for salt intoxication. The seizures occurred due to brain swelling. The seizures were controlled but soon after hospitalization the dog went into kidney failure. After a couple of days of hospitalization, the dog seemed to recover until it developed fluid on its lungs (pulmonary edema) as a result of going into heart failure. After a few more days of hospitalization the dog was discharged to the owner on a medication to prevent recurrence of the pulmonary edema. Two weeks after discharge the dog was weaned off all medication and reported to be doing well.
This was a case in which a little bit of knowledge was quite dangerous. The dog went through a terrible ordeal that could have been easily prevented if the owners had just called their veterinarian when the dog first ate the chocolate. That is what veterinarians are for. If it is after-hours and a veterinarian is not available, clients can call Pet Poison Helpline at 1-800-213-6680 or Animal Poison Control Center at 1-888-426-4435. A small fee is required for both services but that small fee can be life-saving.
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