saving FAITH!!

I had a mishap with MB's and her father's dog Saturday. She always expects a treat when she goes out and defecates and urinates and then comes back in. Usually the treat is a hotdog, but my father-in-law is in the hospital and has been for over 2 weeks. So the only thing in the 'fridge was a baked potato rapped in aluminum foil.

So I threw it down to Faith, (she is 1/2 border collie and 1/2 English sheepdog, if I find a picture, I will add it to the post), I assumed that she was smart enough NOT to eat the aluminum foil. The amount of aluminum foil was more than enough to cover 2 of your hands. The damn thing landed face down and the aluminum foil was face up. So the dog swooped in and put it in her mouth. I tried to pry her jaws open to drop it and she tried biting me. (I was smart enough not to put my hands near her teeth and pull it out). But damnit, despite the effort, she swallowed it all. The aluminum was enough to cover both of your hands.

So, I drove home, got the kids, they were asking 100 questions about the dog and worrying about her. I just knew that she wouldn't survive with that amount of aluminum foil in her; she's only about 65 pounds. I got some Syrup of Ipeyac which is something you give your kids if they swallow a poison. But the problem was as Ted told me, the Syrup was 10 years old. So we went to the drugstore and they didn't have any! But they gave me some advice. There was an ER nurse that gave me advice, which really, really helped.

One person said get some water, put as much salt in it, as much as the water could carry, then the ER nurse said mix mustard with water and that would make her vomit the aluminum foil out. So I figured, "I know what I'll do, I'll mix mustard and a ton of salt together in the warm water."

So, we got Faith outside b/c we didn't want her vomiting in the house. I sat on her, holding her mouth open and my son poured the mustard-salt-warm water concoction down her throat. In a few minutes, she vomited up 1/2 of the aluminum foil. I was still worried about her. She still had 2" by 3" of aluminum foil in her. Reluctantly, Andy & I pinned her down again and poured the concoction down her throat again. Unfortunately, no aluminum foil came up. So we quit.

I told MB about it (expecting to get screamed at), but she handled it very well. She said the best thing to do is watch her very closely, and she was confident the aluminum foil would work through her. I was still worried about a bowel obstruction. But in 2 days she seems to be fine.

Why didn't we take her to a vet? We thought about that, but we really have no money for that. I felt really bad about it, because I like the dog and didn't want to hurt my in laws and MB's dog! It seems like we saved her by getting her to at least vomit out 1/2 of it.