Right, we went on vacation for a week. We happen to have a very old sheltie, but she was doing fine before we left. We had a pet sitter watching her, and my grandparents were going to be visiting her since she knows them and blah blah blah... Anyway, we got home and she was not doing very well, she won't eat, she has been having very loose stools, she's been more lethargic than normal and never really wants to go outside. She hasn't had any accidents in the house yet, though. We were talking to my grandparents about her and thanking them for stopping in. Then they felt like sharing what they thought was funny: she wouldn't really eat her other treats (these bacony things) but she loved the "liver ones." We had no idea what they were talking about. We don't own any liver-flavored treats. Everyone just thought they were confused again, cause that happens often. When I got home that night and sat down at a computer, I noticed her almost empty container of vitamins, and how they had a "tasty liver flavor." The petsitter told us later that she had been finding half-eaten vitamins all over the house. I have no reasons to believe that my idiot grandparents were giving my dog vitamins as treats. Did they overdose my dog? Is she dying? My parents are talking about how she's had "a good long life" and that this might it. Was there anything we could have done? Did my grandparents kill dog? She was taking the senior formula.
Hey man, I'm really sorry about your dog. I would suggest reposting this in one of the science sections, like Earth Science or Biology or even just the General section because you are more likely to find someone with the know-how to answer your question. Best of luck, JLocke
Did you try calling poison control? They're usually helpful for stuff like that. And did you ask your vet about it?
Your dog is sick. Dogs cannot eat vitamins as treats. It is not in serious danger. Do not give the dog anymore vitamins. Let him rest. Send him to the vet for a check up.
8 in 1 Excel Dog Vitamins Top Ten Ingredients Guaranteed Analysis Wheat Germ Meal Fish Meal Desiccated Liver Dried Meat Solubles Brewers Dried Yeast Dicalcium Phosphate Non-Fat Dried Milk Lactose Salt Corn Oil I'm not surprised you're dog's feeling lethargic, eat a couple of packets of brewers yeast yourself and see how you feel afterwards - keep a bucket to hand though, you'll probably need it... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Take the old girl to the vet and get her checked over properly, take what remains of the pills with you and explain what happened and how many days you believe the condition has been going on. I shouldn't imagine there's much in the way of long term effects, but if she's old she could do with a good checking over and the vet may recommend a purgative to help speed things along. Basically the yeast is fermenting, she's going to be gassy, lethargic and shitting like a trouper until she's passed all the yeast extract out of her system. Don't feed her anything sweet. That's just going to wind up making her pissed, if she isn't already. But she needs checking over. Next time, keep the Vitamins away from your grandparents. By the way - this is only based on the ingredients shown on the website your link lead to. IF the supplements your dog has eaten are IRON SUPPLEMENTS, or contain IRON - take her to the vet IMMEDIATELY. They shouldn't do, so that shouldn't be a problem, but get her checked over anyway for peace of mind.
My condolences as well. Losing a dog is like losing your best friend. In fact for some of us our dog is our best friend. You don't say how old she was. It's tough leaving an old dog in someone else's care. Just the stress of the separation, the unfamiliarity with new routines, can be hard on them. It's possible that your grandparents just contributed to a bad situation. I hope you'll get another dog before too long. One dog can't replace another, but dogs have jobs to do. They take care of us even though we like to say it's the other way round. When the job is vacant you have to fill it, just like if it was your beloved old gardener or cleaning lady. Humans and dogs have a special kind of love. Dogs first started living among us--voluntarily--back when we lived in extended families of a hundred or so. We couldn't trust the people in the next tribe up the river, but somehow we learned to trust "people" of a completely different species whom we couldn't even talk to. If we hadn't had that experience, I believe that we would never have had the faith or even desire to create civilization. People caring about people they aren't related to by blood, people they don't even know very well. People who look way different, speak another language, practice a different religion and other social customs. People on the other side of the planet who are really nothing more to us than abstractions. I think we owe the entire concept of civilization to the things we learned from dogs back in the Stone Age. Keep that love alive.
Shit. I'm so, so sorry to hear that Katie, really. I am. If it's even the slightest consolation you couldn't have known before hand, neither really could the people you left her with. Anything containing iron supplements should by law contain a clear and express warning concerning the dangers of overdose - If the brand doesn't or only displays its contents in the smallest of print, it's really easy to consider the things as simply harmless. I realise you must be feeling like absolute crap right know, and probably as angry as hell, but ultimately age would have been the governing factor in how the supplements would have affected her and there's really no getting around that. I'm certain whatever else to be the case, as far as your dog was concerned, she probably has the very best life a beasty can possibly have, and as long as you were there for her, that's about all she would have cared about. Being in her own place with the humans who loved her, that's what matters the most. My deepest sympathies, A
