Vancouver puppy gets sick after finding cannabis on walk
Posted May 3, 2023 2:42 pm.
Last Updated May 3, 2023 3:13 pm.
A dog owner in Vancouver is asking people to properly dispose of cannabis products after his puppy got sick after going on a walk.
John Malcolm says it wasn’t until their puppy, Juniper — a 13-week-old cavalier King Charles spaniel crossed with a poodle — came back from a walk that Malcolm and his partner started noticing problems.
Juniper, a 13-week-old cavalier King Charles spaniel crossed with a poodle. (Courtesy John Malcolm)
“She calls me over to say, ‘Hey, I think somethings wrong with her.’ I go and take a look, and she’s really wobbly, like anytime she stood up her back legs kind of clamps,” he said.
“Her head was doing a consistent wobble and she wasn’t really paying attention to like our commands or attention.”
He says the couple immediately rushed Juniper to a clinic in Mount Pleasant.
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Malcolm says staff quickly recognized what was happening, adding that a worker at the clinic had already helped treat another animal experiencing similar symptoms earlier that day.
“They just did her vitals which are all fine, and then gave her some anti-nausea injection and sent us home for a couple hours of watching her with just instructions to keep monitoring her and to provide her some activated charcoal that we mixed in with her food to just sort of help flush her system,” he said.
The next day, he says Juniper was back to normal. But on a walk the following day, the same thing happened.
“The next morning she woke up and was like back to like being a puppy,” he said.
“She was super high energy…so we went out for another walk, and about halfway through we leaned down to pull something out of her mouth because we noticed she was chewing on something and pulled out a filter rolling paper.”
He says puppies are characteristically “very nosy,” and despite the couple’s best efforts of keeping an eye on their furry family member, it was missed.
“An hour after getting home, the exact same thing started happening again [but] not as intense,” he said.
Similarly, she woke up the next morning and was fine, he said, adding it was a scary experience for both the couple and the family.
“[If a] person’s in that situation, you can kind of sit there and cling to them and they can have an understanding that it’s like a temporary thing, that it’s something that they’ll get over time,” he said. But for Juniper, he says, “There’s no way of communicating to them and so she’s very, very scared.”
‘Catnip for dogs’: vet sees uptick in cases
Adrian Walton, the owner and a veterinarian at Dewdney Animal Hospital, says he has seen an uptick in dogs and cats getting into cannabis products.
“It’s always been an issue, but we are seeing more especially since people are now smoking in public areas and leaving behind… remnants and dogs will find it,” he explained.
“They have an incredible sense of smell and they love the stuff I kind of describe it as catnip for dogs. If there’s any in the house, they will seek it out. So if your dog does consume it, the good news is it’s a relatively safe medicated narcotic. The downside is dogs don’t metabolize it like us. So they will be high for a much longer period of time.”
He adds that small dogs, like Juniper, can also get depressed.
Malcolm says he is asking people to be mindful of when they are disposing of cannabis products.
“I think the big thing is just to like properly dispose of any product,” he said. “I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault necessarily…It’s not so much that I need anything to change other than just be responsible.”
He continued, “if you don’t have a garbage nearby you can very easily just dispose of it and carry it with you…What we are hoping is to let people know that’s a thing at all.”
