Krystlelynne’s Weblog

My mom called me from work to say “don’t feed Reese grapes or raisins, it will kill him.” As usual I just blew off what she said. However, she meant business because as I was whittling around the house I saw a fax she had sent with the words “for Reese” in big black marker. I didn’t actually believe her because she seems to come up with some new food every week that we shouldn’t feed the dog.

However, the Animal Poison Control Center posted an article on the ASPCA web explaining the deadly wrath of grapes.

Since 1989, the APCC noticed a trend among dogs that ingested raisins or grapes. The trend was acute kidney failure ending in death. Origin of the grapes and raisins made no difference nor did the quantity the dogs consumed. Even a dog consuming a single serving ended up with the symptoms of kidney failure. Cases have shown that after ingesting these toxic treats dogs would vomit, stop eating and develop the inability to urinate. In some cases even after a vital 48 hours of monitoring, dogs still had to be euthanized.

The mystery of why grapes or even raisins, which were once used as tasty treats to train dogs, cause a deadly reaction still remains unknown. Veterinarians report that pesticides and heavy metals such as lead or zinc were not to blame.

On a lighter note, with today’s advanced technology vets are quickly able to determine toxic exposures using a computerized database.

If a dog’s blood level remains the same for three days, the survival rate looks good.

So next time I am laying on the couch with my furry friend, I make sure he doesn’t share all the same snacks as I do.