GRAPES OF WRATH!

[Chris & Boys]

Well, never a dull moment at our house. Last week we were on vacation with a friend of mine from Michigan and we had a great time. I was actually more relaxed than I had been in months. Yesterday I was getting a bunch of paperwork together for the boys returning to school that I needed to work on. I left the room, started organizing the papers in order of importance and noticed that the bowl of grapes that the boys were eating during lunch were gone. Wow, I couldn't believe they finished the whole bowl??!!?? Now wait a minute.......we must have had an intruder in our house......it has taken me 8 years to get them to remember to clear their own plate, I still haven't gotten them to clear other things off the table! So, I open the fridge to see if the grapes were somehow miraculously placed in the fridge, since I knew I didn't do it. Nope. The search begins...."Boys, do you have the grapes downstairs?"......"NO!"....hmmmmm. Yep, under the dining room table, one extremely empty bowl, not a grape in sight. Ugh! "BOYS! GET UP HERE!" We proceded to fix Fozzy Bear a cocktail of hydrogen peroxide and force it down his gizzard. Then the fun began. On the driveway poor Fozzmonster began heaving and barfing up a storm, 6 times!......what a joy! Got him in the car, oops, not so quick, one more, nope, two more times, OK, now we are off. Um, make that three more times. We got to the ER Vet and got a charcoal cocktail for the poor little guy and went home. So,four hours and $200 later, we hope we did the right thing. The vet said they could keep him and push fluids with an IV, but that wouldn't guarantee anything more than what they had already done. So, I have to take him in Tuesday and get his kidney function rechecked.

So much for getting that paperwork done.....

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

Wow your lucky, when Barb's Dunkin did this, it cost her somewhere in the area of 1,200 to 1,500, they wanted him kept there and pushed fluids and did kidney checks at 24, 36 and 72 hours. All his test came back fine, but it was a huge scare. I think Dunkin devoured about 32 to 36 grapes that he vomited up and they were all whole, she used peanut butter and peroxide. Glad to hear Fozzy will be ok and hope his kidney function test come back good.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Keep us posted! I am sure that was scary. Last night a grape fell and my whole family did a dive to the floor to get that sucker up! 4 dogs under the table being scavengers....

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

Keeping my fingers crossed that the little feller will be OK. Sounds like you did everything you could, and acted very speedily.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Let us know how Fozzy is over the next few days. Our Doodle thoughts and prayers are with all of you!

[Phoebe's Mom]

I am so sorry--here I am bellyaching about Phoebe's biting and jumping and you are dealing with this. I hope all turns out okay for you. I am thinking about you!

[Penny, Comiskey & Beemer]

Well, yuck!...I hope everything is okay now....I knew that grapes as well as raisins were bad...but wow!...after all that...the kids probably won't eat grapes any more either!....could this experience spur the scrapbook page?....

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I used to let the dogs eat grapes too! They would roll onto the floor out of the kids hands and the dogs would play. Until DK I didn't know grapes were toxic either.

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

Hmmmm, wow! Don't eat many grapes anyway, thanks for the update Adrianne!

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Until I joind DK I didn't know about grapes being an issue for dogs. I always gave me dogs grapes. Froze them in the summer as a cool treat. Of course, not now.
Grape and raisin poisonings in Dogs
Recently, there was a letter in the AVMA Journal from Dr. Gwaltney-Brant and others at the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center discussing grape and raisin poisoning in dogs. Apparently, grapes and raisins can be toxic to dogs when ingested in large quantities.

The grapes and raisins came from varied sources, including being eaten off the vine directly. The dogs exhibited gastrointestinal signs including vomiting and diarrhea and then signs of kidney failure with an onset of severe kidney signs starting about 24 hours after ingestion of the grapes or raisins. The amount of grapes eaten varied between 9oz. and 2 lbs., which worked out to be between 0.41 and 1.1 oz/kg of body weight. Two dogs died directly from the toxicity, three were euthanized due to poor response to treatment and five dogs lived. Due to the severity of the signs and the potential for death, the veterinarians at the poison control center advocate aggressive treatment for any dogs suggested of ingesting excessive amounts of grapes or raisins, including inducing vomiting, stomach lavage (stomach pumping) and administration of activated charcoal, followed by intravenous fluid therapy for at least 48 hours or as indicated based on the results of blood tests for kidney damage.


I have fed my dogs a few grapes every now and then for years, so I don't think there is a need to panic if a dog eats three or four grapes but if the whole bunch is missing from the table one day, it would be good to think about watching for any signs of a toxic reaction.

Michael Richards, DVM
6/5/2001

For info on other toxic foods for dogs:
http://www.vetinfo.com/dtoxin.html

[Leslie and Halas]

I hope Fozzy is OK! It sounds like you were able to react and help him really quickly, so that's got to be good. I'm always so paranoid when I'm eating grapes. If I happen to drop one when Halas is near, I dive on it like it's a live grenade and I'm trying to sacrifice myself to save him. It's good that you knew grapes could hurt him and were able to do something before you left the house.