Tuesday, July 30, 2013

A Warning, kind of

Saturday night I was on the computer and I look over into the kitchen and Ruby has her front leg sticking out at a weird angle and her head is leaning back.
Twinkle and Louie are sitting in front of her. just looking at her.
At first I thought they were all playing with one another but then I realize they are just staring at her.
I get up and walk into the room and pick her up. Her eyes are BIG and her tongue is "rolling" around in her mouth and it looks grey. Something was VERY wrong.
I call my sister and urgently ask her to come right away, that I thought Ruby was having a MAJOR stroke!
(Doc had told me to start giving her a 1/4 baby aspirin a day because she's been having mini-strokes.)
So I'm on the phone with my sister while I'm trying to get my finger in Ruby's mouth and hold down her tongue so that I can push a piece of aspirin down her throat and all the while I am FREAKING out.
Suddenly I noticed something black poking out behind one of her back teeth.
I get my finger in there and scoop around and pull out of her throat a thin twisted piece of plastic!
Suddenly she's acting normal. She was choking! OMG!
My heart can't take this stuff.
I shoved the 1/4 aspirin down her throat and go take 2 for myself. 

I had no idea where that plastic came from. I am very careful about that sort of thing.
If a dog toy gets chewed, I toss it.
If I unwrap something with a twist tie, I immediately drop it in the garbage.
I didn't have a clue.
I thought about it over and over. What could have it come from?
Then it hit me. I let Jimmy chew on empty 2 liter bottles and also water bottles.
They actually make dog toys where you can stick an empty water bottle inside of them to make a "crackling" noise, so they must be OK to use, right?
And I always first throw the caps away...
So I went over and picked up one of Jimmy's "toys".
Of course he immediately sat up excited. I looked at the tops and realized that there is a plastic "ring" left on the top of the bottles where the caps were attached.
But if someone chewed on it... yeah, it could come loose.
The thing is, they were all white!
Still, I threw them all away. Jimmy followed me around and bounced up and down and then stopped.

Why are you throwing out my toys?!

I went and got his monkey off of the top of the dryer and threw it to him, then he was happy again.
I still don't know where that black plastic came from.
But I'm happy that I discovered those "rings" on the plastic bottles
and even happier that I was home when Ruby needed me.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Someone can have tossed it in to Your garden or maybe it flew in with the help of the wind? Dogs are fantastic of finding things that might kill them :-) All we can do is to try to find them before our dogs do.

I'm glad You got it in time!

Have a great day!
Christer.

Nita Stacy said...

I read this on Facebook....but oh...my how scared you must have been. Newman and choked a couple of times on things and I had to pull them out of his throat. I too shuddered to think what would have happened if I had not been there. Of course when I am not here as most likely with you...they just sleep and don't chew on things. So glad Ruby is ok. I wonder what the other two were thinking was wrong with her as they watched?

An Urban Cottage said...

Those plastic rings are BAD news! There's a tear off kind like on milk bottles and the harder circle ones like on soda bottles. My cats love them, fight over them and once one of them also choked on them. I try to be careful but every now and then I'll leave one of the counter and they track them down like they can smell they're up there.

What you went through was scary and I'm glad you were home to intervene.

carla said...

Oh goodness..so glad you were there...I know that was scary...

Jan said...

Oh my goodness how frightening! I'd have freaked out too. Good thing you pay attention and saw that she was in distress in time to rescue her. Poor girls! Please don't feel guilty, sometimes we can do everything right and still have disasters happen.

sassypackrat said...

Poor Ruby! Pups are so good at finding the weirdest things. We had to stop giving the cats the plastic ring from the milk jugs that they love to play with because I caught Lita chewing one and was afraid she would choke. So happy you were there for Ruby!

Mary Helen-Art Saves Lives said...

I am so sorry to hear about her terrible experience...these tiny pups can be so vulnerable ...and it did look like a chew treat to her ...God bless and keep her safe. You are so Loved! Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

leslie said...

yikes! so lucky you were home.

(just as i was so lucky to be home on lily's last day. thank you, universe.)