Raisins and Salty Water!

Well, that flu I had turned into a major chest infection and, after limping through Christmas, I ended up in a high dependency unit in hospital. There is lots to say about Christmas and how William and Oliver are getting on. There are also plenty of pictures to share over the coming days when I have sorted them all out.

The main event of Christmas Day for Oliver was a bit of a traumatic one. He had never done it before but in the middle of the afternoon, with William at his Dads and just as we were about to relax with Dr Who, Oli suddenly jumped up and stole a mouthful of Christmas cake from a plate. He was quickly pulled away but Goldies are greedy little dogs and Oliver had managed to swallow a substantial chunk of Delia Smith's Waitrose recipe Christmas cake, with additional sherry and brandy! There was very little flour holding the fruit together and, in my horror, I remembered raisins can be deadly for dogs. My partner was trying to reassure me it would be OK but I was sure it wasn't and Googling confirmed my fears. We called his vet, expecting him to tell us not to worry but, as I though, he only confirmed the situation was dangerous and told us we had to force feed poor Oliver salty water until we were confident he had emptied his stomach. Just a few raisins can cause fatal kidney damage and it can happen quickly. The vet warned us to get lots of news paper ready as he would be very, very sick. It took Oliver ages to be sick and I was worried about sodium poisoning with the amount of salt we had to give him. I called the vet a few times for reassurance but was told to keep on and he wouldn't be doing anything different if we bought Oliver to him. We felt so cruel holding Oliver down and syringing the salt into him and even though I knew it could be life saving, I'll never forget his little face and the way he looked at me. . Thankfully, we managed to get up all the cake. I was very nervous about him for the rest of the day but Oli was absolutely fine and very forgiving for what we'd put him through. All I could think of was what I would have said to William if things had turned out differently. I felt so cross with myself for allowing Oliver to be in that position, although it took us by surprise as he had never jumped up at a plate before. He won't do again either! Oli won't be getting any tidbits. He has his own treats - fish skin chews Father Christmas bought in from Lapland being his absolute favourite (also available in good pet shops). Apart from the hour or so we were making him so ill, Oliver is thriving and doing very well with his training. I'll talk more about that in the coming days but, if you have a dog and this story took you by surprise, do remember Oliver and his raisins and remind yourself of the other human goodies that can be so dangerous for the pets we love so much.