Some Health Information

Over the Thanksgiving break, we had a VERY scary episode with Porter and horse wormer that contained Ivermectin. We were administering wormer to the horses when Porter came out of nowhere and did the worst possible thing - he tried to grab the used tube of wormer from my hand, ingesting a good bit of the leftover paste in the process. I immediately called the vet, who instructed me to induce vomiting by administering 2 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide (after asking his weight). Poor Porter was violently ill for the next 10-15 minutes, and I was not doing much better myself. He recovered quickly after emptying his stomach, and has been perfectly fine ever since. Still, I wanted to put this here as a reference and as a warning.

If you have horses, or if your dog is around horses, be extremely careful to keep your dog away from Ivermectin wormers!

I won't get too technical, because there is plenty of better info on the web, but in short: Ivermectin is an antiparasitic medication that is used to treat for worms in a variety of animals, including dogs and horses. However, the relative doses and forms of ivermectin matter a lot, and the ivermectin concentration and dosage found in horse wormer (formulated for 1000+ lb animal!) can be extremely toxic to dogs, which are at least 1/10 that size. If you think your dog has eaten a high dose of Ivermectin, you should call your vet immediately.

I hope that this information is useful to someone out there.

Other things I have learned via Porter's amazing drive to ingest everything possible:

• A dog's stomach acid will dissolve a shaving razor in 15-20 minutes. If you think they've eaten a razor, but it was two days ago, they're going to be fine.
• A little bit of blood in their vomit isn't necessarily cause for a CAT scan, and 2 tablespoons of petroleum jelly (which they will LICK OFF THE SPOON) and a day of fasting will probably clear it right up.
• 9 chocolate chip cookies are no big deal for a big dog. . . but keep them away from grapes and raisins!
  
• Porter is a "puker." Dogs can throw up as easily as we can bend our arms, and some do so with reckless abandon. He is one of them. Woo hoo!

And now, back to pictures. . .